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Never had one do that before [DB content]

Remyd

Remyd

Apr 2, 2014
1,737
1,438
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St. Louis, MO
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#1
I have this Monday night gig with a couple of older fellas - country and folk, all acoustic. Been with them for quite a long time and our book is fairly extensive. So, I was at the bar on Monday, third song of the set, some Robert Earl Keen with a little wood and finger noise in the transitions, which I thought was cool when I heard it a couple weeks ago so thought "well, I can just do it that way next time". Played through until the bridge.

BAM! The bridge went flying at least 6', scratching the finish on the way, the soundpost fell, and the nut just straight up fell off the neck. I mean, just fell off. The instrument literally exploded. On stage, no backup.

... then the accordion guy played something sad, crowd cracked up, and the waitress bought me a beer. Good excuse for new strings if you ask me.

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#6
Bridge was probably already a little crooked, and just chose that moment to go.

Very commonly the nut is either barely glued in place, or only held in place by string pressure. So, when the bridge went awol, so did the nut. If your soundpost stayed put, all you needed to do is set the bridge back up, slipping the nut in before the strings are too tight, and re-tighten the strings, making sure the bridge stays upright and in the right location.

Could have been worse: could have been the tailpiece breaking, or the tail gut.
 
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#7
1st Bass said:
Bridge was probably already a little crooked, and just chose that moment to go.
Very commonly the nut is either barely glued in place, or only held in place by string pressure. So, when the bridge went aol, so did the nut. If your soundpost stayed put....
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Uh, about that, the only place that soundpost stayed was in my gig bag after I fished it out. :( #needasetup
 
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#8
1st Bass said:
Bridge was probably already a little crooked, and just chose that moment to go.

Very commonly the nut is either barely glued in place, or only held in place by string pressure. So, when the bridge went aol, so did the nut. If your soundpost stayed put, all you needed to do is set the bridge back up, slipping the nut in before the strings are too tight, and re-tighten the strings, making sure the bridge stays upright and in he right location.

Could have been worse: could have been the tailpiece breaking, or the tail gut.
Click to expand...

I had Kay bass that liked to slip the bridge. If the bridge was a little crooked, BAM!

I also had the neck snap off a nice high end bass in the middle of a concert band rehearsal. It sounded like a bomb going off, and was so loud that rehearsal was stopped so they could make sure I was okay.
 
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#12
1st Bass said:
Yeah, soundpost is a little more trouble. Sorry that happened to you.
Glad there was no serious damage.
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Thanks, me too. I've never tried spiros, maybe bridge adjusters since we're setting everything up again and that endpin assembly sucks and has an incredibly annoying sympathic buzz on the open A which might or not be fixed by setup. I play a lot of bluegrass, so you know, not great.

Do you think my kids would turn vegetarian for a while? For health reasons.
 
#19
Ya, I've had it happen before. Probably was tilted enough to make it topple. That's what happened to me. And one time I even had the bridge break completely apart on a gig. Oh well, stuff happens.
 

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