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This guy wants to sit in...

#83
Manticore said:
I've never seen anyone pick up another's instrument without permission. That is beyond poor manners...
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Had it happen a few times.

Once in college...

Once in a band I was in where the females singers husband was always tagging along...the guy just took my bass from the case and plugged it in.

There is a local guy who is a friend from high school...rather careless and sloppy with his own stuff and I don't let him anywhere near my instruments...this guy will show up with grease stained fingers and ask to play my stuff...sorry charlie.

Frankly I have very little interest in playing anyone elses instrument and unless it's a situation where something very rare is there (like an Alembic Series II), I don't even bother asking.
 
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#84
I have a rule: never, ever let anybody from the audience on the stage unless you know exactly what they intend to do.

I’ve had drunks go on rants and insult and embarrass people. I’ve seen drunks knock over guitars and mains. I’ve seen them fall on their faces.

If I know the guest and his or her ability, that’s different. But just cuz somebody says they can play or sing doesn’t mean they can.
 
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#85
i don't ever loan my gear to someone i dont know... even people i do know...

also, i've been really lucky to be around some really high level musicians - none of the more elite folks that i know would ever ask to sit in with folks that don't all know them...

just saying..
 
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#86
Very rarely. I let a young guy who was playing with a musician between sets borrow my USA Pbass. They were using our PA, and my rig, and his bass was a banger with dead strings and a bad jack. Nice kid, so I figured it was best to let him use the Pbass into my rig so I could control the input and output. No issues.

Seems to me the greater risk could be to your rig - some ham-handed player slaps your bass unmercifully, or cranks the gain, or steps on an effect and overloads the front end. I hate a scratch and dent to my basses, but I would lose it if someone wrecked my amp.
 
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#87
BurtMacklinFBI said:
I don’t know if I’d be that confrontational with the BL, but other than that? My thoughts exactly. I don’t come to your work and ask to “sit in”.
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In all honesty I’d probably sub vocalize the “piss off” and let it go with “I’d rather he didn’t if it’s all the same. I’m a little particular who I hand this $6K bass to.” :laugh:
 
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#88
edro said:
OPie was a hired gun and not part of that band. OPie was hired to play one job.
OPie brought his tools necessary to perform job. Tools were NOT provided for OPie.
Nawt. No discussion.

May be just me but if I am playing a gig and I see a guy I don't know, walk in carrying his instrument expecting to sit in, hell will freeze over twice before that happens... To me that is tacky as hell.... Walk in uninvited with your instrument and bounce up to the stage and tell folks you don't know, you are there to play. What kind of mental diptish would think that is ok?
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Nobody in their right mind walks into a gig carrying their instrument and asks to sit in. You ask to sit in and if you don't get a flat-out "no" before you've finished asking then you mention that you "happen to have" an instrument in your boot, or 'trunk' if you're American. :laugh:
 
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#89
Jaycephas said:
Very rarely. I let a young guy who was playing with a musician between sets borrow my USA Pbass. They were using our PA, and my rig, and his bass was a banger with dead strings and a bad jack. Nice kid, so I figured it was best to let him use the Pbass into my rig so I could control the input and output. No issues.

Seems to me the greater risk could be to your rig - some ham-handed player slaps your bass unmercifully, or cranks the gain, or steps on an effect and overloads the front end. I hate a scratch and dent to my basses, but I would lose it if someone wrecked my amp.
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a few years back a band i was in invited a 5 string player to sit in without my consent (meaning they invited the guy to the gig with the intent to sit in without me knowing before the gig).

the noises that came from my amp when he hit that b string were awful i was about to go up and give the guy hell but he seemed to get things under control before i got up there. a few weeks later i noticed some odd sounds coming from a speaker and found it had blown at some point. I suspect it may have been from that gut.

than one song turned into 3 songs including a couple that i had spent a considerable amount of time working on.

IN hindsight I think they were looking to replace me with this guy as he started showing up at all my gigs with this band.
 
#90
Slinger said:
Nobody in their right mind walks into a gig carrying their instrument and asks to sit in. You ask to sit in and if you don't get a flat-out "no" before you've finished asking then you mention that you "happen to have" an instrument in your boot, or 'trunk' if you're American. :laugh:
Click to expand...

There are folks not in their right mind out there...unfortunately...

Logic to a Lemming is like Physics to a Goldfish.....
 
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#92
I was 12 years old and it was the second day with my first bass. I had played guitar for a year prior and was in a little kid band playing at a house party. Some kid that I didn't know asked to play my bass. I said okay and the kid promptly dropped it onto a hardwood floor. That was 55 years ago and that was the last time I let anyone play one of my instruments.
 
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#93
Liam Wald said:
I was 12 years old and it was the second day with my first bass. I had played guitar for a year prior and was in a little kid band playing at a house party. Some kid that I didn't know asked to play my bass. I said okay and the kid promptly dropped it onto a hardwood floor. That was 55 years ago and that was the last time I let anyone play one of my instruments.
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When I was a 17, I saved up all my money from high school summer jobs and bought a shiny new Pedulla. First week I owned it, a guitarist friend asked if he could play it. I said sure, no problem! Turn my back for a few minutes, and when I look, there's a chip in the finish, down to the bare wood! Dude is flailing away, playing punk bass lines with a quarter coin as a pick. I started freaking out and he's like, what? You didn't have any picks in your case so I improvised.
 
#94
I’ve never been in that range, but I’ve had a few $3k basses. I don’t have issues with people using my stuff. I did pull the plug on a drunk guy that plugged a guitar into my bass amp and cranked the gain all the way up, but that was a totally different set of circumstances.
 
#95
Why do we insist on auditioning new members to our bands, but if some random dude at a gig says they want to sit-in, it's no problem?

Me: No sit-ins, and no loan-outs. If that makes a me a a-hole, then fine I'm a a-hole.
 
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#99
About 15 years ago I was playing a multi-band event and one of the other bass players asked to use my amp. I knew him a bit - we were kind of like ships in the night passing each other and exchanging pleasantries. I also knew his girlfriend and decided, hey, no problem - go a head. It went fine.

A couple years later I was playing another multi-band event and one of the other bass players, who I didn't know asked to use my amp. I was using a Cube-100 and said "Hey, just make sure you're all hooked up before you plug your line into the amp." When it was their turn to play, up he went, and proceeded to play every single hookup through the nearly-cranked Cube-100 (he cranked it to full power).

Since then I have not let anyone use my bass or my amp, or "sit in," ever. I remember, when I was really unwell, a band leader warning me at a show "You know, someone tonight may ask to play your bass or amp for a few tunes. Just don't let them. We are paying for you to play the entire night and if you need to step away for any reason, just wave at me and we'll take a break for you... " Perfect.
 
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#100
Manticore said:
I've never seen anyone pick up another's instrument without permission. That is beyond poor manners...
Click to expand...
This brought back a memory...1975, my HS School garage band is playing "a dance". On a break, some schmoe (with posse in-tow), starts playing "Foxey Lady" on our guitarist's Tele...amp on 11, of course.

The guitarist looks at me mortified. Like I'm some kinda tough guy. Well, in this band, I'm the ex-jock...but I still don't want my ass kicked.
I unplug the amp from the 120VAC. This was a '60s Sears Silvertone tube amp...so it takes a few secs for the sound to bleed down to 0.
Hilarious scene; the schmucks scurry off, pretty much knocking each other over to get out of there.
 
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