Do you take a backup bass to gigs?

[Moose]

In spite of never having broken a string in 30 years of playing, I always take a spare bass and I keep a Superfly in the car in case the amp decides to take a night off. I did have an amp die on me mid-gig once and I didn't have a backup - never again.

[OldGit]

[quote name='Rich' post='255478' date='Aug 5 2008, 03:35 PM']I bring the Shuke to play and the Status just in case, plus I take my tool/spares box -- I refer to it as my 'oh-sh1t box' -- containing (deep breath) screwdrivers, spanners, a million allenkeys, pliers, snips & scissors, nail-clippers, wire-strippers, strings, PP3s, fuses, gas-iron, solder, insulating & double-sided tapes, torch, cable, wire, pots, resistors, switches, heatshrink insulation, jack plugs & sockets, rapid araldite, superglue, multimeter, switch cleaner...[/quote]

Hey! Add a lipstick and that's my wife's handbag!

[elom]

Seems like about a 50/50 split between those who fly with and without a safety net. I think that I'm going to carry on erring on the side of caution and still take a back-up. My skills don't extend to confidently transposing my parts around the missing string and a re-string mid set is probably too much disruption.

[iamthewalrus]

I usually take only one - if I'm doing a party or a wedding I'll take a backup (pref. one that can switch between active & passive if the battery goes, but that's rare as I change batteries frequently).

Haven't got room in the car for a spare amp, so in the case of the amp dying, it's straight into the desk.

Cheers,
iamthewalrus

[Mic]

i always take a spare but have never used it yet.
ive broken a few srings at practice but i think thats down to playing for such a long time in one go.

i wouldnt want to have to restring in the middle of a gig im nervous enough as it is

[Weird War]

As I'm usually on foot with a heavy gig bag on my back, no spare basses for me...

[pockethammer]

As a rule I don't bother with a spare bass although I do carry spare leads, strings & small tool kit.

[waynepunkdude]

[quote]..although your bandmates may laugh, they will never ever thank you enough when you rescue their b*lls from the chopper midgig! Its the bassist's role to be the prepared and sensible one..[/quote]

All my band mates have there own 'Box of tricks' but mine is the most comprehensive but they are really cool about it, if they use a disposable item they replace it and if they do need something they buy me a drink .

[Stag]

I always take a spare - broke a string once yeaaaaaars ago (A) and took spare ever since.

We do the odd song that needs drop D so I tune the spare to drop D.

[MananaMan]

I always take a spare on tour, in case of serious damage / theft. For genreal gigging though I just take the last set of strings I took off the bass.

Broke an E string in Leicester a couple of years ago and left the spare in the van... (yeah, useful!). Took about 10 seconds to re-string and get it in tune, was back and ready by the next chorus! Needless to say, had a few comments from other bands / audience congratulating me on speedy string changing. Oddly enough, no comments on my playing...

Since changing from D'Addario to Roto's I've not had any string snapping issues (went through at least a set of D'Addarios every two months for about a year.... they played great but didn't get on with my "heavy-handed" playing style!)

Just about to sell my el-cheapo backup bass, and also trying to sell my Gibson, so will have to be without spare until I can get a new bass!

[Stan_da_man]

Never have, probably never will.

[Bilbo]

Nope - just a set of spare strings and leads that I have never used.....

[crez5150]

Not since switching to Statii's (plural) I can change and re-tune a string in under a minute!

[Bilbo]

I can boil an egg in under 5......

[riff raff]

passive fender p in a hardcase. couple of leads,fuses!!!! svt let me down twice so i carry an ampeg b2r with me too.spare strings, gaffa tape and a di box.

[Linus27]

I used to always take a spare but only because I used to play with a plectrum in an angry punk pop band and so string breaks was fairly common. Once every other month but then we were doing lots of gigs and practising for 8 hours a day for 3 days a week so I was going through strings quite quickly.

Now I play with fingers in a more layed back folky/pop/jazz (no idea to be honest) thing and so I can't see me breaking strings anymore. However, its a hard habit to break and I am so far torn between taking two or just one to gigs now.

[Happy Jack]

I travel to gigs in my BandWagon, a large MPV with half the seats removed, and I'm usually carrying my bass rig, the PA, the lightshow, and the drum kit.

Under the circumstances, it would be foolish to carry only one bass and one amp, especially since my back-up amp is a WTX-260 which fits in the pocket of the gig-bag!

I've had on-stage problems with basses three times, but each time at a jam session / open mic thingy, so no spare bass.

My biggest problem at a gig was pulling the knob that cancelled the automatic compressor on the WTX-260. At the break, my friends were asking where my sound went. Turned out that I'd pulled the next knob along ... the one that introduced a 12dB 'pad'. I never even noticed because all I could hear was the foldback from the DI anyway.

[MacDaddy]

I have strings break, a strap lock break, and the input socket bu993r up. But at the moment as I haven't got a car, just one bass in a gig bag is the order of the day.