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Playing in the Rain?

#81
jnuts1 said:
My main bass is more expensive than the PA and my amp combined.
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That's why I play a $250 Ibanez with the EMG active upgrade for my outdoor bass through a direct box straight to board. As much as I love the tone of my expensive instruments, at an outdoor gig the people out front don't care/know the difference, so it doesn't matter. And yes, we have the big Beheringer digital board, Crown amps, JBL subs and SLS tops, so our PA is worth more than a Sadowsky bass. So in case rain blows in we all chip in on making sure the PA is secured and covered.

Where reasonable players have different priorities in light of different circumstances.
 
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#82
jnuts1 said:
clearly i was joking.... but also there is not way PA or Amps get taken care of before my bass. my main bass is more expensive than the PA and my amp combined. you play a sadowsky so why take care of that last? you are literaly wearing it. do you set it down in the rain for a PA? never in a million years. screw the PA
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Lol. "Clearly I was joking, except for the part where I meant what I said." It is all good - I'm not sure our positions are as different as our choice of words makes them sound. I don't set my bass down where it is exposed in a rain storm or throw it in a puddle just so I can help with the PA. I make sure it will be alright for the moment and then help with whatever will get the wettest the fastest.

Out of curiosity, what kind of bass do you play? It isn't uncommon for our band to use $20k or more of PA equipment, and I have $1700 of pedalboard gear, let alone if I decide to take an amp to a show (which is very rare these days). I'm not hesitant to take pretty much any of my basses into almost any situation, but I would definitely be more hesitant if I was playing a $25,000 bass.
 
#83
wvbass said:
Lol. "Clearly I was joking, except for the part where I meant what I said." It is all good - I'm not sure our positions are as different as our choice of words makes them sound. I don't set my bass down where it is exposed in a rain storm or throw it in a puddle just so I can help with the PA. I make sure it will be alright for the moment and then help with whatever will get the wettest the fastest.

Out of curiosity, what kind of bass do you play? It isn't uncommon for our band to use $20k or more of PA equipment, and I have $1700 of pedalboard gear, let alone if I decide to take an amp to a show (which is very rare these days). I'm not hesitant to take pretty much any of my basses into almost any situation, but I would definitely be more hesitant if I was playing a $25,000 bass.
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I play a Smith and MTD. also 20k in pa? why? no, i was joking about the i dont own the PA so who cares comments.... but there still is zero circumstances where i dont immediately take my bass and get it out of the rain. you cant replace basses like you can a PA or amp. that stuff is all identical out of the box. find me another Czech MTD that plays as amazing as mine. you cant, it doesnt exist, ive looked.
 
#84
1958Bassman said:
There's one way to survive this, especially if lightning is involved- ISOLATION. Wireless transmitter from the instruments and mics and never on a metal stage that has exposed bolt heads where people can stand on them- even rubber soles on wet shoes will become excellent conductors of lethal voltage.
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I bought a really cheap wireless set to see what it was like, but it is cheap and unreliable. False economy.

I have IEMs, but they are wired as I am cheap (see previous paragraph). So my fingers might be safe, but I might get 240V straight to the brain.
 
#87
jnuts1 said:
I play a Smith and MTD. also 20k in pa? why? no, i was joking about the i dont own the PA so who cares comments.... but there still is zero circumstances where i dont immediately take my bass and get it out of the rain. you cant replace basses like you can a PA or amp. that stuff is all identical out of the box. find me another Czech MTD that plays as amazing as mine. you cant, it doesnt exist, ive looked.
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Why are you taking such an expensive instrument on stage, with the risks of wear and tear, risk of damage, theft, loss, etc.? That is another reason I play an Ibby production instrument on stage. Just like the PA, an Ibby bass is "identical right out of the box." When I went to Japan with my band in 2013, I did not take a bass. We told the company that provided the backline what we needed, and the bass they provided I could not tell with a blindfold on that it was another bass other than my bass. The gig was outdoor, hot, and a great gig.

Folks, we all need to get our priorities straight. Yes I'll take the flames. If you are going to take an expensive instrument on stage, then get insurance on it and be prepared for bad circumstances. If your band has an expensive PA, get insurance on it and be prepared for bad circumstances, as we are. If you're that concerned about the rain, then don't play the outdoor gig. Cancel.
 
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#88
1958Bassman said:
If you get zapped by lightning, it's gonna be a lot more than 240V.
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I was imagining more rain in the PA in that case. To be fair, there's a lot better attention to residual current cut off these days. I carry one for my rig, but sometimes in venues it triggers due to dubious wiring. "Don't use the RCD, then" says the sound engineer "But it's for safety...". These days pretty much all venues that are dedicated music venues have (and have to) have them built in by law. But running off a generator in a field...
 
#90
Just for interest sake, here’s the aftermath of a Bryan Adams headliner festival I was at in ‘92 outside Winnipeg.

We were there all day and it rained all day; Steve Miller wore a maritime rain slicker and rain hat on his set. It was cold too.

When Bryan came on, we moved near the front and were in mud up to our ankles for about two hours. We had stayed on the higher ground for most of the day. The weather got worse: wind came up and the rain became worse.

Bryan killed it. Tarps on the overhead and backdrops were tearing loose. Brave roadies went up and dragged em back down. The bass player became entangled in the backdrop flying loose in the wind.

Bryan refused to quit. The stage manager came out several times imploring him to stop; and Bryan just roused the crowd to tell the manager to FO.

Finally when A bank of PA heads went up in smoke, the Crew pulled the plug in the middle of “Cuts Like A Knife” and the crowd were singing “na na na, na na, nah nah nah” and went on like that for quite some time after the band left the stage.

When we got to the car, we all stripped to our knickers and rode home three hours like that with a brief stop at the Burger King drive through (see what I did there?). Stellar show.

At the end of the video you’ll see that the next day it snowed at the scene during the load out. A crazy day that is a fond memory. If you ever reach the stature of Bryan Adams, this is how you do it. Otherwise DON’T Play in the rain!
 
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#91
iiipopes said:
Why are you taking such an expensive instrument on stage, with the risks of wear and tear, risk of damage, theft, loss, etc.? That is another reason I play an Ibby production instrument on stage. Just like the PA, an Ibby bass is "identical right out of the box." When I went to Japan with my band in 2013, I did not take a bass. We told the company that provided the backline what we needed, and the bass they provided I could not tell with a blindfold on that it was another bass other than my bass. The gig was outdoor, hot, and a great gig.

Folks, we all need to get our priorities straight. Yes I'll take the flames. If you are going to take an expensive instrument on stage, then get insurance on it and be prepared for bad circumstances. If your band has an expensive PA, get insurance on it and be prepared for bad circumstances, as we are. If you're that concerned about the rain, then don't play the outdoor gig. Cancel.
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because that is the instrument i play.... i dont really have any entry level instruments and if i did i wouldnt play them. (i recently got my first bass back but that doesnt count) im not about to start fighting a bass because im worried about damaging the nice ones. ive never been worried i just wouldnt ever put anything away before Suzy or Vera.
 
#92
jnuts1 said:
because that is the instrument i play.... i dont really have any entry level instruments and if i did i wouldnt play them. (i recently got my first bass back but that doesnt count) im not about to start fighting a bass because im worried about damaging the nice ones. ive never been worried i just wouldnt ever put anything away before Suzy or Vera.
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Then I suggest you purchase insurance.
 

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