fretmeister Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 The first error was lending gear. The second was actually leaving the venue without it. Who does that? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin_lindsay Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 (edited) I've loaned out basses to friends in big bands, with no problems (Jamiroquai, Aswad, Rod Stewart, etc, etc). Nice guys, who were appreciative of the help, and who looked after the instruments. Sometimes, however, the user can be a bit "amiss" in their care of the borrowed bass. I loaned a bass to a player in a BIG group (probably as big as it's possible to get), and the bass arrived back home with dents on the back of the neck, and the nitrocellulose lacquer chipped off in a few places. Looked like it had been clumsily rested against the edge of a table top or similar on more than one occasion. I had to steam the wood dents out, and then re-finish the rear of the neck. Oh well, one of those things I guess. It's no fun when your well looked after equipment takes a beating from someone else, huh? Edited July 27, 2019 by kevin_lindsay 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 4 hours ago, fretmeister said: The first error was lending gear. The second was actually leaving the venue without it. Who does that? People who have faith in the fundamental trustworthiness of humanity, despite six decades of experience to the contrary. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steantval Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 A bit like lending a guitar to Pete Townsend for a Who tour in the 1960’s and expecting to get in back in one piece. 😀 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin_lindsay Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 Not Macca. I'm not gonna say on here who the bass basher was, as he's a great player, and it was obviously an accident (still, it would have been nice for me to have been advised of what to expect when I opened the gig bag! Hahaha). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 Just spoke to the venue. Bassist said he'd folded it up and put it under the drum riser. It's not there now. Now to try and extract £50 from him to replace the cover... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin_lindsay Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 That's no fun matey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steantval Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 2 minutes ago, tauzero said: Just spoke to the venue. Bassist said he'd folded it up and put it under the drum riser. It's not there now. Now to try and extract £50 from him to replace the cover... The sheriffs are coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 (edited) - Edited March 3, 2022 by Jus Lukin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 All of the above points to the folly of lending people gear. In the end, who cares if they're thought to be mean? If the choice is between that and spending money on repair/replacement, not me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 48 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said: Have you booted it up yet to make sure it’s not farting? Wasn't worried about that, I saw them soundchecking. Venue is full PA, and his head was a Fender Rumble 500 with a touch of overdrive at nowhere near full whack. Still, I'll find out for sure at a rehearsal tomorrow. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SH73 Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 I have once lent a Peavey BW 300 bass combo to a band I used to be in. Since then it was never the same. It sounds distorted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazzbass Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 (edited) My drummer's other band was opening for us. Their bassist didn't own an amp as he is a guitarer normally. I opined that our drummer doesn't suffer fools and if he is in a band with this guy, that's good enough for me.I let him use my brand new Elf amp with Elf 10" cab. Not only was the band awesome, they were super friendly and we had a great time. We have a fellow originals only band to share gigs with. And I made another friend who was so grateful for my generosity. Edited July 28, 2019 by bazzbass 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 I did P.A. hire for a number of years, which could include backline if necessary. I mostly found people were respectful of the gear, even when the band members were spotty yoofs with - shall we say - more enthusiasm than talent. It may have helped that I always ran the desk myself and invariably made the point upfront that abuse of the equipment would not go down well. As for lending gear to somebody for use sight unseen, I'd have needed to know them personally and watched them play with their own or somebody else's gear before I'd even consider it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Combed20 Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 On 27/07/2019 at 07:46, uk_lefty said: I'll lend out my rig but only to people I know OR if the person running the sound is the guitarist from my band. Though a punk band did decide to max the input volume on my Ashdown head at a festival last year and it was permanently in the red, I wasn't too happy about that but you can't really go up mid set and ask them to be flipping sensible with the gear can you? Was paranoid about the amp for the rest of the night, hadn't had much sleep and during our "headline" set when the smoke machine went off I had kittens!! I beg to differ. When a bassist did that to my amp, I just got on stage and lowered it. It was that or just or I turned it off. My head is far more valuable to me than their set time. In interest if full disclosure, I had agreed in adv to him using my rig via their drummer, but when he didn't introduce himself or thank me during sound check for the kit share, alarm bells started ringing.I find the ill mannered ones are usually the ones to abuse someone else's kit. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamdenRob Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 (edited) In the musical world I live in (London venue, promoter organised, multi band original nights, with more people on stage than in the audience), I have the opposite problem in that I rarely get to use my own gear... “Why do you want to use yours? There is a perfectly serviceable knackered, ancient, ashdown, heap of farty s*it over there all the bass players use. It’s great, it makes all basses played through it sound like an indistinguishable woolly mush 👍 Anyway If you don’t like that kind of sound it doesn’t really matter as its so pitifully underpowered you won’t be audible anyway”... 😐 Im often left with the choice of lending everyone on the gig my rig or sounding s*it. Edited July 28, 2019 by CamdenRob 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk_lefty Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Combed20 said: I beg to differ. When a bassist did that to my amp, I just got on stage and lowered it. It was that or just or I turned it off. My head is far more valuable to me than their set time. In interest if full disclosure, I had agreed in adv to him using my rig via their drummer, but when he didn't introduce himself or thank me during sound check for the kit share, alarm bells started ringing.I find the ill mannered ones are usually the ones to abuse someone else's kit. Yeah you are right, in thinking about it my mate doing the sound can't be checking everything all the time. I should have at least left a big note on it saying not to raise input volume over half or not to let the vu go in to the red. Or gone over and shouted at him to turn down the input volume or get strangled with his bass strings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 On meeting folks from bands etc I always assume everyone else is an idiot and adjust my appraisal from there on. If an 'idiot' asks to borrow kit at a gig I've got to also assume said idiot didn't have the capacity to organise himself/his gear or cares so little that they think someone will sort stinky poo out for them in which case either way the answer is NO. As a young man I did a gig supporting a band who were over from Sweden. Bassist hadn't brought his bass and manager asked if he could use mine; I agreed and I watched in horror as at the end of the gig he took his frustration at not getting the adulation they expected by throwing my bass to the floor. I ended up punching him out and a ruck ensued between bands... it's only Rock N Roll. Feel sorry for the OP, hope all is sorted and a lesson for all. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 I don't think it is necessarily a respect thing, some people have different ideas of how things should be treated. I remember a guy whos speaker I was going through going mental because I had used distortion on a bass VI through his fender cab (at way below its rated level), which would apparently destroy it, because it was designed for a clean guitar sound. It wouldn't do any damage to it at all, but it was his cab, he had the right to it being treated how he wanted. I would have no problem lending people my amp or cabs (maybe not the CTM), as they can't damage each other, but I don't think I would lend someone my bass, their idea of how it should be treated may be different from mine. I certainly wouldn't lend someone any of my main basses for some event when I wasn't in the same place watching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NikNik Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Did it once, a long time ago, again to the main act. My new bass. I had to hang about until they finished to get it back. They took it to their dressing room, which I wasn't allowed to access. They left the bass in there. It had scratches and one pot spun was twisted out of position. First and last time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham56 Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 One advantage of being a lefty - only a lefty can borrow my bass, and as we all know, we leftys are sensible, pleasant, organised people who are a joy to help... 😆 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steantval Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 3 minutes ago, Graham56 said: One advantage of being a lefty - only a lefty can borrow my bass, and as we all know, we leftys are sensible, pleasant, organised people who are a joy to help... 😆 OK for Jeremy Corbyn to borrow it for his next appearance at Glastonbury. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted August 2, 2019 Author Share Posted August 2, 2019 I took a detour on my home tonight and dropped in on the Robin. They had another hunt for the cover, and this time, possibly helped by my description, they found it. So all's well that ends well, sort of. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikon F Posted August 3, 2019 Share Posted August 3, 2019 I love a happy ending ,,,sort of Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SICbass Posted August 3, 2019 Share Posted August 3, 2019 Glad to hear you got it back 👍 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.