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have you ever dropped/fallen with your bass?

#41
One forward and one backward story.

Backward tripping over a tight mic cable my head missed my drummer's homemade "rack of circular saw blades" by about 2 inches. One cymbal stand, 1 steel bar, 3 blades chosen for their pitch, 3 bolts, a few nuts and screws and it honestly sounded great. I'll have to look for pictures. A sound guy at the Roxy once cut his arm on it AFTER being warned. We always thought that one day we'd dull the points, but it really cut through the mix (bad, I know).

Forward, when Limelight was still open in NYC...I fell off the stage luckily to a packed house. That could have been ugly but the people padding helped. It was a slow fall I couldn't stop so I turned and fell backwards and luckily kept playing. It was fun getting lifted back onstage.
 
#42
I have fallen on stage, never dropped a bass though. We were playing a show at a venue called 'The Flint Local 432" and my singer got his mic cord wrapped around my leg and as I went to get it off he yanks it. Sending me flying into the drum kit with my then brand new 1 week old sterling ray. The snare went rolling down the ramp and I managed to save my bass. I got up everyone was laughing and we just kept playing. didn't even miss a beat, watched a video of it and it is actually pretty funny. but that time I was really angry and couldn't get my head back in the set til the last 2 songs or so.
 
#43
Thankfully no, I've never fallen with my bass, but I'm always smashing the headstocks of my basses into the ceiling lamp right above my play space (and it really pisses me off!) I also got a serious ding in the back of my guitar with a chair (how that happened, I'll never know), though thankfully it's only in the clear coat and only visible under strong light.

Regarding the OP's remark on slip safety, I concur completely, the front entryway of the building I live in is tiled and gets EXTREMELY slippery at the tiniest hint of water, I've taken a header on it more than once, and they don't care. :mad:
 
#44
I've never fallen with a gigbag but Ive fallen on stage a few times. Mainly jumping off drum risers and just trying to put on a good show. Some stages have been really slippery because idiots in opening bands pouring water on their heads and stuff. Luckily I'm like the opposite of a cat. I always land on my back and my basses have never been damaged in a fall.
 
#45
Was playing at church practice with this bass.

2009_06020182.jpg


I built this bass with the jack on the bottom instead of the face like what would be normal for a jazz bass. The strap came off the strap button and the bass dropped straight to the tile floor. Interestingly enough the bass landed directly on the cable plug. The cable plug snapped in half but took all the impact. The bass rolled gently onto my shoes and didn't even get a scratch.
 
#48
Happened a few times...
Two different gigs, I was bouncing around on stage as I normally do, tripped on a smoke machine and fell onto the drumset both instances.
One gig we played at a usual place, but that week they had shortened (my side of) the stage to put in a stair case. I had forgotten how much room I had and fell off stepping backwards. My Spector NS5 came unstrapped from me. I hit the floor below, and my bass landed flat on it's back on the stage....KRAAAAAANNNGGGGG!!! :hiding:
 
#49
I'm just curious how all the people suggesting a hard case as the only option would go about carrying their hard case and other gear through the subways of NY? I don't have to deal with subways, but I've had to schlep all my gear for many blocks through downtown and there's absolutely no way to do it in one trip without the bass in a bag on my back.
 
#50
lowfreqgeek said:
I don't have to deal with subways, but I've had to schlep all my gear for many blocks through downtown and there's absolutely no way to do it in one trip without the bass in a bag on my back.
Click to expand...

Get a handtruck with the bottom extention bar that folds out. Strap eveything on and go in one shot.
I used to be able to strap in my hardshell bass case and Ampeg B15R to the handtruck, and carry my cables and whatever in a backpack.
 
#51
I stepped backwards and tripped over a mic stand that was two or three feet in front of my rig (the mic was for the kit, so I wasn't to having it there). My head knocked an EQ knob of the amp while my bass knocked a wall and the headstock came right off. Thankfully it was my SR-506 rather then my neck through BTB so I was able to just buy a new neck (went fretless with it). The EQ knob was an easy enough fix for a friend of mine who's good with that stuff. So it wasn't a total loss, but I practically had a heart attack when it happened.
 
#52
I played in a band years ago and we did a big finale thing where me and the guitar player would scrape our strings on mic stands, cymbals, each others fretboards, etc. I would bang the body of my jazzbass on the stage floor, hold the neck and kick the back of the body and then let it drop to the floor strings up and I would strum the strings with my foot. Then I would give it a good kick and leave it there droning horrible noise and walk off stage while the drummer kicked his kit over and walked off too.

That was more than 10 years ago and other than a few scratches and paint chips, that jazzbass is great shape and I still play it often. Thank you Leo!

Oh yeah, get a hardshell case or really heavy-duty gig bag for travel. Gunny sacks are for train-hopping hobos.
 
#53
I forget the cause, but my Pedulla Thunderbass ET-4 (zebra) fell off the stand on stage and landed face down on the stage. Fortunately, it only cracked the bone nut on the G string side, and was still playable. Could have been a whole lot worse...
 
#54
lowfreqgeek said:
I'm just curious how all the people suggesting a hard case as the only option would go about carrying their hard case and other gear through the subways of NY?
Click to expand...
I tried HS cases in NYC subways for a couple of years, but it's awful. I've been all-gig-bag-all-the-time for over 20 years, but I tend to stick with very plush bags. For the past three years or so it's been an Igig. Heavy, but worth it for the extra padding and semi-rigid construction. An added bonus is an outside pocket big enough for a micro head.

Reading back through everybody's horror stories made me squint my eyes a few times. Ouch....

While I was shopping for my last heavy-duty gig bag, I had a NYC salesperson (I'll withhold his name and spare him any embarrassment) say about a Reunion Blues case: "Well, I'll tell you one thing about it - if you finish a gig at two in the morning and you've had way too much to drink and forget to zip it up, it WILL NOT prevent your vintage P-bass from hitting the concrete while you walk home in the rain."

Somewhere on Mike Watt's blog is a play-by-play description of his knee blowing out in the middle of an Iggy and the Stooges gig in a packed stadium somewhere in Europe. It's harrowing! (He just collapsed in a heap - '60s Gibson was okay and he didn't miss a note, but had to half crawl, half drag himself over to the drum riser and prop himself up against it while playing. He finished the tour in a knee brace and then proceeded to surgery.)
 
#55
I was on stage once playing my p bass and the strap broke at the butt of my bass. The neck came up and the tuner hit me in the ear and sliced it open. Then the bass fell and hit the ground and got dented pretty good. It fell forward and broke the jack out of the pickguard. So I was left not too happy, with blood all down the side of my face and a dented bass with a broken input. Makes for a good story though.
 
#56
Was going over to a friends house to jam a few years ago and there was about 2-3 feet of snow in his yard. He neglected to tell me there was some vinyl siding laying somewhere under that snow but no worries, I found it. Fell straight on my back in a millisecond and had the wherewithal to just extend my arms straight out. My wife told me after about a 20 minute laughing fit that it looked so funny when I disappeared and the only thing sticking out of the snow was my bass. Good times.
 
#57
Dropped my 96 Fender Jazz for the first time last weekend at a gig. We had just gotten done playing the last song and spirits were high. I powered down my amp and leaned my bass face-front towards my bass cab's speakers. Not even 10 seconds later, one of my band mates went up to give me a high five, then I saw him gasp with a look of surprise/shock. When I turned around, my bass was face up on the floor off the stage.. Stupid me for not using a stand! The bass had a ding in the paint on the front of the body and the A and D string were bent at the 15th fret. I didn't see how exactly it fell/landed, but it could've been a lot worse for sure. It must've looked hilarious to anybody who was watching though.
 

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