When it comes to my basses, I have lent them in the past and gotten them back still in the same condition. I have a mate now who loves using my Rockbass streamer because of it's tone, and I know he will always take good care of my instruments. So when a mate needs to borrow a bass, I rarely say no unless I need it that same night. Always lend them out in a hard case too.
Amps is a whole different story (and a good one at that too). About 5 years ago we had a gig and the promoter informed us that we were only required to bring head units and instruments as the cabs were house gear. At first, I liked the idea of it - less gear to load/unload and quick set change-overs. Then I get there and find out that the headlining band's bassist didn't bring his amp as he thought it would be all house gear and after watching us play, he said 'I'm gunna use your amp for our set.' Never asked me if he could use it, just came and told me that he was using it. If you looked up intimidating in the dictionary, you would find this guy's picture. 6'5 and about 300lb. Me, being all of about 5'10/180lb and the non-confrontational type, said 'yeah mate, no worries'. Big mistake.
What I didn't notice during their sound check (probably because we had just finished our set and I was having a cigaretter) was that he had cranked pretty much every dial up to full on the head (Warwick Pro-fet 5.1). During their third song, the head unit actually started to smoke and died - totally fried. They finished their song and he unhooked it, said 'what the f*** is wrong with this piece of s***?' and then threw the amp at me, the amp bouncing twice.
After the show, I was not exactly happy that my 12 month old head was seemingly fried and blown. Then, HE came up to me and had a go at me, saying that my crappy equipment made their gig terrible . I asked him if he thought about how I felt since my virtually brand new head unit was now fried. He proceeded to inform me that wasn't an issue and I should be apologizing for lending him crappy equipment and demanded that I shout him drinks for the rest of the night. Not impressed with his actions, I turned around with my amp in hand, flipped him off and told him to go and fornicate himself.
Without warning, he had come up behind me and king hit me in the back of my head, causing me to drop the amp. I turned around and hit him with the hardest over-hand right punch I think I have ever thrown at somebody and caught him right on the chin. I remember seeing his eyes roll into the back of his head and he fell over, completely unconscious. The bouncers then came running out to check on him and protect me, concerned that he would want to kill me when he woke back up from his induced slumber. I gotta admit, the $100 that it cost me to fix the power supply on the amp was well worth the feeling of knocking out that big idiot. The next time I walked into a bar and he was there, he left immediately
Now, I don't lend my amps to ANYBODY. You left it at home? Your problem.
Maybe we should put that as a clause in the contract if we lend gear;
'Any damage caused by usage of the lendee may be paid via a KO by the lendor'
Hahaha
Cheers,
Jordan
Amps is a whole different story (and a good one at that too). About 5 years ago we had a gig and the promoter informed us that we were only required to bring head units and instruments as the cabs were house gear. At first, I liked the idea of it - less gear to load/unload and quick set change-overs. Then I get there and find out that the headlining band's bassist didn't bring his amp as he thought it would be all house gear and after watching us play, he said 'I'm gunna use your amp for our set.' Never asked me if he could use it, just came and told me that he was using it. If you looked up intimidating in the dictionary, you would find this guy's picture. 6'5 and about 300lb. Me, being all of about 5'10/180lb and the non-confrontational type, said 'yeah mate, no worries'. Big mistake.
What I didn't notice during their sound check (probably because we had just finished our set and I was having a cigaretter) was that he had cranked pretty much every dial up to full on the head (Warwick Pro-fet 5.1). During their third song, the head unit actually started to smoke and died - totally fried. They finished their song and he unhooked it, said 'what the f*** is wrong with this piece of s***?' and then threw the amp at me, the amp bouncing twice.
After the show, I was not exactly happy that my 12 month old head was seemingly fried and blown. Then, HE came up to me and had a go at me, saying that my crappy equipment made their gig terrible . I asked him if he thought about how I felt since my virtually brand new head unit was now fried. He proceeded to inform me that wasn't an issue and I should be apologizing for lending him crappy equipment and demanded that I shout him drinks for the rest of the night. Not impressed with his actions, I turned around with my amp in hand, flipped him off and told him to go and fornicate himself.
Without warning, he had come up behind me and king hit me in the back of my head, causing me to drop the amp. I turned around and hit him with the hardest over-hand right punch I think I have ever thrown at somebody and caught him right on the chin. I remember seeing his eyes roll into the back of his head and he fell over, completely unconscious. The bouncers then came running out to check on him and protect me, concerned that he would want to kill me when he woke back up from his induced slumber. I gotta admit, the $100 that it cost me to fix the power supply on the amp was well worth the feeling of knocking out that big idiot. The next time I walked into a bar and he was there, he left immediately
Now, I don't lend my amps to ANYBODY. You left it at home? Your problem.
Maybe we should put that as a clause in the contract if we lend gear;
'Any damage caused by usage of the lendee may be paid via a KO by the lendor'
Hahaha
Cheers,
Jordan
