Who has had a bass die during a gig?

I have not. I thought I was losing my Bongo once but turned out to be a bad cord.
It did die one time in rehearsal.

 

Hi Bob

Subbed! No horror storys to tell, but I will bring the popcorn!



may the bass be with you

Wise(b)ass

 

Only frogs.

 

Now Ricky on the other hand has it happen all the time. Good ole Ricky!

 

Did over 125 shows in New York City last year in the city ... old old old really old fender... only thing that died was my iphone and my knock off new balances. I really could not carry two basses to the gigs, with amp stand etc, ever on public transport and never asked too.
Oh, and never had a bass die... but I am only 52 so I guess it could happen. For many years on tour and only owned one bass.

Edit : Actually did have a bass die , but was rescued by our own John10K after hurricane Katrina . I was not playing the actual bass at the time of the storm.

 

while playing a bit over-enthusiastically, I ripped the bridge out of an Epi EB3 onstage once.

not sure if that counts as a technical fault on the bass (although that bridge design is pretty flimsy)... more like user error.

anyway shout out to the sound guy who fished a Squier P out of the basement so I could finish the gig!

 

I had bought my first Guild Pilot Bass used and had been playing it for about a year before we went into the studio to record a demo CD. This was a pretty low buck deal where the band would be record the music together and then the vocals added afterwards. There was a bass amp with a DI out to the board. The Engineer had me do a little sound check and he immediately got up from the board and came into the studio with a 9V battery and a small Phillips head screwdriver. He looks at me and says; "Your battery's dead!". I responded; "What battery?". He asks me for my bass then flips it over and unscrews the back cover back and changes out the battery. Wow, who knew? Needless to say the bass just came to life! That was just the first of many embarrassments suffered during that first studio experience.

One of the other embarrassments was I was a came in a little late and muffed the final note after a closing crescendo at the end of a song. The Engineer said; "Don't worry about it, we'll fix it later". So we're laying down the last tune of the day and I look into the control room and the Engineer has got a bass in his hands. We finished up the tune with a good take and I said; "Should we fix that bad note now?". The Engineer looked at me, winked and said; Nope, all taken care of!" So I know there was at least one note on the demo that I didn't play. I have to wonder how many others there were!

 

Battery died on my active bass the first year I owned it.
Not completely dead but the output was so low I could not be heard.

 

Subbing to find out how many people of the people who hyperventilate about active basses dying abruptly in the middle of a gig, have had it actually happen.

 

Not once - but I never let that stop me from buying “backup” basses - cause you never know...

 

Not once in over a thousand shows.

 

I was having trouble with what I thought was my instrument cable at rehearsal once. Finished rehearsal, went home, put it out of my mind. Had a gig that weekend was packing up and thought, maybe I should check the instrument jack. Sure enough the jack had come loose and twisted and broke the wires coming from the pots. Discovered this an hour and a half before the gig so 20-30 minutes before I needed to leave. First gig with a new group. Found my soldering iron, needed my wife to help me and between the two of us we held the wires, soldering iron and held the loosened pick guard up so I could re-attach the two leads. Blew on the solder joints, said a little prayer and headed out the door. This was as close a disaster as I ever had and this was pretty dang close!

After the gig I took it to a shop and had a quality repair with new pots and a new jack.

 

This is partly why I plan to have the "slap switch" on my Fender Jazz 24 rewired as a pre-amp bypass switch. That, and I'd like to have a passive Jazz.

 

Back in my drankin' days, I killed lotsa Bass....

 

I’ve had a guitar die while onstage, and I’ve had a bass amp die while onstage, but never a bass.

 

Had the input jack on a Pbass go kerfuffle just before a gig. Luckily the guitar player had a bass in his car from his other band and the show went on. I fixed that jack with a vice grips and picture, no more problems.

 

Had an active preamp Ibanez for a couple years. That thing was brutal on batteries, never died completely at a gig but was close.

Luckily I came across my Musicmaster and once I had worked that into playable condition I unloaded the Ibanez and never looked back.

 

I had a signal wire break off the output jack inside a P bass.
Immediately grabbed my StingRay and chugged on

 

Not die, but broke a few strings in the 60's. I haven't had a problem since then.