THE worst (bass related) feeling in the world

[warwickhunt]

I normally carry all my own gear to gigs in my car but we were doing a big charity bash last night and we had a van. Collected at 5.30 and we had to rearrange some of the gear already in the van to get in the PA equipment stored at mine. All packed off we go to the gig where we arrive to find loads of people milling about inc' three bands (we all know each other) helping each other carry in various equipment... excellent camaraderie!

As the PA belongs to me I end up setting most of it up myself before I turn to set my gear up; where's my bass?

AAAARGH! 'Where the cufk is my BASS' Much searching turns up nothing; 13 guitar cases double checked to see if one is mine, van searched... panic ensues (on my part) and I'm frantically phoning home to ask if my bass is sitting on the drive, not there. My bass is nowhere to be found, utter devastation on my part and much self chastisement for being so cuffin lax and letting other people take charge of my gear (which I NEVER usually do). Then... phone call from the Mrs, it's in the garage down beside some shelving, someone obviously moved my bass to one side when we were loading the lights and PA.

It's unlikely that you can know how bad that feels unless it's happened to you before!

Any similar experiences?

[chris_b]

I've gone to the wrong gig and had to stop on the road to check that I'd put the bass in the case, but I've not yet left it at home. I did once leave the bass behind after a gig though!!!

Edited September 26, 2010 by chris_b

[KiOgon]

When you're doing a mate a favour putting new strings on his Gibson pride & joy, when you take the last old string off, lift the guitar up & the head stays on the table!

F'in unbelieveable - but true - he told me it wouldn't stay in tune, but forgot to mention it had smacked down on the floor the day before

Speechless

[maxrossell]

I had a worse one.

I was walking home from work one day, and my path took me past a pawn shop.

In the window of the pawn shop was my bass, that I had left in a shared rehearsal space I occupied. One of the c*nts in the other band had nicked it and pawned it for weed money.

Fortunately I was able to get it sorted. But it was not a nice feeling.

[johnny dissident]

I have left my bass behind at a gig before............ TWICE. Yea I know...twonk.............once in bloody Germany. We were on the ferry back home when I'd discovered it was missing, "Oh I remember seeing it propped up against the wall outside last nights gig" said the drummer,helpfully.
Luck would have it, our agent phoned to tell me that a comedian on the same bill had picked it up, trouble was, he wouldn't be back in blighty for another two months.
When the day finally came to go and pick it up, Drove from Swindon to Preston expressed my thanks, then ran out of bleedin' petrol on the motorway halfway back.
Only my silly self to blame EH?

[johnny dissident]

And I once forgot to take my bass to a gig...?!?!

[warwickhunt]

Some of you are making me feel better and look good!

[stewblack]

Turned up at a gig, set everything up except the guitar which I left until the very last moment. When I did go to set it up i found ... an old, broken bass from years back staring up at me from inside the case. My wife had been helpful and tidied a few things up for me. Aaaargh.
Stupidest gear related thing I ever did though, was a result of my drinking (I don't any more). We'd done a gig at Swindon Town FC's function room and I woke up in the car in their car park the next morning. The first team getting onto their coach for an away fixture must have woken me. As I drove (yes probably over the limit) out of the car park I had to stop and pick up bits of my kit which marked a trail back to the door of the function room. Including my brand new Shure wireless rig in it's case.
Miracle everything was still there not nicked or run over, I must have been dropping stuff, falling over wandering around pissed up.
I don't need to tell anyone the moral here do I?

[JMT3781]

i used to lock my case because it made me feel like a bigman

that was until i turned up to a gig without the key...

[Pete Academy]

I left my Tobias Classic 5 outside my door after a gig. I didn't realise until a week later, as at the time I was using that and a Warwick for different gigs.

I reported it to the police, phoned a load of music shops, and then set off to my local Cash Converter with a photo and some info. Five mins after I'd left CC, one of their guys rang me to say he knew where the bass was. Apparently a young kid had sold it to them for £25. They said they couldn't identify it, so it was sold to someone they knew for £80. They said they could get it back, but I had to go back the next day. I told them I couldn't, so they told me to come back within an hour.

I gave them £60, so they wouldn't involve the police, and they produced it from the back of the shop. I think they were lying and had the bass there all the time, because they had an inkling it may be valuable.

I didn't care, though...I was very relieved and very lucky. The fact is, when I first phoned music shops to tell them to look out for it, loads of people told me they'd had similar experiences.

[johnny dissident]

What are we like, EH?

For years I thought I was the only prat who could treat the tools of his trade in such a careless way, I feel so much better now, thank you.

Edited September 26, 2010 by johnny dissident

[Chris2112]

I've always been extremely carerful with my gear to avoid such horrors as this!

[maxrossell]

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='968338' date='Sep 26 2010, 01:33 PM']I left my Tobias Classic 5 outside my door after a gig. I didn't realise until a week later, as at the time I was using that and a Warwick for different gigs.

I reported it to the police, phoned a load of music shops, and then set off to my local Cash Converter with a photo and some info. Five mins after I'd left CC, one of their guys rang me to say he knew where the bass was. Apparently a young kid had sold it to them for £25. They said they couldn't identify it, so it was sold to someone they knew for £80. They said they could get it back, but I had to go back the next day. I told them I couldn't, so they told me to come back within an hour.

I gave them £60, so they wouldn't involve the police, and they produced it from the back of the shop. I think they were lying and had the bass there all the time, because they had an inkling it may be valuable.

I didn't care, though...I was very relieved and very lucky. The fact is, when I first phoned music shops to tell them to look out for it, loads of people told me they'd had similar experiences.[/quote]

I must have been lucky then, cos the Cash Coverters where my bass got pawned after it was stolen helped me out right away, and made the guy who nicked it pay extra to get it back off them. I think they gave him thirty quid for it and made him pay £100 to get it back without being shopped to the filth.

[essexbasscat]

[quote name='maxrossell' post='968284' date='Sep 26 2010, 12:18 PM']I had a worse one.

I was walking home from work one day, and my path took me past a pawn shop.

In the window of the pawn shop was my bass, that I had left in a shared rehearsal space I occupied. One of the c*nts in the other band had nicked it and pawned it for weed money.

Fortunately I was able to get it sorted. But it was not a nice feeling.[/quote]


Aghast !!!

what poor form

[Delberthot]

i remember doing a gig in Tain, up the north of Scotland. To get into the gig, you had to go down some steep steps into the cellar.

I rmember seeing my guitarist falling into the cellar - with my brand new Trace 4x10" in hand to break his fall.


Luckily there was hardly a mark on the cab.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

I once played a venue where the back door backed onto Sainsbury's loading area. We were due on stage about 3 hrs after arriving, and when our time came we began to set the gear up, my bass wasn't where I had left it. To cut a long story short, the guy at the venue had neglected to lock the room which was doubling as gear cupboard, and some charming local had taken the chance to pinch some gear - namely, my '79 Fender Precision.

I didn't have a spare and by the time the hooha died down it was too late to play so we left.

The sound guy phoned me on my journey home. Guilt stricken he had searched for the bass, and lo and behold he found it dumped in one of the Sainsbury's bins. Presumably the tea leaf was disturbed in the act. We can only assume he returned later to collect his prize as at some point during the night, the cars parked in the loading bay were all torched.

I got the bass back the next day, but as far as I know the police still have the case it was in.

It's strange but I didn't feel anything until I knew it had been recovered. Sounds a bit OTT but I was just a bit numb. I've retired that bass now.

[silverfoxnik]

On the way to a gig a couple of years ago, I went to pick up our singer Pete so we could car share as it was quite a way to the gig.. Pete always brings the two powered monitors with him to gigs and that was going to be a bit of a challenge, fitting them and Pete in my car on top of all my gear!

So I knocked on the door and Pete handed me the first monitor whilst he went to say goodbye to his wife and kids and grab his jacket etc.. So, mindful of being quick and getting on our way, I put the monitor in my hand in through the side door onto the back seat and then went to get the other one from inside the house.. Before doing that though, I locked the car just to be on the safe side as it had all my gear in it, including my basses.

So I grabbed the other monitor and thought to myself that I'd try and put it in the boot...which I duly opened up with my keys...And sure enough, there was just about enough room for the monitor, after moving all the other gear around a bit. As I heard the satisfying thud of the boot closing and was feeling smug with myself for managing to get all the gear in the car, I realised that I'd locked my keys in the boot which now wouldn't open because the all the doors were still locked!

BY the time Pete finally comes out of the house, it's to the sight of me cursing and trying not to lose it completely!! Anyway, after about quarter an hour of failed attempts to break in to my own car, we ended up taking the his wife's car to the gig, stopping off at our guitarist's house to borrow a bass from his studio and then racing to the gig, just in time to quickly plug me directly into the PA and then start the gig..

Fortunately, the gig was great, the AA came and very easily sorted out the problem and retrieved my keys for me and I didn't end up feeling quite such a tw*t after all!

But it could have been so much worse...

[tauzero]

Bear with me, this gets there in the end...

Went to a bike breakers that I knew and noticed a few bits in there that looked familiar (Yamaha XS650 wheels with a slightly odd pair of tyres as it happens). Turned out that someone had brought in a job lot of stuff and sold it to them. I asked them to keep it on one side (they knew me so they obliged) and headed off to my lockup garage - which had been broken into.

Among the bits nicked was my Ohm 1x15 cab which I was storing in there because I wasn't using it at the time. So I reported it to the police, and then got on with my own detective work. The second second-hand shop I rang was run by someone I knew from a long time back. I asked about the cab and he'd got it in the shop, along with some other stuff. He'd also got the registration number of the car which had brought the stuff. So I got the cab (and other stuff) back, and there was a prosecution (unsuccessful as the magistrates were stupid enough to accept the story that the seller had bought the stuff in good faith).

Off on a complete tangent, that reminded me that the serial numbers of the Laney PB150 head I had at the time and the Ohm cab were identical. Now there's a coincidence...

[toneknob]

I did a gig which was a record-breaking endurance effort by one of the band - Guinness rules stipulate that there's a maximum time limit allowed between songs of barely a few seconds.

I had to switch from bass to guitar for the last song, so arranged with one of the gig's stewards to do a guitar switcheroo at the end on the last-but-one song, which I start after a quick nod to the rest of the band to make sure everyone's ready. I had to play bass synth pedals as well for this last song, so had to be in place at the front of the stage.

The last-but-one song ends, the switch goes well, I'm back in place ready to go. But the gig's ended - the record's broken, gig curfew time is fast approaching without time for the last song: the local BBC News crew are onstage filming and the crowd's applauding and cheering the event. Job's a good 'un.

So, I take off my guitar and put it back on its stand, join in the applause with the rest of the band for the record-breaking musician. I move towards the steward who took my bass. she's applauding too. It's a Jetglo 1975 Ricky 4001 btw. Hey, where's my bass I say. Oh I propped it up against the banister on the stairs leading down to the dressing room just over there, she points. At nothing. At the banister, obviously not supporting anything except fresh air. I look where she's pointing. She looks at me. I look at her. We both look back. It's still not there.

My beloved Rick had slipped from it's precarious position and fallen/bounced neck-first down the 6 or 8 concrete steps that lead to the back-stage dressing room. Lucky lucky me - the only scratch was a little scrape across the top edge of the headstock. I still see the steward occasionally, she's always glad to be reminded of the occasion...

[Truckstop]

I left it on a train once. I felt sick when I heard the doors 'shush' behind me. I really did feel so upset, horrified and numb. So bizarre!
I got it back though, it was easy enough.

Truckstop

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I came out after playing a multi-band charity gig at the Grove in South Wimbledon on a Sunday evening to find my car had been broken into.

A bass rig for all bands to use was setup onstage before I got there and no storage area in the venue meant I had to reluctantly leave my Ashdown rig in the car.

I originally though I'd lost my rig but it was still in the car. There are still scratch marks around the CD player though where the daft b'stards tried to nick it - why anyone would want that old piece of junk is beyond me but they didn't get it as its bolted in from the back.

Blummin' nuisance to get the glass cleaned up & replaced.

[LukeFRC]

thats no that bad warwickhunt, compare that to a guitar balanced ontop of an amp on the front of a stage with the curtains pulled, (the band are set up below the stage on the floor, its a school hall hired for church) fine, then someone opens the curtains on the stage so the pa gear can be stashed.
curtain catches bass.... 2m drop to a hard floor.

the sick feeling is the fact you see the thing fall in slow motion

[Bilbo]

I drove 17 miles to a gig once only to realise I had left my bass at home - I thought I had left it on the kerb so drove home in a panic to find it was still in the house. Sods Law, I had to cross the Severn Bridge twice as a result, costing me two tolls as well as the additional petrol!!

Best one was driving 18 miles to a rehearsal to find I had propped my bass against the car before driving off. It fell over and lay in the car park outside my flat for most of an hour before I got back to recover it - still there, lying in the middle of the car park.

The worst one was losing a GK MB150S and SWR Baby Blue cab from the back of a car. I had gone into Aust services for food and came back to see two oiks nicking the gear. The gutter was that there was someone in the car 'looking after' the gear. The bloke had fallen asleep and was lying down on the back seat. The thieves hadn't seen him and he thought it was us messing around so hadn't bothered to get up.

[Raslee]

A couple of months back I was at a music festival and was under the influence of excessive reckless hedonism after a gig (actually during also). Anyway, I made it vitally important that i don't leave my bass behind when we're done in the arena.....i was happy to leave my ampeg gear until morning collection however my 79 Ray strictly had to be with me no matter what. So i managed to get my bass, and my goodself, to the aptly named 'community centre' (our drummer 70's caravan) and of course more excessive hedonism prevailed. Then it all went a bit blank for me. When my wife woke me in our Bongo van she asked where is my bass...well if the hangover, screaming child, lack of water, and excessive sun when you least need it wasn't enough to deal with.... i now had to find my bass with a head full of fear. About 5 minutes later Some unknown hippy came over to our van and said 'i found this in the grass outside that caravan' and handed over my guitar in its case........phew! I then b@ll@cked my wife for scaring me with such silly questions so early in the afternoon....followed by Bloody Maries at the Community Centre to calm my stresses

Edited September 27, 2010 by Rasta

[goblin]

I managed to snap an E string just at the end of soundcheck. Didn't know it was possible but the gig was a 45 minute drive away from home. Fortunately we managed to delay what time we were on so I went home, grabbed the Wal and came back. Managed to do the run in an hour! The downside is that in my rush to get the bass in a case and stuff, i managed to knock the volume knob off