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Have You Ever Forgotten Your Bass?

#21
I have never forgotten my bass in 41 years and thousands of gigs thankfully. However, last year, I had my bass near my house door and I left and got into my van to leave for the gig and realized my bass was still in the house.

I have played with a drummer who forgot his drum throne and a drummer who forgot his cymbals (that was an interesting gig).

I forgot my mic stand (and, my backup mic stand). My mic stand is the last thing I load into my van and I loaded all the gear, closed the door, and drove off to the gig. The venue was only about a 10 minute drive away but instead of going back home, I rigged up an impromptu mic stand that I still claim I am going to patent. I had a very short mic stand that I use to mic my bass cabinet. Our guitar player had a flexible goose neck from his cabinet mic. The venue had an old bar stool frame with no seat on it. I duct taped the short mic stand with the goose neck to the bar stool frame and it worked out to be just the right height for me to sing. One of the club managers and we all got a big laugh out of it but it worked. Every time we play there, he asks me if I brought my mic stand and do I need the bar stool frame again.
 
#26
When I was in high school, I played tuba in the marching band, and we were doing the Brach's Candy Christmas parade in Chicago. We drove in buses from Ohio to Chicago, so everything was preloaded. We get to the practice area, and I had forgotten my mouth piece. Had the sousaphone, but no way to play it. So, one of the band boosters ran all over town, with bad directions, looking for a store open the day after Thanksgiving. A couple minutes before our band stepped off to enter the parade, an out of breath booster ran up to me and handed me a sweet Shilke they paid for out of packet. The band director ended up giving it to me as a graduation present, albeit early.

About 6 months ago my drummer forgot his cymbals, toms, and kick pedal for a rehearsal. We ended up having one of the best jams I've been apart of. He had to really pull out all the tricks to keep a good rhythm and to be heard. He now does this little thing where he everything except the drums or cymbals during his drum solos (if he does one) and it actually keep a great groove.
 
#27
Back in the early 70's I had a gig in Ft. Myers Fl. with another band we knew and were friends with as well as a fairly well know act out of Miami. I forgot my semi-hollow Vox bass, and asked the other band's bass player if I could borrow his. It was a short scale Gibson EB3. What a revelation...I had been playing hollow bodies since I started, and I couldn't believe how fat this thing sounded. I hated the short fat neck but the SOUND!

I traded my Vox on my 1st Fender Precision within a short period of time.
 
#29
ledzep5296 said:
I was at a music competition yesterday where a bunch of schools were competing, and the school band that played before ours had forgot to bring a bass! So I let him use mine. I think it would be impossible to forget to bring a bass. Do any of you guys have any stories about forgetting large instruments (bass,guitar, drums,etc)?
Click to expand...

I did once accidentally leave my main bass behind at home. Instead of my comfy 5string fretless I had to play everything on my back up 4 string fretted.
 
#30
When I was in high school, we had a wedding reception booked with my cover band in a town 30 miles away. Got there and had forgotten my bass. We knew that our high school choir teaching assistant's dad was the band director at the town we were playing in. We called him. He brought me an upright bass from the school. Ha! I'd never played one before, but did until my mom could drive my bass guitar to me. No one seemed to notice. We still laugh about that one!
 
#31
I don't know if this counts really, but once when my band was playing a battle of the bands, I was to bring two basses, one in drop D/standard, and the other in drop C. I did this, but on the night before, I changed the strings on them. Unfortunately, when cutting one of the strings on the drop C bass, one of the strings unraveled and was unusable. My plan was to leave a few minutes early and grab a new set at Guitar Center before the show. I forgot about it over night and showed up to the show with two bass guitars, one with brand new Ernie-Ball Power Slinkies, the other with amazing invisable strings. So, while setting up for the show, I pulled out my basses only to see the stringless bass and scream "AHHHH F***ING S***!!!!!" and be picked up by the mic and have everyone hear me. I did'nt have enough time to go get a new set, so we had to put a 3 minute gap between songs so I could go all the way from standard tuning to drop C. All in all, the show went great and we got 5th out of 72 bands playing.
So, in one way or another, I guess you can say I have forgotten a bass, or atleast the most important part of it.
 
#32
Only once. At the Limelight of all places.
I took my bass home after sound-check in Brooklyn, when I got back to the club in Manhattan and realized it, it was too late to go back for it.
Our roadie lived nearby and brought his for me to use.
It was an awful, budget pointy headstock bass that looked like Formica. The worst thing though was every time I would hit the open E string it would slide off the nut! I had to rhythmically pull it back on without there bring a break in the song.
My own fault, and the last time I forgot a bass.
 
#37
About 15 years ago a much more prominent cover act than my own was performing on one of the local islands where I was hanging out. I knew the guys and was very good friends with the drummer at the time. I has 30-40 minutes from my bass where he was well over an hour from retrieving his bass so I fetched mine and got them on stage on schedule. I got paid decently just to bring it to him on demand as well. They were playing at the most upscale venue on the island so it was very important to them to start on time. He was very pleased I had a 5er as he played one too when they weren't quite as common back then.
 

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