On the job equipment theft

[Telecruiser]

Being more specific; microphone theft. I have talked to a couple of people in the last few years that have had mics stolen while they were on break. These were club gigging players. I have noticed one group remove the mics from the stands while on break. I have also heard of guitars dissappearing from the stage while on break also. I have often wondered about this when in clubs that a door to the back (parking lot etc.) is on the right or left side of the stage.

 

As I will start gigging out and have Neuman KMS 105 mics I am a bit concerned about this. Any of you ever had any problems? What do you do to prevent theft?

[JoeDirt]

Duct tape?

[jwlussow]

We always have someone by the stage. We would never leave the gear completely unattended. I believe a little common sense is a good solution to this problem.

[RoadRanger]

As I will start gigging out and have Neuman KMS 105 mics I am a bit concerned about this. Any of you ever had any problems? What do you do to prevent theft?

As you can afford to gig with $700 microphones I'd just have your limo driver or one of your bodyguards watch the stage while you're on break .

 

Actually in the bad ol' days we had a Beyer M-500 handheld ribbon for the lead singer. In today's dollars that was somewhere north of them 105's. The rest of the mics were mostly $59 radshacks (SM58 copies ?).

[Craig Vecchione]

Watch your gear. Period. There is no 'mechanical' method that will secure equipment from someone looking to walk off with something.

 

If you're alone, take a loo break during a song...I've never heard of gear being stolen during a performance, but of course it's certainly possible. If you have help, make sure someone has an eye on the gear at all times.

[Axisplayer]

We just a benefit for Haiti here. We had two stages and 22 bands playing for twelve hours. I did one of the stages that had 10 bands with over 75 musicians playing in those bands. I will say first that it was great day for Haiti because we raised over $10K for them. I should also say that the day was very long since I was there over 18 hours for setup/performances/load out. Everyone worked hard for charity.

 

At the end of the day the production teams compared notes and here are the cumulative totals:

 

2 broken light stands

1 broken rim mount mic clip for snare (muso offered to pay and I declined)

1 broken D6 (the capsule rattles inside the mic housing...mine)

2 stolen guitar stands (furnished by the music store sponsor)

1 stolen SM57 (mine also)

 

Both the store owner and I were amazed. Breakage happens, its just part of the business. Things wear out and die. We were both shocked that after we worked all day for charity that bands who were part of the event would actually steal from us. It is my first theft loss as a business so I count myself lucky. I would have expected this from an unknown band in a bar, but not from large bands playing for charity. I still hold out hope that someone will come forward and say they packed it up by mistake and return it, but not MUCH hope for that.

 

The music store owner was great about this because I agreed to do the gig for his store as the sponsor. He replaced my SM57 and offered to send my D6 back to Audix for repair at his expense. The light stands were not mine. The drum mount is an expendable as we all know they break eventually from an errant hit and I accept that risk when I agree to do the show, and usually factor that into cost, but this was a freebie. I wasn't going to charge a drummer who also volunteered his time for free, but offered to pay for it. That was my additional contribution. I cannot get over the thefts though.

 

I am a big boy and know theft happens. I also am well off enough to suffer the losses at my expense without any issue (my day gig pays well.) I just cannot believe that people would steal at a charity event where we all came together to help Haiti (and someone came to help himself....)

[Vinny D]

Been very lucky so far as to not have any gear vanish.

While playing and as being a sound provider I very very rarely leave the stage area un-attended.

 

I am also not a fan of having drunk dancing girls come up on stage while the band is playing, more stuff gets damaged or broken during this then anything else that goes on in the club circuit.

[Dogoth]

Know a guy who had a Graphic EQ stolen MID SHOW. It was a street festival sort of arrangment and when he went to bring up a previously unused mix - no sound - upon investigation, the graph was gone and the rack screws of another were loose. Crowded street with lots of people around. Man talk about some brass ones....

[srp72ee]

I've had a one extension cord, 2 mic cables, 2 instrument cables and 2 di's stolen over the last 10 years. Not too bad considering...

[Craig Vecchione]

 

We were both shocked that after we worked all day for charity that bands who were part of the event would actually steal from us.

 

 

 

It's my unfortunate experience that "charity" events are where one must really be on their guard.

 

I see very little theft in the hole in the wall places. I think it's an "honor among thieves" thing maybe...poor folk generally respect each others trade tools and look out for one another.

[kmart]

 

I still hold out hope that someone will come forward and say they packed it up by mistake and return it, but not MUCH hope for that.

 

 

Chances are even that if someone grabbed it by mistake they will still not return it IF they realize later on they accidentally took it. I'd assume your gear is all well marked, but unless your stands are clearly unique/different than every other guitar stand on the planet, if someone's moving on/off a festival stage in a hurry (multi-band gig), it's real easy for them to get mixed in with someone else's stuff, packed in the van and then taken to the rehearsal space, and then next week (or next month) when they finally come back to practice..."Oh, wow, who grabbed this?" "I don't know, did you?", etc.

 

It would be extremely rare that someone would decide to follow-up and track down who it belonged to and/or getting it back to them.

 

Unfortunately, a cost of doing business...

 

Look on the bright side: Not that I'm made of money, but if I had to choose to eventually have something turn up missing, I'd rather it along the lines of a guitar stand than, for example, a guitar.

 

 

When I play out, I make sure to remind everyone that band gear should always be watched, from vehicle at arrival to load-in to time in the venue to pack up to load-out. Since I know human nature means one of my bandmates will eventually be lax, and I can only change myself, I pay extra attention to everything as I'm able, and especially double-check my own gear: knock wood I'm at 20+ years of not losing a single item of my own. But I had to learn that vigilance the hard way with someone else's gear I was entrusted with, unfortunately.

[soul-x]

As others have said, you just have to keep an eye on things.

 

You'll find the bulk of your time/money will be more likely spent servicing stuff that gets damaged. Accidents happen; I understand that. But it seems there are countless people who only know how to properly treat an item if they are the ones who paid for it.

 

Oh and to bring the rant back on point: I did recently have to confront a "musician" who "accidentally" put one of my 58s in his pocket.

[The Real MC]

The stuff that disappears is usually anything that one person can carry or stuff in a pocket.

 

Things like DIs I will secure to an object that can't be put in a pocket. For example Radial makes a rackmount for their DIs - I'll stuff 'em in there. Pretty safe there.

 

Hard to secure mics though. About the only thing you can do is superglue them to the clips.

 

Only thing I ever had come up missing is a mic cable (knock on wood)

[Shaster]

Further to Craigv's post, I've had more stuff disappear at classy joints, than at dives. As a guitar player I've had a few pedals go missing during a break.

 

And regarding other musicians's stealing, I agree that sometimes it's a case of not wanting to chase down where that "extra stuff" came from, as kmart stated.

 

About ten years ago, I was playing at the Merritt Mountain Music Fest. We weren't on the "Dwight Yoakam" stage, but there were still some recording acts on our "B" stage.

 

After our show, we packed up in a hurry, hung out in the communal dressing room for a bit and then needed to leave.

 

Somewhere in the shuffle I "lost" about $600.00 worth of pedals (including a 1983 Tube Screamer). Never could track them down.

 

Since then, I just keep the good (or at least irreplaceable) stuff for the studio or at home.

[Toto99]

Get a wireless guitar or a headset mic and go for a piss while you're still performing!

 

I had a Shure Beta 57 stolen from my bag to the side of the stage while we were setting up in 2006. That's the most vulnerable time, when 2 bands are changing over. You've got roadies and band members walking all over the place who are too busy to keep watch so anyone from the crowd can slip in between to pick something up and pretend they're with the other band. There's often very little space to put all the equipment, especially if there's more than 2 bands. The best thing to do is have your best friend / girlfriend stay with the stuff while you set up / have a break.

 

If you don't mind keeping the mics permanently gaffa taped onto their mic clips, that might be worth doing. An opportunist isn't going to attempt to steal gaffa-taped mics; he can't be in and out quick enough for no-one to notice.

 

This is why we always prefer to play the gigs where there's a strict backstage pass area only, which is watched by a doorman.

[doug_h]

In 20 years of playing in bands, original and cover acts, we have never had anything stolen. Things do get broken from time to time.

 

I did have to follow a drunk woman out to the parking lot and retrieve our tambourine one night. That was the closest we ever got to losing anything.

[monkeyland]

i had an audix D6 dissapear a while back. i set out all of my drum mics on stage just before show time and all of the bands(metal show) had triggers. i should have put the mic away right then but got distracted. after the show it was gone. i was not getting paid enough that night to pay for the mic

 

the stand was gone also.

[shrubber]

How's this one?

 

"Back in the day" (1985) I won the best bassist trophy at a Battle Of The Bands competition. Standing on the stage afterwards, put my trophy down and turned around for the rest of the awards................TROPHY STOLEN!!!

 

I managed, after many years, to find out who it was (I didn't lay a charge at the time), a bassist from one of the competing bands who thought that he would "cakewalk" the award (he had just come off a pro tour, I was very much semi-pro/local gigging at the time)...........

 

I heard later that the trophy was on display at his house!

 

I'm getting rather irate thinking about it now................grrrrrrrr!!!!!

[chevybusa]

Another +1 for having a set of eyes on the gear AT ALL TIMES. Whatever band I was in I always made that imperative, and I never had anything of mine or any other bandmember's stolen.

 

Some of the guys I played with thought I was just way too paranoid and would laugh at me or whatever and would leave me to be the only one that had eyes on. And sure enough some of those very same guys had a bunch of stuff stolen from them at a gig a while after I had stopped playing with them!

[jkm]

after load out one night i returned to do an idiot check

i also left the truck running to warm up since it was very cold

and in the middle of nowhere when i got back to the truck

a dude was trying to jam it in gear all drunk and lost i guess

i pulled him out and went on my way...

i was not to concerened about warming it up

as the other band members were

all parked next to the truck

 

guess i was the idiot on that one.

[Craig Vecchione]

How's this one? "Back in the day" (1985) I won the best bassist trophy at a Battle Of The Bands competition. Standing on the stage afterwards, put my trophy down and turned around for the rest of the awards................TROPHY STOLEN!!! I managed, after many years, to find out who it was (I didn't lay a charge at the time), a bassist from one of the competing bands who thought that he would "cakewalk" the award (he had just come off a pro tour, I was very much semi-pro/local gigging at the time)........... I heard later that the trophy was on display at his house! I'm getting rather irate thinking about it now................grrrrrrrr!!!!!

 

What IS it with battles of the bands? I was in one a couple of years ago and when the winner was announced, some guy charged the stage, grabbed the mic from the MC, shouted profanities at the MC and the crowd, and threw a round-base mic stand across the stage.

 

The "prize" was a show at the same venue for the winners.

 

My singer confronted the asshole, and they nearly had a fistfight. I was eyeing a counterweight in the rigging as a good weapon if it came to blows. The asshole's bandmates sided against him though, the cops were called, and it eventually subsided to shouted insults from his exiing car.

[Jerry007]

 

I am also not a fan of having drunk dancing girls come up on stage while the band is playing, more stuff gets damaged or broken during this then anything else that goes on in the club circuit.

 

 

+1

 

Drunk girl knocked over the mic stand, monitor, guitar cab, and spilled beer all over my pedalboard... No permanent damage, thankfully.

[Axisplayer]

I was in one a couple of years ago and when the winner was announced, some guy charged the stage, grabbed the mic from the MC, shouted profanities at the MC and the crowd, and threw a round-base mic stand across the stage.

 

Sounds like Kanye at the VMA show. Some things just don't change.

[Craig Vecchione]

Sounds like Kanye at the VMA show. Some things just don't change.

 

Yep. When my singer got involved (he was a personal friend of the female MC who was accosted) the asshole started jawing about the fact that my band was a covers band, vs his "originals" screamo band. Dude had a lot of energy invested in "making it", I guess.

[piersonm]

Keep an eye on things, always prepare to have something taken (IE, all cases together, nothing out of place, clean and tidy so you can tell when someone has started to snoop) and don't play out with a $700 mic! lol