When A Good Night Turns Bad

[Norris]

Last night my amp packed up about an hour and a half into the gig. (Waves good bye to gig money!)

We'd got through the drum solo on Radar Love, then I came back in with the riff - whisper quiet drums & bass. Then, in with the vocals & guitar to do a very slow crescendo throughout the last verse - building & building the volume until finally hitting the climax on the chorus ... and suddenly the trio turned into a duo! The good vibe I'd been riding came crashing down around my ankles, to be replaced by lots of words beginning with F and B. Luckily, a kind friend in the audience happened to have a decent monitor in his van, so we had a quick break while we shifted kit around. At least the audience got to hear what it sounds like without the chap in the corner. They rarely notice until it's gone

I wouldn't mind, but my amp had just come back from a 'repair & service' after packing up at a gig at an RAF base a week or two ago. That time I had to plug direct into the PA. (It was a really crap gig well before the amp packed in - that was just the icing on the cake)


Anyway, please share your anecdotes of when good kit turns bad...

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='Norris' post='1068702' date='Dec 24 2010, 01:17 PM']I wouldn't mind, but my amp had just come back from a 'repair & service' after packing up at a gig at an RAF base a week or two ago.[/quote]
if its the same component thats gone, it sounds like your repairman owes you a free repair & an apology. If it is he may have fixed the symptom, but not the cause.

[lowdown]

[quote name='Norris' post='1068702' date='Dec 24 2010, 01:17 PM']Last night my amp packed up about an hour and a half into the gig. (Waves good bye to gig money!)

We'd got through the drum solo on Radar Love, then I came back in with the riff - whisper quiet drums & bass. Then, in with the vocals & guitar to do a very slow crescendo throughout the last verse - building & building the volume until finally hitting the climax on the chorus ... and suddenly the trio turned into a duo! The good vibe I'd been riding came crashing down around my ankles, to be replaced by lots of words beginning with F and B. Luckily, a kind friend in the audience happened to have a decent monitor in his van, so we had a quick break while we shifted kit around. At least the audience got to hear what it sounds like without the chap in the corner. They rarely notice until it's gone

I wouldn't mind, but my amp had just come back from a 'repair & service' after packing up at a gig at an RAF base a week or two ago. That time I had to plug direct into the PA. (It was a really crap gig well before the amp packed in - that was just the icing on the cake)


Anyway, please share your anecdotes of when good kit turns bad...[/quote]


Seeing as it has happened a couple of times of late - could all this be down to the Drum Solo in Radar Love?


Garry

[sprocketflup]

I had something fail on me a verse into a song at a gig in Leicester once, to this day I still dont know what it was, the rest of the band played on like pros whilst I and a few members of support bands threw new cables and the likes at my set up.

the sound came back in just in time for me to hit teh very last note of the track! pure comedy! half the audience were about wetting themselves lol

[munkonthehill]

this was from one of my previous posts.

[quote name='munkonthehill' post='610704' date='Sep 28 2009, 10:52 AM']Ok chaps,

Worst case senario, during my approx 7th song, my mb4210 300watt broke. It started 'farting' then finally began cutting out all together. We tried pushing on and hopefully it would kick back in,,,,,but as im sure we all know this was an empty wish and the lump of pish gave up.

So a mad rush to my home to pick up my little 50watt peavey max115 which is my only other amp was in place.

Now the marshall has great tonal qualitys and great output, so how did the peavey hold up, well im glad to report that it did the job, it wasnt amazing but by god the we fella saved the day, i could be heard(just) and the show went on. So well infact that the pub booked us for a further 2 gigs.

So Sunday morning i got all the amps packaging together (it was only 2months old) took it back to the amazing guys in merchant city guitar and they did a straight swap for a Hughes & Kettner BK200 200watt amp.

Not tried it at rehearsals or gigs yet but looking forward to it.

If anyone has any experience on these amps, either the marshall mb4210 or mainly the hughes & Kettner BK200 then please add to this thread.

Cheers for reading folks, oh and just to add, the peavey is now my hero and although it wont be my gigging bass I can highly recommend them.

Steven[/quote]

[Doddy]

.......and that's why it's always a good idea to carry a
DI box.

[paul_5]

[quote name='sprocketflup' post='1068735' date='Dec 24 2010, 01:46 PM']I had something fail on me a verse into a song at a gig in Leicester once, to this day I still dont know what it was, the rest of the band played on like pros whilst I and a few members of support bands threw new cables and the likes at my set up.

the sound came back in just in time for me to hit teh very last note of the track! pure comedy! half the audience were about wetting themselves lol[/quote]

Sounds like "Rock and Roll Creation" by Spinal Tap.

[Cat Burrito]

My last gig saw my old 90s Ampeg head blow during soundcheck. I had to go through our singers solid state guitar amp plugged into my cab. Although not great it wasn't as grim as I thought. My old head wasn't worth repairing so I just saw it as an excuse to get a new head.

[Lozz196]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1069042' date='Dec 24 2010, 09:15 PM'].......and that's why it's always a good idea to carry a
DI box.[/quote]
Yep, Sansamp BDDI, or as a good alternative, Behringer BD121, good bit of kit, fraction of the price of the Sansamp, and a "real" bass sound through the pa if yr amp fails.

[yorick]

My first ever gig on bass was with a really sh1te bass from the 70's with the original strings still on it. Half way through the first song i hit a chord of some description and broke the E A and D strings. I hummed the bass lines for the rest of the gig....................

[merello]

[quote name='yorick' post='1069201' date='Dec 25 2010, 11:24 AM']My first ever gig on bass was with a really sh1te bass from the 70's with the original strings still on it. Half way through the first song i hit a chord of some description and broke the E A and D strings. I hummed the bass lines for the rest of the gig....................[/quote]
Alas, poor Yorick.