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The Worst Thing that's ever happened...

#61
Acoustic Bass:

I was sitting in the hall at school, having a conversation with a few felllow students just before my final jury exam for performance (I was doing a few excerpts from Beethoven and Mozart), when this jerk-hole comes by, music blaring and running at about 2000 MPH, and kicks my headstock into a locker, creating a huge crack in my scroll.

I was about to go after him when I regained my composure about 10 seconds later, but the teachers asked for me to play and I couldn't find him.

Turns out, no one had seen him before and he didn't go to my college. No one knew him :(

Electric:

I was playing a show about 3 years ago at my old school and I was using an old, cheap Squier P-bass. I did a few slap riffs when I suddenly heard a very loud, percussive "Ping" and a sharp pain in my hand. I looked over and the string had snapped, cutting my hand (Just after a fairly hard pop riff) and actually causing the neck to twist a bit.

The truss rod then fell out after I put the bass down, making me feel completely awesome ;)

I don't have pics of the electric incident, but I've tried to include a pic of the acoustic one.
 

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#62
I was at a Battle of the Bands my nephew was in. The band preceeding his was a modern funk rock trio. The kid playing bass was busy, but pretty good. At the end of their mini-set he decided to spin his bass around his neck ala' Wooten. Unfortunately he had those cheap plastic straplocks. They broke and his already beat squier flew about 15 feet up and imbedded the headstock square in the middle of the 24 channel Mackie mixer. Took out 4 channels, but miraculously the board continued to work. The squier was no worse for wear.
 
#64
The worst thing thats happened to me was when I had my guitar case sitting open next to our brickwork fireplace. Was in that much of a rush to get of to practise I didnt really look at where I was placing my Stingray...........just kinda presumed it would slide into the case like it usually does............

Crunch. I now know what happens when you more or less throw a 2 year old Musicman Stingray into the corner of a brick wall. £300 later and thanks to the guys down at Sims L.E.D's my Stingray is back to normal.
 
#65
I can tell you the worst thing that DIDN'T happen to my bass....

A house fire ripped through the singer's house where we rehearsed- all our band gear was there: amps guitars etc... Everything got totalled except for my bass that was in its tweed case. The whole inside of the case was melted and stank. My beloved defretted jazz just needed a scrub up and was totally fine.
 
#66
Two things:

For some reason I had my Tuba mouthpiece in the top pocket of my jean jacket, bent down to pikc up my bass and it fell out leaving a half-moon shaped crater on the top oif my Bass - I've since had it refinished but you can still see it if the light catches it right/wrong.

I was working on a cruise ship in the early eighties that had a fire - the Achille Lauro - the ship that got hi-jacked a few years later and sank a few years after that. My Bass was in its case in the green room, the fire started, the sprinklers kicked in and the green room was under 4 inches of salt water - i dried it out, sprayed everything with contact cleaner and it worked fine - although my effects pedals were toast.
 
#67
One time my bass lock just fell out, but I caught it by the B string. Which was QUITE fortunate. That's the closest anything has ever come to happening. I've been considerably lucky (or careful, I guess) with my basses.
 
#68
Otter said:
Had my custom Wal 5 string (picked out the wood blanks in the shop at High Wycombe) stolen at LaGuardia Airport in NYC. The air line only replaced it at "luggage value" by weight.

Broke my heart :crying:

Otter.
Click to expand...

We have a lot of great things here in NY..... Laguardia AIN'T one of 'em.

That really sucks, I think you would read about me in the paper the next day if that happened to me.
 
#69
good thread! my sympathy to those who have suffered...

not many for me but still:

left my old Yamaha outside the practice room for 10 mins and went to the shop. cue going from bright sunshine to freak english heavy rainshower, all over my bass.

dropped my Epi EB3 pretty bad. it cracked down the fingerboard and bent a couple of the tuners.

(dropped my P bass the same way, not a scratch on it... those things are like Volvos, i swear.)

same EB3, i accidentally ripped the bridge out during a gig while playing, ah, over-enthusiastically. :)

my very first bass, a cheapo P copy - my friend was carrying it for me on the way to a gig. when he handed it back to me the E string was broken. hmm again.
 
#70
I've had a 79' Music Man Sabre stolen from our rehearsal place back in '84', but this takes the cake-

Back in the late 80's I was too drunk to drive home from a gig afterparty. Turns out I got a ride from someone I'd never met before and threw my Steinberger L2 in the back of his trunk. Bummer is I got out of his car at my house but forgot to take the Steinny out of his trunk - dude drove off, thought I'd never see him again.:help:

A week later I get a phone call from our soundman telling me that this guy who gave me a ride home found my bass in the trunk of his car when he was digging around looking for something and wanted to get my bass back to me. Luckily, we were doing a gig at the same club we'd played at the previous week and the dude brought back my bass all in one piece. I gave him a $50 reward. Never got too drunk after that, I was definitely one luck SOB.:smug:
 
#73
Years ago, after setting up at a club where the stage was about 2 1/2 to 3 feet high, I set my Conklin Groove Tools on its stand and walked away. My foot caught the cable, and yanked the bass off the stand. it clanked off the stage and fell the 2-3 feet onto the floor. I was convinced it was going to be injured bad!

Other than cracking the finish from neck pocket to neck pup, it was essentially completely unharmed. It even stayed in tune! I think the Purpleheart and Wenge neck is what saved it that night. I knew after that fall that I'd keep that bass for a long, long time! I still have it, and it's certainly been one HELL of a workhorse for me! :)
 
#78
vin*tone said:
I can tell you the worst thing that DIDN'T happen to my bass....

A house fire ripped through the singer's house where we rehearsed- all our band gear was there: amps guitars etc... Everything got totalled except for my bass that was in its tweed case. The whole inside of the case was melted and stank. My beloved defretted jazz just needed a scrub up and was totally fine.
Click to expand...

that is pretty lucky.
id never sell a bass that survived that.

ok, now im going to buy a tweed case.
 
#79
Had my 5 strings Warwick Thumb BO stolen...decided to left it in my band's garage since we finished our rehearsal late at night and we were playing again next morning...the same night thieves broke in and stole something like 6000 euros in musical instruments...I even lost the most amazing strap I ever owned (a present for my aunt) and some Korg bass pedal (a present for my ex girlfriend...I will never ever stop regretting about losing that)...i cried hard and I still do sometime when thinking about that pedal...I had got very attached to that one...
 
#80
for all the close calls in this thread, i think lots of us are lucky that our basses are built like brick s***houses.

i know whenever i ding any of my basses (as "cheap" as they are, they're my babies), i squeal like a frightened banshee until i realize that whatever the bass bumped into has more of a dent/ding than the bass itself.
 

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