Stylon Pilson Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 I've never needed to use a backup amp. I know, it's not a very interesting story, but I figured that if I didn't post it then people reading this thread might think that everyone's had an amp fail on them at some time or another. S.P. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barkin Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 Once, in the '80's, my Acoustic head went up in smoke. Literally. No spare. I've carried a backup ever since, and never needed it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkydoug Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 (edited) A few times, years ago. 1. An ancient amp died a long slow death due to old age and lack of any TLC from me. I was about 22yr old and had much better things to do than amp maintenence! 2. Early ashdown mag amps were notoriously unreliable, unfortunately I had one. It failed quite a few times before they replaced it. Newer ones are great. Each time the bass went via DI into the pa, it was fine. Now I take more care of my stuff, and always have a decent DI available as my backup plan. I think bass players are much more risk averse than guitarists (to the extent one can generalise). Its a personality trait that makes us obsess about HPFs and frequency analysis... FWIW, My day job leads me to work with power system engineers, where keeping the lights on is pretty important and where risk aversion is a necessity. They use a phrase that I've found myself using, 'n minus one' when thinking about gigs. What they mean is you should be prepared to be able to cope if any single one of your bits of gear goes down (that's the minus one bit, n being the number of 'bits of kit' you use). So, the idea is to plan to be able to survive a gig if any one item you have fails. If you have multiple failures on one gig, it's either not your fault or it is so vanishingly unlikely no one reasonably expects you to have prepared for that. Edited November 19, 2018 by funkydoug 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrenochrome Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 About 4 times in 19 years of fairly regular gigging on bass. I used to carry a Crate Powerblock to all electric gigs as a spare, until that got nicked, now it's an Ashdown Superfly. I don't bother for acoustic gigs as the PA and monitors could carry my bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOSCOWBASS Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 Twice in 45 years. One amp fault, one speaker fault. MB200 to the rescue on the amp fail and PA for the speaker fail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japhet Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 I've never needed to use mine but we did have our PA Mixer pack up on a gig once and we put the vocals through my back up (Streamliner 600), and it sounded surprisingly good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 In almost 40 years of gigging (around 1000 gigs) I have had catastrophic equipment failures on just 3 occasions. I've probably had another 10 instances where equipment has played up at the gig but behaved perfectly fine once back at home and at the next rehearsal or gig. IME the vast majority of equipment failures I see at gigs for is for old gear that has been inadequately maintained/looked after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 Twice in the last 12 years or so since I started playing regular gigs. My valve head started to suffer from distorted sounds due to the upside-down power valves starting to fall our of their sockets. Experience of valve tech meant I had a backup Markbass head, so I used that instead. Amp tech fixed the problem by putting some Marshall-pattern retaining springs on it, but I went over to using the Markbass instead. Second time, speaker in my Tecamp combo developed a fault. No big deal either since the main sound was front-of-house anyway and the combo was just a monitor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shutterbug Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 In 50 years of playing/gigging I've only needed a backup twice...eacvh this past summer. Turned out my amp had been dropped by the courier (unknown to me at the time) and the heat dissipating fan wasn't working. VERY hot July outdoor gig under cover thankfully but towards the end of the first set, it died. Ended the set and turned it off. 20 min break and started second set...10 mins to go and it died again. Had to end the gig then and there as I had no back-up. Second time was a week later, cool evening gig, BUT this time I had my Marshall rack amp just in case...yup, 3 songs into the hour long set and my main amp died. Finished the gig on my Marshall. Sent the amp back to the shop for repairs as I'd only had it 6 weeks. Got it back and fingers crossed it's been fine since. Now I can feel the cooling air being blown thru it. Will invest in a Markbass Little Mark III as a back up tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted November 19, 2018 Share Posted November 19, 2018 Once, sort of...does running an very cheap amp far too hard for far too long count as 'failure' or 'wilful destruction' ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inthedoghouse Posted November 20, 2018 Share Posted November 20, 2018 Only once, and I had a spare. I always thought it worth the trouble of carrying a spare just in case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnDave Posted November 20, 2018 Share Posted November 20, 2018 I've had a bass and an amp fail on the same gig - at different times and for different reasons. The amp was brand new and failed during the first number, the fell off its stand and had a string almost severed by a cymbal. As I had a spare and a spare bass in the car, neither of these made any difference to my ability to complete the gig. This wasn't back in the dark ages, it happened in 2017! So now, I always take a spare bass, spare amp, and sometimes a spare cab - just in case! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliasMooseblaster Posted November 21, 2018 Share Posted November 21, 2018 If memory serves, I've only had an amp fail on me once in a gig setting. Thankfully it started playing up during the soundcheck, which I guess is the best time to discover a fault if there's going to be one! To be fair, the old horse had been schlepped across London on various forms of public transport over the years and so I'm amazed it lasted as long as it did without suffering more serious damage. Eventually it enjoyed a new lease of life when I disconnected the faulty head and connected the speaker to a separate amp. But since I stopped being such a cheapskate and bought myself a nicer cab, this one's been gathering dust. (Any electricians fancy restoring an old Laney SS combo? I think one of the output transistors has gone, but I don't think I trust myself to make the repair!) Ironically, after worrying about the general perception of "SS = sturdy and reliable" and "valve = potentially fragile", I've yet to have any problems with either of my valve heads. But then, there's no chance of me trying to move a CTM-100 and 2x12 cab on the Tube, which has probably helped... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted November 22, 2018 Share Posted November 22, 2018 Not wise to answer this for fear of tempting fate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stylon Pilson Posted November 22, 2018 Share Posted November 22, 2018 12 minutes ago, Dan Dare said: Not wise to answer this for fear of tempting fate. I feel like there's a small part of me that actually wants my main amp to fail, to justify the expense and additional load weight of having a backup. S.P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted November 24, 2018 Share Posted November 24, 2018 I never carry a spare. I've had one total failure in 33 years of frequent gigging. That was when one of the braided cables to the speaker coil failed through metal fatigue - on my 1x15 Peavey Databass combo. Any other time I've managed to limp through Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rushbo Posted November 24, 2018 Share Posted November 24, 2018 Fortunately, I've never had an amp go bang at a gig, but my elderly and up to then. bombproof Peavey TNT combo, inexplicably packed up at a rehearsal a few years ago. I've always got some kind of DI with me, in the form of Behringer BDI 21 pedal, my Zoom B3 or the DI on the combo, so I'm confident I'd be able to finish a gig if disaster struck. I'd be a little nervous without a backup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny-79 Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 Like a few replies I’ve only ever needed a back up once and not had one. Carried a spare around for years and never needed it. DI into the pa is my today back up amp as per usual unless it’s a special gig then go fully prepared. Have also on a few occasions loaned my spare to another band/bass player on the night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 Twice in the ten or so years I have been back gigging. First time, total failure of an early Yamaha class D job, ended up playing quietly through a Peavey guitar amp to get through the set. Second time, just a week ago, was on a small tour and the IEC from my main amp got cleared up, probably by the PA guys. Problem is, it is a Fender Pro 800, with an unusual, high power IEC, not the standard. Didn't have a spare IEC but did have my Carvin as a back up (oh, and then went and bought a Genzler so had a back up to the back up - my excuse and I'm sticking to it) 😎 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_c2 Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 On 18/11/2018 at 13:02, paul_c2 said: 4 times and counting, in the past couple of years. The 5th time an amp blew up on me was at home, so I've had 5 failures in recent times. I think its all the travelling in cars which does it, I do about 3-4 rehearsals per week and the amp(s) inevitably are jiggled around during transport, I'm loathe to put them onto a car seat (will probably damage the seat) and if they're not, even if they're secured, then they're on the floor or the boot floor where the vibrations are transmitted through. Just blown up #6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Bolton Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 The only time my amp has failed on me was when I didn't have a backup; thankfully it was towards the end of a set and there wasn't anyone there to bear witness other than the sound guy, who seemed to have never done a hardcore band before so the sound was stinky poo to begin with. It was a horrible gig. I booked the amp in to a tech to be looked at as it was a couple of weeks before we went on a short tour, got it back the weekend before and was told it was fixed, only for it to happen again at practice the night before the first of our run of gigs. Had to spend the next few days borrowing from other bands, using house amps or DIing straight into the desk. When I went back to collect my amp for the second time, the guy told me it was due to one of the capacitors that had failed, and showed me the swollen cap in a "this is very obvious" kind of way. I asked how he managed to miss it the first time round given it looked fit to burst but he had no answer for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 (edited) My backup head came in useful when the power amp for the monitors packed up. Edited December 13, 2018 by Dan Dare Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 12 hours ago, paul_c2 said: Just blown up #6 That is not usual. Are you buying used bargains on their last legs, or driving them to death? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 In my 30+ years of serious gigging, there have been 2 occasions when I could have done with a backup amp. 1993ish, my old Laney 4x10 combo blew a speaker. Spent the rest of the gig sounding like an elderly flatulent rhino. Last year, my Shuttle 6 developed an intermittent cutting-out fault. Turned out that the preamp valve had worked its way partially out of the socket. Re-seated the valve, done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 Never. I've been playing 30 years+ and gigging regularly for about the last 20 and i've never had an amp die. I've had them making farting noises and clearly not quite right, but i've managed to get thru the gig well enough and got them repaired. I do have a little DI box so i really should take it with me to gigs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.