No, but have contingencies in place to go direct to our PA if needed.
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I will never gig without a backup ever again...
- Thread starter JC BASS 91
- Start date
No, but have contingencies in place to go direct to our PA if needed.
When this happened to my 2004 LB70P in about 2014 one of the folks at Carvin sent me a set of 4 machines at no cost. He told me these exact machines that they use tend to shear off, and were of low quality. True story.
You can thank Carvin tuners for that situation. I have an LB75 and a BB75, and between the two basses, I’ve had three or four tuners twist off the string post at the gear end of the post. I bought two tuners the last time I needed one.
I like the idea of swapping G to A tuners, but you'll definitely have to scratch "Money" off of the set list.... 
Appreciate the candor OP and glad it worked out. Even a well taken care of instrument will break down on occasion. Always have a back up option.
For the longest time, I always took a backup bass with me for those "just in case" situations that might arise. After years of never needing it, and never taking it out of the case even, last week I decided to stop doing it.
Last week's gig was fine. My 2000 Carvin LB-70 played with no issues and all was great.
This week, tonight, I had it with me and we played through sound check with no issues. We mill around the private party for a while and then we go to play. I try to tune my bass and I canNOT get the A string to stay in tune. I look, and I get it tuned, and can watch the post slip and drop out of tune under tension. WTH!?
I reach up and this happened...View attachment 5226797
So there I was, about 40 minutes from home and have a broken bass.
Fortunately, someone in the audience pipes up and says, "You need a bass? You can borrow my dad's."
They go get it, bring it up to me and they say, "Its a pretty crappy bass, sorry," and hands me a Precision bass copy with a single mini-humbucker where the split-P would be. The name on the headstock in fancy script is "Aims". The output jack is janky, and no strap (my strap has Dunlop strap locks on it). I get a chair, and I sit for both sets and manage to get through with this bass.
It actually wasn't a bad bass. The jack was really the only bad part about it. The neck was nice, it stayed in tune and sounded pretty dang good. I don't know what I would have done had it not been close at hand for a party guest!!
I will never go without a backup ever again!!
Replacement tuner on order, but won't be here before our next gig. Its ok, though, as I have plenty of basses in the house, its just that this one is my "JC Bass Signature" bass.
I don't always take a backup bass, but I always take a little tool kit. I would've put my G-string tuner in the A-string spot, and played the gig with just E-A-D. Playing the gig with just E-D-G would be too tough for me, although I am sure some cats could pull it off.
I had that exact failure happen on my main bass recently. Not on a gig, fortunately. The replacement part will be here tomorrow.For the longest time, I always took a backup bass with me for those "just in case" situations that might arise. After years of never needing it, and never taking it out of the case even, last week I decided to stop doing it.
Last week's gig was fine. My 2000 Carvin LB-70 played with no issues and all was great.
This week, tonight, I had it with me and we played through sound check with no issues. We mill around the private party for a while and then we go to play. I try to tune my bass and I canNOT get the A string to stay in tune. I look, and I get it tuned, and can watch the post slip and drop out of tune under tension. WTH!?
I reach up and this happened...View attachment 5226797
So there I was, about 40 minutes from home and have a broken bass.
Fortunately, someone in the audience pipes up and says, "You need a bass? You can borrow my dad's."
They go get it, bring it up to me and they say, "Its a pretty crappy bass, sorry," and hands me a Precision bass copy with a single mini-humbucker where the split-P would be. The name on the headstock in fancy script is "Aims". The output jack is janky, and no strap (my strap has Dunlop strap locks on it). I get a chair, and I sit for both sets and manage to get through with this bass.
It actually wasn't a bad bass. The jack was really the only bad part about it. The neck was nice, it stayed in tune and sounded pretty dang good. I don't know what I would have done had it not been close at hand for a party guest!!
I will never go without a backup ever again!!
Replacement tuner on order, but won't be here before our next gig. Its ok, though, as I have plenty of basses in the house, its just that this one is my "JC Bass Signature" bass.
I always take a second bass to gigs. I've needed the backup twice. Once was due to another band mistakingly loading my main bass into their trailer and leaving at a multi-bamd fundraiser. We were the last band to go on, and every other band had left. Without the backup, I couldn't have played.
The band that took my bass called the venue while we were still there, and I got it back the next day.
For the longest time, I always took a backup bass with me for those "just in case" situations that might arise. After years of never needing it, and never taking it out of the case even, last week I decided to stop doing it.
Last week's gig was fine. My 2000 Carvin LB-70 played with no issues and all was great.
This week, tonight, I had it with me and we played through sound check with no issues. We mill around the private party for a while and then we go to play. I try to tune my bass and I canNOT get the A string to stay in tune. I look, and I get it tuned, and can watch the post slip and drop out of tune under tension. WTH!?
I reach up and this happened...View attachment 5226797
So there I was, about 40 minutes from home and have a broken bass.
Fortunately, someone in the audience pipes up and says, "You need a bass? You can borrow my dad's."
They go get it, bring it up to me and they say, "Its a pretty crappy bass, sorry," and hands me a Precision bass copy with a single mini-humbucker where the split-P would be. The name on the headstock in fancy script is "Aims". The output jack is janky, and no strap (my strap has Dunlop strap locks on it). I get a chair, and I sit for both sets and manage to get through with this bass.
It actually wasn't a bad bass. The jack was really the only bad part about it. The neck was nice, it stayed in tune and sounded pretty dang good. I don't know what I would have done had it not been close at hand for a party guest!!
I will never go without a backup ever again!!
Replacement tuner on order, but won't be here before our next gig. Its ok, though, as I have plenty of basses in the house, its just that this one is my "JC Bass Signature" bass.
and this is why i own two of each and every bass in my collection...
not usually though i do have racks with two heads installed or a couple with extra power amps installed....but I always bring a DI BOX just in case...
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I once had a Washburn active 5string. The bridge suddenly bent over. That was weird.
I always carry spare parts, mostly for the guitar players- they are all the same
A backup bass and di these days, house backlines aren’t always reliable too..
I always carry spare parts, mostly for the guitar players- they are all the same
A backup bass and di these days, house backlines aren’t always reliable too..
Stuff breaks, gets knocked over, comes apart. And never at a good time. Gotta have a spare whenever possible. The only thing I never carry a backup for is the cabinet, because it is the only system component I’ve never had an issue with at a gig. Besides, it would be too much extra bulk to lug around.
That’s the good thing about IEMs.
It’s literally no effort to have an extra set of generic-mold IEMs in the bag. A long time ago, I stepped on and damaged the cable of my custom-molds. At the time, I didn’t own a spare set, but I was playing at church that morning and they had an extra generic set I used for the day. I ordered an identical set and keep them as backups.
Easier than a spare amp (but as my amp is a Mesa Subway amp, I have little to worry about there)….
If I will be running through house I don’t. If no house PA I have a tiny Trace Elliott ELF that I keep in my bag as a backup head.
That is good.
Yes, had an acquaintance who’s trace Elliott amp smoked so bad he was afraid it was going to set off the fire alarm. Seriously
Yes, I bought a peavey tour 450 for 100 bucks couple years ago for a back up. Little heavy, little bit Learning curve, can’t beat it for 100 bucks.
Yikes!
We’ve all seen overdriven speakers catch fire, but I can’t remember seeing an amp going up in smoke like that!
For a small investment such as this:
Squier Sonic Precision Bass - California Blue
Have a backup...the pedals on our boards almost always cost more
Squier Sonic Precision Bass - California Blue
Have a backup...the pedals on our boards almost always cost more
Last weekend right before the beginning of our show I bent down to put my set list on the ground.
I felt and heard a crack and without warning my black dress pants split all the way from the bottom of the zipper to the belt in the back. Thank god I was wearing a suit jacket and black underwear. Needless to say, I played with my back close to the Ampeg fridge the entire set and did not turn around once.
I will bring backup pants from now on, unfortunately I will still only be able to bring one bass to most shows.
I felt and heard a crack and without warning my black dress pants split all the way from the bottom of the zipper to the belt in the back. Thank god I was wearing a suit jacket and black underwear. Needless to say, I played with my back close to the Ampeg fridge the entire set and did not turn around once.
I will bring backup pants from now on, unfortunately I will still only be able to bring one bass to most shows.
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