Lending equipment to a bandmate?

[Oopsdabassist]

1 hour ago, Combed20 said:

When politely asked, I have always allowed other bass players to use my rig - never had a problem.  Only once have I refused. My band (London based) had a gig in Brighton. Rather than everyone driving their equipment, we asked the other band if we could use their amps and drums  - they flatly refused, so we loaded our cars and brought everything. The local band then swaned in late, no back line with them because they couldn't be bothered to bring it and said they were using our kit. We always prided ourselves on being polite and friendly to bands we shared the stage with,  but took great pleasure informing this bunch they wouldn't be playing unless they went home and got their kit, because they sure as well weren't using ours. 

Oh well played sir..and with a certain note of pride methinks!!!

[steantval]

On 26/03/2018 at 23:26, MoonBassAlpha said:

My guitarist still hadn't bought a giggable amp since going electric about 8 years ago. Uses my amp and Pod (for modelling a vox, plus a tad of comp). I can't remember the last time he said thanks. I have to cart it to gigs too as he doesn't drive. I see it as something a friend does, but it feels like a one-way street in this case.

IMO your guitarist is taking the p*ss.

He is taking you for a mug.

Edited March 28, 2018 by steantval

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, Combed20 said:

When politely asked, I have always allowed other bass players to use my rig - never had a problem.  Only once have I refused. My band (London based) had a gig in Brighton. Rather than everyone driving their equipment, we asked the other band if we could use their amps and drums  - they flatly refused, so we loaded our cars and brought everything. The local band then swaned in late, no back line with them because they couldn't be bothered to bring it and said they were using our kit. We always prided ourselves on being polite and friendly to bands we shared the stage with,  but took great pleasure informing this bunch they wouldn't be playing unless they went home and got their kit, because they sure as well weren't using ours. 

Nice move,

.Sounds like they were lazy and don't understand there are certain things bands are responsible for. Like showing up with your tools.

 

Blue

[Frank Blank]

On 26/03/2018 at 23:26, MoonBassAlpha said:

My guitarist still hadn't bought a giggable amp since going electric about 8 years ago. Uses my amp and Pod (for modelling a vox, plus a tad of comp). I can't remember the last time he said thanks. I have to cart it to gigs too as he doesn't drive. I see it as something a friend does, but it feels like a one-way street in this case.

I would have done this once, maybe, if I’d been in a particularly good mood, which hasn’t happened for a couple of decades, but more than once with no thanks..?

I call that, in polite language, being taken advantage of.

[MoonBassAlpha]

I've mentioned this anecdote before, met the bassist from a band before our shared bill gig. He didn't know what the gear share situation was ,so his default position was to not bring his amp. Beggars belief.

[Monkey Steve]

17 hours ago, Combed20 said:

When politely asked, I have always allowed other bass players to use my rig - never had a problem.  Only once have I refused. My band (London based) had a gig in Brighton. Rather than everyone driving their equipment, we asked the other band if we could use their amps and drums  - they flatly refused, so we loaded our cars and brought everything. The local band then swaned in late, no back line with them because they couldn't be bothered to bring it and said they were using our kit. We always prided ourselves on being polite and friendly to bands we shared the stage with,  but took great pleasure informing this bunch they wouldn't be playing unless they went home and got their kit, because they sure as well weren't using ours. 

I had the opposite once and it was just as bad.  A mate had organised a gig in a basement room at a pub in London for his 50th and knowing lots about music but nothing about organising gigs had asked me to help out.  It ended up with four bands playing, two of which I was in, one playing guitar and one playing bass, with the third band being the bass player from my guitar band'a other group.  A fourth band that the birthday boy knew from work was going to open, this being their first ever gig.  So to save on a nightmare of gear changes we sort out a share with the drummer (in both of my bands) letting everybody play his kit, I bring the bass rig and a guitar amp for anybody to use, and another guitarist from one of the bands bringing his amp. Sorted, everybody just has to bring instruments and pedals.

We soundcheck, and once the first band has done it, it's fairly plain sailing for the sound man, just minor tweaks to his settings.  then the openers arrive, late, and insisting that they were only going to play their gear, drumkit and all, which all had to be lugged down stairs, set up in front of the rest of the gear, and they then spent half an hour arguing with the soundman that they couldn't turn down and definitely weren't too loud *they were way too loud* because that was "their sound".  One of those gigs where the soundman sits back, pops his earplugs in and says "your funeral". 

They weren't that bad a band, but nobody watched them apart from my mate, who wanted to show his support, because whenever anybody opened the door to check them out they got a wall of ear-splitting noise and went back upstairs to the pub

[Monkey Steve]

I also did one gig on the London circuit at one of the many venues where I'd turn up and expect to be DI'd.  Quite often the venues will have a couple of very basic, beaten to hell combos knocking about that you can use, and at some places that's the on stage monitoring.

We arrive and a band we didn't know was already soundchecking so we get a pint, then get called through as it's our turn.  There's a tiny bass amp on stage so I ask if it's the venue's or somebody else's, and get no reply. the soundman comes up, I ask for a DI and whether the amp is the venue's and he doesn't actually reply but plugs me into the amp from where he's already taking a line out.

We go into a song and someone from the first band appears and starts screaming at me.  So we all stop, and he's shouting that it's their amp (not his - he wasn't actually the bass player) and nobody had asked if we could use it.

We then had a somewhat awkward moment where he realises that he's overreacted a bit, so I'm apologising, told him I thought it was the house amp, not a problem and I totally see their point of view, I'll just DI, it's fine, and he's on the back foot telling me that no, it's OK, they don't mind if I use their amp, it's just that they wanted to be asked first, and stopping me from unplugging, insisting that I now use the amp.  When we finish soundchecking they then come up and put the amp back stage so that nobody else can use it without asking (there was at least one other band playing that night) and when we played I didn't bother using it as the amp was still backstage and I didn't want to get it without their express permission so I just DI'd.

But I bought their bass player a beer and it was all fine.  They even asked if we'd play with them at some gigs they had lined up.

[KevB]

A few yrs back I left a band (they wanted me out but I had had enough of them anyway) but I used to provide the power amp for the PA (very nice Crown unit bought from a BC member) but the guitarist used to bring it to gigs in his car so he still had it after I quit. I knew they  had a booking local to me coming up so I just said I'd get it off them then. Then I get a panic call asking if they could use it for a gig as they didnt have a replacement ready yet. Very reluctantly agreed but told them to look after it. Then days later i get the 'sorry its been damaged by a punter spilling beer on it , ruined mate' but then they had the cheek to refuse to pay what it had cost me only a couple of months earlier and actually insisted that I'd told them it was worth a value far less than what I was asking (despite the fact I could get written proof of what I'd paid for it from previous owner). I could have taken them to small claims court but was sick of the two tools that had refused to offer any money. The guitarist was so embarassed he scraped together what he could personally (I knew he was in a low paid job and had kids) and handed that over when i met him before the gig they had coming up local to me. It still left me £120 out of pocket. The guitarist left the band within a year of the whole fiasco. The other two shitehawks have carried on, for all I know the story was cobblers and they still have my power amp but I've never been arsed to investigate.

[Monkey Steve]

2 hours ago, KevB said:

A few yrs back I left a band (they wanted me out but I had had enough of them anyway) but I used to provide the power amp for the PA (very nice Crown unit bought from a BC member) but the guitarist used to bring it to gigs in his car so he still had it after I quit. I knew they  had a booking local to me coming up so I just said I'd get it off them then. Then I get a panic call asking if they could use it for a gig as they didnt have a replacement ready yet. Very reluctantly agreed but told them to look after it. Then days later i get the 'sorry its been damaged by a punter spilling beer on it , ruined mate' but then they had the cheek to refuse to pay what it had cost me only a couple of months earlier and actually insisted that I'd told them it was worth a value far less than what I was asking (despite the fact I could get written proof of what I'd paid for it from previous owner). I could have taken them to small claims court but was sick of the two tools that had refused to offer any money. The guitarist was so embarassed he scraped together what he could personally (I knew he was in a low paid job and had kids) and handed that over when i met him before the gig they had coming up local to me. It still left me £120 out of pocket. The guitarist left the band within a year of the whole fiasco. The other two shitehawks have carried on, for all I know the story was cobblers and they still have my power amp but I've never been arsed to investigate.

I almost had the same thing. Quit a band where I’d lent the guitarist an old Marshall combo (70’s 50w, grey fronted super lead II - lovely sounding amp that I used for years afterwards). It hadn’t actually cost me very much (from the days when old Marshall’s were two a penny, well, maybe £100 from my local junk shop I think). He didn’t have an amp of his own, and at that point was under the impression that the band was going g to continue (in fact I was the first resignation ahead of the rest of the band - we couldn’t sack the guitarist as he was the BL)

I see out the gigs we have booked and tell him that I’ll take the amp home with me after the last booking. On the night of the gig he produces a no name, no value bass that he’s had knocking about and suggested that either we could swap, or maybe I could let him borrow the amp for a bit longer and perhaps keep his bass as some sort of security.

er...no thanks mate. Got the amp into the back of the girlfriends car as soon as we packed down, leaving him looking sadly at the amp I the back seat as we drove off