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Back up bass, yes or no?


martthebass

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Since joining the current band about 8 years ago I’ve generally taken two basses to a gig, a heir and a spare. I don’t swap around for songs  and until recently it was always 2 Mustangs or 2 Sandberg Lionels.  I didn’t do this with my previous band but that was due to all gigs being local, with the current band only about a third of the gigs are within 30 mins, the majority being 1-1.5 hours distant.

Over the last few weeks due to bass set ups, selling and whatnot I’ve just taken a single bass and it got me thinking, in 8 years I’ve never needed the back up, broke a string etc, so I’m rethinking my practice. For the last few gigs I’ve just taken one bass, a spare set of strings and an emergency bass med kit.  Am I living on borrowed time, should I revert back to previous practice or is this practice more usual than not?

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Depends how seriously you take playing in a band.

 

Do you mind letting your band mates down, screwing up a gig, disappointing an audience, pissing off a promoter? I do, so I bring 2 of everything.

 

The last time I had a cab fail was in the 70's, the last time I had an amp fail was in the 90's and I've never had a bass fail, but I still bring 2 of everything.

Edited by chris_b
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Always took two basses on gigs (apart from very local ones)ready and set up on stage (in my view, a bass in a case in the boot of the car is no use in the middle of a wedding set when the guests are up and dancing). As it turns out I never had a bass fail but that’s  not the point. My house has never burned down but I’ve still got fabric and contents insurance. We were being paid to provide a service at special occasions so why take the risk of a failure spoiling the event.

 

With two basses on stage I did swap between them - one set on one, the next on the othe (just because I love them both so why not?). I might swap once during a set if one half of the set particularly suited one bass and the other one suited the other. Never got into that silly swapping between each tune.

IMG_3386.jpeg.3a17e7537d076ca0e781aa07ec49e5bb.jpegIMG_6470.jpeg.4cba8b7fdbab058cc12e183fd54eb1f8.jpeg

 

Edited by TrevorR
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41 minutes ago, Beedster said:

I always take a backup bass .....

 

image.thumb.png.bfc6b98600f5bcd952d48ed88e68e1a9.png

 

Me too but in my case it's my DB and my Yamaha SLB 200 EUB...you never know what might happen with a big fragile wooden box. I also have a spare DB pickup in my gig bag.

I'm a belt and suspenders/braces kind of guy.😁

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17 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Depends how seriously you take playing in a band.

 

Do you mind letting your band mates down, screwing up a gig, disappointing an audience, pissing off a promoter? I do, so I bring 2 of everything.

 

The last time I had a cab fail was in the 70's, the last time I had an amp fail was in the 90's and I've never had a bass fail, but I still bring 2 of everything.


This ^

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8 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Most parachutists have never needed a backup ‘chute….

 

I'm unlikely to die if my bass doesn't work...

 

...unless I really haven't read the small print for the next gig :D

 

 

 

Edited by ahpook
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18 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Depends how seriously you take playing in a band.

 

Do you mind letting your band mates down, screwing up a gig, disappointing an audience, pissing off a promoter? I do, so I bring 2 of everything.

 

The last time I had a cab fail was in the 70's, the last time I had an amp fail was in the 90's and I've never had a bass fail, but I still bring 2 of everything.

Your comment is appreciated but mitigation can be accomplished without overloading my poor Mini.  Never have let a venue down in hundreds of gigs other than illness which can’t be mitigated against. With one bass, I always take a passive, spare strings and tool kit. I take two cabs, use both, if one went down it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I only take one amp (there is a spare at home which would be used if one had to go in for repair) but take a DI/pre.

 

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Ever since I owned more than one bass, I've always taken a back up.....and have I had to use it.....YES!
(2x String snaps (at the same venue, a year apart.....), and total drop out (turned out to be a bad solder.....or rather someone had used Blu-Tack to attach the wires to the jack.....!)
As such, I will always keep one in reserve....
I also used to swap for Drop D, then got a Hipshot, then got used to tuning on the fly.....(still play in Drop D, and got the Hipshot fitted to the Epi, but it's now back up to The Birthday Bass (along with Silver Sparkle (Squier P))

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Most of my gigs currently I drive to so firing another bass in the boot makes very little difference to me so I do it. Especially wedding/function  gigs. If space or travel is an issue then I'm comfortable taking one bass but i do take doubles for evertyhing else, so if any other part of my signal breaks, I've got options. Including strap... I've had a strap fail. Back in the day though I played some pretty big gigs with one bass (and probably no spare strings), with zero issues.

 

The spare sits in its case though, I dont set it up on a stand on stage. If something goes wrong, I'm pretty comfortable that I could get the bass out and ready to play by the start of the next tune!

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I used to quite arrogantly just take one bass to the gig for many years but in the last few years I've taken two.  Then I got the bright idea of swapping basses at half time.  I don't give a monkeys if they're completely different basses - in a band mix, in a room full of pissed up punters, who cares which bass I use?

 

At my most recent gig I played a Sire Z7 in the first half and my Epiphone Les Paul in the second half.  Completely different basses.  Why?  Well, no-one's given me a credible reason why not, so I'm just going to continue to do my thing.

 

If I take two basses to a gig, I might as well use them!

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1 hour ago, martthebass said:

Your comment is appreciated but mitigation can be accomplished without overloading my poor Mini.  Never have let a venue down in hundreds of gigs other than illness which can’t be mitigated against. With one bass, I always take a passive, spare strings and tool kit. I take two cabs, use both, if one went down it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I only take one amp (there is a spare at home which would be used if one had to go in for repair) but take a DI/pre.

 


How much of a problem would it be to put another bass in the Mini?

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I take two identical basses. Possibly a different colour, but the same pickup in order to keep levels the same.

 

Whether anyone does is down to them and I wouldn't criticise them for not doing so. 

 

Generally never used the spare but did break a machine head in France in 1995.

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Yes, always, and have needed the spare once. 

The active bass I'd used in rehearsal two days before a festival gig decided to allow a solder joint to come apart on the battery connector.  Completely dead bass on stage with a few hundred people waiting...

Spare to the rescue - utter terror dissipated...

If I don't know the venue I take a 32" scale spare so I can use that if space is particularly tight.

 

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Only time I ever needed a backup was at a gig when I hadn’t taken one. It was a fault in the electrical parts. Fortunately the headliners lent me their spare, otherwise I would have been sat around like a spare. 
 

To make life easier I have a Mono M80 Dual which is only a bit bigger than the single, makes it a doddle to take 2 basses to gigs.

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1 hour ago, Beedster said:

 

How I used to have to get DB to gigs when I also took the wife kids in the back :) 

No spare possible back then.......

 

image.thumb.png.b797fa680cf3144aeb3dd4bceca69562.png 

 

 

Oh my! Surely the windchill will play havoc with the strings and the tuning by the time that you reach the venue?

 

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2 minutes ago, bass_dinger said:

 

Oh my! Surely the windchill will play havoc with the strings and the tuning by the time that you reach the venue?

 

Living in a very old stone farmhouse 25 miles east of Aberystwyth at the time, the Welsh weather f***ed every aspect of double bass tuning at the best of times 

 

And I would kill to live there still 👍

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