A Fun Thread--worst gear failure on a gig?

[pauldogx]

OK folks--we need a fun thread for some good lunch hour reading:
Whats's your worst gear failure on a gig? Mines a toss up between my F***** Bassman going on fire at the biggest opening gig of my life, having my backup guitar and amp destroyed in a full on Roadhouse style barfight(the state police finally cleared the place out) or the gig where I had the sound guy hit me with monitor feedback so many times my ears were ringing and I snapped the headstock off my guitar and left it in the monitor after I jammed the guitar headstock first into the monitor. I'm a much calmer guy now..........really

 

[phatduckk]

OK folks--we need a fun thread for some good lunch hour reading:
Whats's your worst gear failure on a gig? Mines a toss up between my F***** Bassman going on fire at the biggest opening gig of my life, having my backup guitar and amp destroyed in a full on Roadhouse style barfight(the state police finally cleared the place out) or the gig where I had the sound guy hit me with monitor feedback so many times my ears were ringing and I snapped the headstock off my guitar and left it in the monitor after I jammed the guitar headstock first into the monitor. I'm a much calmer guy now..........really

waoh! LoL

that's awesome.

ive never had anything too crazy happen to my gear. the worst was having some beer fall off my lead guitarists amp and spill on a power strip; mid song i had to investigate, dry off my power cable and plug in somewhere else. i wonder what the odds were of me getting electricuted? oh well - i lived

 

[cbpmmjp05]

His smoke drops off his bass into the crowd and lands on some guys head, perfectly in his hair and doesn't fall off. It's dark, and all we can see are sparks flying everywhere as he's smacking himself on the head trying to put it out.



That is quite possibly one of the funniest gig stories I have ever heard...LOL!

 

[Junior]

I've heard nummerous stories of drummers accidently throwing their sticks which usually land into the guitarist's head

 

[lowliferumble]

Summer of '93, Large outdoor music festival on the lovely( I am using that term so very,very loosely) Willamette River waterfront in Portland,Oregon, rain is the largest number in attendance... Half way through our set I am noticing small drips of water hitting my head(on top of my neck, not my amp). I mistakenly look up to see the hastily thrown up blue tarp over the light truss holding what must be 1000 gallons of water in a giant water balloon shaped ball. My dumb *ss points it out to the even dumber monitor board guy, who gets the brilliant idea to push on it with spare mike stand . You probably can guess the rest...KERSPLASH!!!!!! Here comes that 1000 gallons down onto my side of the stage. It squarely hits my 2 day old Hartke head and proceeds to let all of the smoke out of the wires. POP-FIZZLE-KABANG!!!! The best part , the until this moment lifeless crowd goes completely nuts. They really thought it was all planned! I finally stopped trying to explain to every one after the show "how it was not planned pyrotechnics" Go figure.

www.myspace.com/stereovega

 

[Philip]

wow, that's some cool stories and scary sometimes my only small one was during one of our first gigs. During one of the song our drummer's bassdrum pedal broke and he stopped playing. The whole song was ruined and we were standing there looking at him when he struggled to fix it somehow. On the AC/DC song later on I had a solo spot. Of course what would be a AC/DC cover without one-leg-rock-and-roll pose. So when I started doing it I went too far from my pedals and I disconnected the cable from my guitar,lol. I looked like a d*****s jumping without any sound from my guitar (Air Guitar maybe? )

 

[Filthy_Phil]

Bowks killing my Peavey prowler last weekend was most enjoyable. More fun now its had to go to the tech because it keeps blowing fuses!

 

[Bradwick]

I've heard nummerous stories of drummers accidently throwing their sticks which usually land into the guitarist's head

You aint ****in' kiddin'!!!!

My worst is when I got ****in' electrocuted and when my guitar blew up cause I use to do the Ace Frehley smoke thing and I got the wrong smoke bomb and it blew up and I got ****in' knocked the **** out.

 

[Sub1 Zero]

ive had a strap come undone, a crybaby fail during a solo, and me and this dude with a beat to hell w@$hburn were doing this thing where we fret each others guitar. well, for some reason his guitar shocked the PISS out of me and i jumped back and knocked a bunch of stuff over....... fun times

 

[Bungo]

I don't know if this counts as a gear failure (actually I think it does), but our drummer had returned from a holiday in India with a bad case of 'Delhi belly'. Six or seven songs in to a gig, the drums suddenly stop as this blur of light shoots past me heading for the gents clutching the back of his shorts!

He was so bad that we actually finished the gig with the landlord of the pub standing in on drums for a few very dodgy cover numbers!!!!

 

[Sub1 Zero]

yes, i'd say his gear failed

 

[sandyt1987]

I'd have to say playing in a really dodgy bar back in my home town. Was halfway through a set and there was this drunk woman dancing quite close to where the band was playing. she was obviously pissed out her head and was givin it all the moves but got too close to mic stand and fell into me and the mic smacked me right in the teeth - very f***in sore. This was of course to the bar's amusment.

another time was when our drummer got pished out his face on 3 pints before we were due to go on for our first set. As a result his timing was a bit off and we gave him something to think about after as well so he'd def sobered up by the time we played our second set by which time the crowd was mostly drunk and didnt care anymore

Ahh happy days

Sandy

 

[Polaris]

Haha, I've had a few little mishaps but none worse than this...

We're in between songs. I just finish tuning back up and I reach up with my left hand to take a drink of water... my guitar strap gives out and the headstock goes plummeting down to the ground! Result? Guitar neck snapped clean in two and my jaw has fallen to my knees!!

Ouch!

Had a backup, but I really loved the guitar and it definitely wasn't the most "rock n roll" display!!

 

[Junior]

Haha, I've had a few little mishaps but none worse than this...

We're in between songs. I just finish tuning back up and I reach up with my left hand to take a drink of water... my guitar strap gives out and the headstock goes plummeting down to the ground! Result? Guitar neck snapped clean in two and my jaw has fallen to my knees!!

Ouch!

Had a backup, but I really loved the guitar and it definitely wasn't the most "rock n roll" display!!

OUCH!!!

I like to think that I won' let myself have anything like that happen, that's why I ALWAYS hold the neck joint when I don't play.

BTW That's why I don' tlike about set neck guitars... If the neck goes, you're screwed. With a bolt on, you get another neck.

 

[darren]

Way back in my teenage years, my band was playing our first or second show and i blew a speaker...

... on my 1x12 combo. :/

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

Where do I start....

All manner of things have gone on over the years! Luckily I learn from these experiences (normally!)

I have broken strings on both my guitars at a gig on many an occasion, normally meaning a mid song re-string. This is why I am going to put Graphtech saddles on all my guitars!

My amp has failed on several occasions. This is why I carry a Peavey bandit as a spare at all times now.

The best one was when the other guitar players amp went down at a gig. I leant him the Peavey Bandit. By the time he plugged it into his cab and pedals, it sounded just like his Dual Rectofier!

I had a 65kg Mackie active PA Cab fall off a table and land at my feet! Luckily I jumped back, it missed my foot and totally destroyed my Line 6 shortboard!

I had a dodgy Cat 5 cable on my Line 6 amp, which meant it used to crash all the time. Did about 20 gigs until I sussed the problem! Luckily it doesnt do it anymore!

Had a PA cab fall into our mixing desk, as well as 2 pints of beer. The desk was smashed, but it carried on working till the end of the gig! Also with another PA rig, had another 2 pints spilled in it. This time it just fizzles out and stopped working!

Most entertaining was when I was doing a Pete Townshend windmill. I hit my hand on a light fitting mid windmill, and fractured my hand!

Sweet memories!

 

[Spudmurphy]

I used to play a residency in a club here in Cardiff called the Moon club.
I was on the same side of the stage as the gents toilet (Murphy playing on the bogside ha!), and people used to park there beer glass on top of my Marshall head which I was playing with at the time) Yeah you guessed a pint spilt insde the Marshall !!

Also had a PA speaker fall onto a Gibson 330 (not mine) which totally wrecked it !

 

[Silhouette]

It wasn't a rig failure but more-so technical difficulties as a result of having no stage. We were recording a gig and I had my floor pedal set up for the recording so that it had perfect volume in sinc with the other instruments. Without a stage everyone kept treading on my volume pedal and ended up screwing up my guitar volume and as a result screwed up the recording.

 

[guitrr]

I had a two day old amp fail on a gig because it started blowing fuses - I went through 3 fuses (all my extras) in ten minutes. Fortunately, I had another amp with me.

The amp was a Dr Z, a high end boutique amp. I called them the next day and spoke with Dr. Z personally. He paid to have the amp sent to him and he replaced what turned out to be a bad electrical component. He even retubed the amp and gave me the old tubes! He was extremely apologetic, and went the extra mile to make everything right.

My funny mishap was on a bar gig, where the bass player knocked a full pitcher of beer off the top of his amp stack, and it fell onto a small fan that the drummer had next to him. It looked like a tidal wave - an explosion of beer mist and broken glass all over the drummer and his kit, that nearly knocked him off his throne. The whole band was laughing so hard we could barely continue playing. I laughed until my side hurt! (The drummer was unharmed).

One time my band was booked by a friend of mine to fill in for his country band. He assured me the patrons would welcome some rock and roll. It was just like that scene in the Blues Brothers where they are having beer bottles thrown at them! We played both country songs we knew, and made up a whole set on the spot. Yea, no kidding, I made up the lyrics as I was singing them! The irony is that it turned into a weekly gig for us that we held for almost 2 years.

Kane

 

[Spudmurphy]

We let off some thunder flashes at the end of our gig. We had them inside 2 old metal dustbins - trouble was they were a bit rusty and we were planted "double " charges!
Man those dustbins ended up looking like caulinders!

The other guitarist told me about the time that they dangled one out of an upstairs window and set it off. Residents wondered what the "mystery explosion" was .
The local paper reported it by saying that it was a concern. The local meteorological office reported no electrical storms that day !!!