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Drop the bass...


iamtheelvy

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9 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said:

However, I've had the "falling off the strap" thing a couple of times...

In the past, a couple of duff straps have been cause for some premature white hairs...

The worst occasion - at least psychologically - was my Thunderbird. I hadn't even owned the thing that long; bought it second hand but it was in immaculate condition. The band had been in the studio for about 12 hours (engineer being slightly anally retentive when it came to mic placements, etc), and so I was already pretty exhausted by the time we had the "keeper" from the various drum takes and were ready to record the bassline. Said engineer had tried me through various different amps, and wasn't satisfied until I was plugged into a very powerful H&K valve amp running into a 6x10 fridge, running at a level which made my internal organs vibrate uncomfortably. We were finally ready to go for a take, and as I sleepily took my hands off the bass to adjust my headphones...

...the strap slipped, and the bass bounced across the studio floor.

My first coherent thought, in between blind panic and assorted obscenities, was the notorious reputation of Gibson headstocks. This was the most expensive instrument I'd ever owned up to this point, and the thought that it could have been rendered unusable by a duff strap pin was impossible to dispel. I must have stared at the end of the neck for a good few seconds as I reassured myself that actually, the head was still attached and undamaged. There are two big dents on the body, but I'll live with those. (The bass has sported a locking strap ever since.)

 

The other strap was the shoulder strap on a gig bag. I had a Vintage SG copy inside said bag, and as I got off the Tube one morning, the strap gave up the ghost completely, and the guitar belly-flopped onto the concrete platform. One knackered pickup selector, big dents taken out of the volume knobs, and a broken top E...I guess it could have been a lot worse.

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Our old singer had a habit of running up mid song and taking my hat off me..... annoying but she thought it was funny, until one gig I’d turned around and was facing the drummer and she tried it as I turned back around... not quite a black eye by the end of the gig but close. Thankfully my bass was ok. 😂😂

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My first disaster was 30 odd years ago with a guitar, after seeing Steve Vai throw his guitar round his head in a video i thought i'd try it. The strap cam off mid fling and it hit the dresser and snapped the head-stock off!! it was 3 days from new! I fixed it though. More recently i packed my new Ibanez in my soft case back pack  but zipped it down to the bottom.....it opened over gravel, lots of gravel marks on the back body but luckily nothing on the neck or more serious damage, i now zip it up the way.

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On 26/11/2018 at 18:03, Reggaebass said:

Not me ,but my EX-girlfriend spilt a glass of red wine Down the front of my new fender p ,while it was on the stand 😭

Corrected

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On 26/11/2018 at 21:37, Bassassin said:

Not a bass - my first-ever 6-string guitar was a quite decent Columbus SG copy which I had in 1980. Aside from a bolt-neck & fake humbuckers, it was a pretty reasonable facsimile of the original, down to having a very slender, volute-free neck/headstock junction.

Can't quite remember how it happened but it probably involved the enthusiastic execution of inept powerchords, playing along with Motorhead or somesuch, and a surprise meeting of Columbus headstock and bedroom wall. I do remember a sudden loss of string tension and very rapid de-tuning.

And then the "plop" as the newly-liberated headstock hit the floor.

I lacked the skills to correctly repair my newly decapitated guitar - but I didn't lack imagination:

chopsg01.thumb.jpg.7a8f3dde11c2fb76682a71bbffeb9be5.jpg

I've still got it now. :D

Please tell me that you've not had that out in public :lol:

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2 hours ago, Leen2112 said:

My first disaster was 30 odd years ago with a guitar, after seeing Steve Vai throw his guitar round his head in a video i thought i'd try it. The strap cam off mid fling and it hit the dresser and snapped the head-stock off!! it was 3 days from new! I fixed it though. More recently i packed my new Ibanez in my soft case back pack  but zipped it down to the bottom.....it opened over gravel, lots of gravel marks on the back body but luckily nothing on the neck or more serious damage, i now zip it up the way.

 

Remind me never to lend you my bass :D

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2 hours ago, MoJo said:

Please tell me that you've not had that out in public :lol:

Fortunately (for the future of the species), I'm a bassist not a guitarist, so there's little chance of that! :D

However - it's been in the studio and was used on an album a band I was in made a while back. Because it has single-coil mockbuckers wired directly to the output, it's very, very bright-sounding, and contributed some very brittle, shrill-sounding harmonics that the guitarist couldn't coax out of a Strat or a Tele.

Since then though, it's just sat in the corner, looking funny...

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