worst you've broken a bass.

[Kmonk]

I had an Alembic Epic 5 string that fell when the strap let go. The only damage was a slightly bent tuning peg.

 

[Jools4001]

Fortunately, I've never suffered any major damage, although my Rick had a near miss when a drunk who was being ejected grabbed hold of a monitor to try and hang onto something to anchor him down. The speaker cables attached to the monitor caused a gear avalanche that missed my Rick by inches.

The worst actual damage I did was when I was at our then vocalists house for a writing session. We broke for coffee and I just leaned my Rick against the sofa. We went into the kitchen and a minute or so later heard a crash from the living room. We went back in and there was my Rick on the floor with the D string tuner in pieces...fortunately, it was (and is) a wavy Grover, so it was relatively easily reassembled. But, the tuner had broken because on the way down, it had fallen against an antique French cabinet and left a foot long, deep scratch in one of his father's prized possessions...prized, because his mother had chosen it a few months before she had died. That was some 35 years ago and I'm still mortified when I think about it.

 

[Dojix]

My best friend once kicked the instrument cable plugged into his electric cello and it ripped up the wood around it, wasn't pretty.

 

[oysteivi]

I realized why you should hook the cable behind the strap when I stepped on the cable and cracked the pickguard. Fortunately, it was my little brother's bass, so no harm done.

 

[Short-scale]

I realized why you should hook the cable behind the strap when I stepped on the cable and cracked the pickguard. Fortunately, it was my little brother's bass, so no harm done.

Your little brother should have been more careful with his bass. Lol

 

[pcake]

i've been super lucky. i used to use these straps, and i had them fail twice (two different ones but the same model, which i then stopped using) - caught my bass both times *whew*

About a month ago I was playing a backyard gig and our band ran into some pa issues on top of my singer and guitarist wasting an absurd amount of time tuning... (Two people one guitar, I have patience for stupidity) Having drank a 12 pack to myself while playing I was really at the end of my rope. We finally start the next song which begins with me playing a minute long intro and boom, my signal cuts out and I lost my temper. I threw my bass and kicked my rig over breaking only the speaker cables thankfully. The bass suffered a half dollar sized chunk taken from the back and a nickel sized chunk from the back of the neck. I was fortunate (I guess) to only have my backup bass so my main baby wasn't injured. Not very showman of me...

instead of throwing your bass, you should have thrown the singer and the guitarist

 

[JollySpudd]

I realized why you should hook the cable behind the strap when I stepped on the cable and cracked the pickguard. Fortunately, it was my little brother's bass, so no harm done.

Rule #1 - Respect little brother's bass (harm done ) Beware Karma!
Rule #2 - ALWAYS hook cable behind strap, no matter whose bass it is.

I hope you help in the repairing of said bass, back to its former state or better. It's the nice big brotherly thing to do. Bass players are cool like that

 

[tuba_samurai]

I smashed an Arbor Jazz bass a few years ago in a fit of rage. I tossed it in the trash. Wish I had kept the hardware

 

[CGremlin]

I was backstage after a show with my two-week old Ibanez SR800 FL when the strap came off the back button and the bass hit the floor, knocking out a 4" chunk of wood along with the output jack. Many colorful words followed. The chunk glued back in okay, but it looks like hell since some of the paint chipped off, and it's a metallic finish. No effect on the feel/sound of the bass though. Maybe at some point I'll get the instrument repainted, but the neck and headstock are all painted the same color, so it'd be a pricey venture I'm sure.

Edit - was my SR800, not 500. Hey, it was late when I posted!

 

[Slevage]

Truss rod on my Guild Pilot was maxed out--- I continued to tighten and broke the truss rod----- it was a 5er and I wanted a fretless, so I ordered a new fretless 5 neck from Guild.

 

[Slevage]

Not my bass, but my friend's guitar-------- I was a later member of this basement band, we were all 12, 13, 14 years old.

They had a gig but no one was old enough to drive. Mike put his guitar down (flat)--behind the car. My friends dad backed the car out of the garage.............................................

Luckily one of the guys has a spare axe and the show went on.

 

[VSUBass]

Being a relatively newbie convert to bass I've never broken one but this tale of complete guitar destruction is so bad I think it qualifies:

Going over to a friend's house where we were having a post-post graduation party to practice and we were the band, such that it was: me on vocals & guitar and my buddy on bass. I saw the trash can needed to be taken to the curb so I set my (acoustic) guitar case down & I took the trash to the curb then got in my car and backed over my guitar. The sound was awful! I stormed off, stomping down the street cussing like the proverbial if antiquated sailor and my father, my rather conservative father, who I'm pretty sure had never heard me cuss before eventually caught up with me and walked me down off the ledge. He never said a word about it, which upon reflection weeks later, surprised me. I wish I still had that guitar, my 1st semi "real" guitar.

 

[ultra60]

tried my hand at refinishing a Stingray many years ago. Spent a month sanding it down, staining, and shooting many coats of rattle can lacquer. I could not have been happier with the results.

After the first gig, the bass looked worse than pre-refin, lol. Massive buckle rash on the back, and finish dings all over. I guess I did not let it cure properly... that, or I had no idea how to correctly do a refin.

 

[rtslinger]

Worse for me snapped off the tuning key on one of my basses at a gig lucky for me I had a small adjustable wrench in my gig bag so I could tune it up

 

[electracoyote]

I set a SG/EB bass clone on the floor and drunkenly stepped on it. Snapped the neck near the body. It was a great copy with a set neck and Pelham Blue finish, awesome player. Buh-bye.

 

[billgoodwin]

"Ethel" - was broken in half - (twice) back in the 80's. Glued & screwed back together. still bellows with the best of 'em.

 

[pholli00]

My p bass's output Jack ripped out and tore all the wires attached to it out. It also broke the the pickguard. What's your story?

I used to have issues. I don't like to think about it now, but I often broke the jack of my p bass by throwing it string down on the stage and surfing it. I saw Bobby Stinson do this to his guitar on SNL, and it seemed like a real cool thing to do. My guitar player finally had to bolt a makeshift galvanized steel plate to it to keep the jack from breaking off. Yes, at one time this seemed like the logical solution.

 

[pholli00]

I smashed an Arbor Jazz bass a few years ago in a fit of rage. I tossed it in the trash. Wish I had kept the hardware

I mixed a bottle of Ouzo and depression once. My Foundation didn't make it.

 

[pholli00]

I broke the original neck on my squier bullet practicing a stage trick.

And this is why Squiers are better than Fenders.

 

[Skokiaan]

My first electric upright got into a fight with the Asbury Park sidewalk when the cheap gigbag strap broke walking into a gig. The sidewalk won.
Fortunately it was only a crappy Stagg upright and I had a second bass with me.

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On a separate occasion, the Asbury Park sidewalk did this to me, also while loading in.
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