Weird gig situation tonight......

[Texas Noise Factory]

I had an interesting night tonight. Played a show this evening... We played second. We were told that we would be playing for 45 minutes. So about an hour plus into the set of the first band (?) the bass player for the first band breaks a string. He comes running up to me asking to borrow my bass. I tell him both of my basses are strung BEAD (not really bothering to tell him that even further, I'm tuned to C+ F+ B E... He turns around to find another person or a string or something.. I guess he didn't bring a backup. So the band keeps playing like 4 more songs without him. Whatever... then the singer does a little acapella number (Ice Cream Man) with just him and the guitar. So after he's done, and we're setting up, the singer while passing me stops and says something about ethics, and confronting me saying I told his bassplayer I wouldn't let him borrow my bass. I explained to the singer what the deal was with stringing/tuning and such, and told him that it wasn't my fault. It kinda weirded me out. Like I was being blamed for the reason they had to "cut it short." There were two bands playing after us, and the club closes at two. By then, we were pretty much going to be starting at 10:45 anyway as the second band. I'm the least likely guy to get offended, or be stupid about it and try to cause a fight... but the singer was just being an ass. even after I walked away from him... he made an offhand comment while passing my singer. What the hell? talk about causing drama! I'd have let the dude borrow my backup and let him tune it down to B and just play the top three strings, or if he was a great transposer, he'd have had no problems, but he took off and never asked me more or if he could still borrow it.... it was just weird..... So anyway, we like rocked and all and the show went well, but it was just irritating to have to go onstage like that... Hopefully we don't play with them again.... oh well.

[Benjamin]

Unintelligent Snobs

[Texas Noise Factory]

Originally posted by Benjamin Unintelligent Snobs

 

Right? And it's a full moon tonight too!

[Benjamin]

I meant the ones that didn't understand why it wasn't reasonable to simply lend him your bass... and then to go off at you for that...

 

*howls at the moon*

[fretless]

Tools of the trade folks don't blame the other band for your shortcomings that's just foolish. BTW I would have not let him use my bass or my backup either regardless of tuning. Ha ,4 songs to replace a string , it would help if you pulled your thumbs out of yer ass !

[Invader3K]

Yep...that's why you should always bring a back up bass.

[james on bass]

Originally posted by fretless Tools of the trade folks don't blame the other band for your shortcomings that's just foolish. BTW I would have not let him use my bass or my backup either regardless of tuning. Ha ,4 songs to replace a string , it would help if you pulled your thumbs out of yer ass !

 

+1. I don;t let other people play my gear as a gerneral rule - I'd let someone use my backup if he was totally in a jam, but not my MF.

[timmerz]

Yup!

I'm not fond of lending any of my pro equipment....my backup stuff maybe, if I know the person a bit.....

 

Chances are, even if you'd have let him borrow your bass, and he tuned it to normal tuning, he'd have bitched about it later and you'd still be the cause of a botched show, instead of him being to blame because he came unprepared....

 

I played a 1 1/2 hour gig over at Stanford Stadium yesterday before the game (Fanfest area, tailgate parties) and not only brought a backup bass, but two extra sets of strings, an extra cab, and an extra head.

 

Any gig is important enough not to want to look like an unprofessional boob....chances are that boy learned a hard lesson there....

[s4001]

Originally posted by Texas Noise Factory ...singer...singer...singer...singer...singer....

 

 

[Cortfan]

I might have handed him a new string, but he never would have gotten my backup. I have a '73 Musicmaster in dead mint original condition. He ain't touching my Cort, either.

[Weirdocat]

I've been approached at a gig by the drummer of another band asking to use my bass amp.

 

I said "I need to speak to the bassist of your band first before I say yes" (I like to meet whose using my equipment, plus I figured she should be asking me herself since she was using it)

 

He gives me a weird look and walks away...

 

Then he comes back 5 minutes later and says "so, can we use it"

 

and I'm like "... situation still hasn't changed... where's your bassist?" and he says "fine, you can't use our drumkit then".

 

Now... this has wound me up for a long time - wtf was his problem? Why didn't his bassist come over? And why wasn't he listening to what I was saying?! I wasn't saying "no, you can't use it", I was saying "I need to speak to your bassist because before I lend gear, I need to know to whom I am lending it".

 

Twat.

 

So I ended up taking him outside, and sorting the whole thing out.

 

And then he started insulting my drummer go figure. It's given me a real complex about lending gear..

[Benjamin]

On a positive note, we did a gig with a Syndey band, The Fragments, late last year. We had agreed to share bass and partial drum rig, as they were travelling light. This had been arranged weeks beforehand.

 

I was interested in hearing the bassplayers gear through my amp, and once they started it gave me a really good reference. The next thing that happened really made me happy, his 5 string Yamaha spat a string!

 

To keep momentum up, I grabbed my Epi and handed it to him on the fly. For the rest of the gig I got to hear my whole rig to the tune of their songs. It was an interesting experience to hear my own rig back at me, and actually helped me visualise my part of Anti-Social Commentary's sound.

 

He played her well, found most of the sounds quickly and commented later that he really enjoyed playing something different. He thought it covered most of the sounds he was seeking. It did throw him slightly to go from 5 to 4, but he never used the B string anyway!

[fastplant]

The saddest part about this is that, even though I've never met either band involved, I'm pretty confident that if the situation were reversed they wouldn't have let you borrow their gear.

 

One thing I've learned it that the majority of musicians out there are really weird. I've come to expect it.

[the hammer]

What you did was unforgivably wrong Texas!! You should always go out of your way to help a brother out. The only way to correct this is to immediately pack up all of your Gibson RD basses and send them to me. In return I will send a Hondo II bass with all the string missing. You should be ashamed, now get to packing those Gibbys.

 

Seriously this guy must be an amateur if he didn't have a backup or especially he didn't understand what BEAD tuning is. And personally I would have invited the guy who ragged you about it to drink a nice tall glass of shut the {censored} up unless he wanted a first class ticket to the ass kick rodeo.

[Texas Noise Factory]

Originally posted by the hammer What you did was unforgivably wrong Texas!! You should always go out of your way to help a brother out. The only way to correct this is to immediately pack up all of your Gibson RD basses and send them to me.

 

I think not... The Gibbies stay with me always.... They're my babies. ....that rock. Yes. Babies that rock.

 

Anyway,

 

It's funny though. I know since I tune differently than the norm, I bring a backup. Had the tables been turned, and my amp failed I just would have just plugged in through a DI box. I wouldn't have to worry about breaking a string since I always bring a backup bass to gigs...

[Perfessor]

 

Originally posted by james on bass +1. I don;t let other people play my gear as a gerneral rule - I'd let someone use my backup if he was totally in a jam, but not my MF.

 

 

Me neither. I have been asked to play at local jazz and blues joint where everyone who can play is welcome to after the first act. I haven't yet because of the sharing of instruments and a profusion of stands, mikes, amps, cymbals, cases and etc., in a pretty dark cramped spot. I'm gonna get a second and then do the gig. I haven't had a secong bass in years and generally don't but I just want some fun.

[bnyswonger]

It only takes a minute or two to slap a string on...he didn't have spare strings??

 

"ponders how many sets would have been terminated by mere string breakage. Breaks mental abacus..."

[Benjamin]

I had my one and only string break once at a covers gig. Middle of Summer, in the middle of the last set. I quickly jumped onto my fretless BEAD, and somehow didn't confuse myself (semi-tipsy haze), whilst a guitar toting friend changed the string. By the time next song came around we were all back to normal.

 

That and a fuse blowing more than once in my Trace head are the only failures (touches wood) I have had. Turns out I wasn't running master wide open, and clipping it

[Bluescout]

I'm fairly new to bass but I always bring at least 2 basses, most every cord I have, 2 amps (if I have an extra) 2 speaker cabs... Pretty much 2 whole setups. I'm deathly afraid of having something fail and if it did, it's mine to deal with.

[4string]

I would of told him it doesn't matter anyways , no one can hear your playing.

[Texas Noise Factory]

Originally posted by 4string I would of told him it doesn't matter anyways , no one can hear your playing.

 

Wow. were you there? That's the funny thing... He really wasn't missed much after he broke the string. The Rhythm guitarist just filled in for his parts on the guitar... I really couldn't have noticed he was missing if I had my eyes shut. I guess they were relying on the other bands for a backup as they had not planned for it, and nobody had asked the other bands (us) ahead of time.