Sharing gear at shows.

[Nubus]

What is the right thing to do when you break someone else's gear while sharing?
What I did was immediately get their contact info and pay for the repair. Last night I had it happen the other way around. My amp died! So now I have to track the guy down like the repo man, and hope he has the ethics to pay for the repair. Have you been in this situation before?

[dagosto]

I've gotten new cables for people as a show of my appreciation for use of an amp or guitar. A nice new cable will get you further than any sweet talkin can in our business. I've never broken anything that wasn't mine at a show though. Sorry to hear about your amp.

[Whoopysnorp]

And that's why I endeavor to use only my own gear at shows. That's a bad situation man--do you think anything he was doing to the amp caused it to break?

[Nubus]

Originally Posted by Whoopysnorp

And that's why I endeavor to use only my own gear at shows. That's a bad situation man--do you think anything he was doing to the amp caused it to break?

He cranked it up pretty high, but the amp should've handled that. It's just finicky. I'll get it fixed, but I would hope that the guy has the ethics to pay for it. I remember our old drummer broke a guys snare, broke some dudes kick pedal, broke somebody's cymbals - all paid for after that. haha - Andy could've bought his own gear with that cash.

[GearJunkie]

I was playing a show in Champaign about 4 years ago. This band that I was friends with (ahem... no longer) needed to borrow my amp for the set. The LAST SONG of the set, they invite the entire crowd onstage. My amp head takes a nose dive, my cabinet goes with it.

Obviously, this was the first day I used a 1 foot speaker cable, so when the head fell, it ripped the back panel and inputs off the back of the cab. The power amp tubes burst, about 50% of the knobs on the front all smashed into a billion pieces, and I was screaming at this guy in front of a live mic during the last song.

Cost me like $250 to repair. He gave me $50 and said "I'll get you the rest when I can." His band is on Atlantic Records now and I haven't seen a dime.

[johnS]

In the words of Ben Franklin, neither borrower nor lender be . . . unless you get a deposit or know where they live.

[Bellringer]

Man it's hard to make that decision at a live show. I've been lucky with people I didn't know promising they wouldn't hurt my amp. I've had worse luck with friends. Friends have blown studio monitors. Friends have fried my SVT head. Pedals have disappeared, mics and a drum machine broken. All this paid for with a "sorry dude" and zero dollars. So now I am very cautious with who I share things. If they are a borrower of most everything and an owner of very little (or very cheap gear), I usually must say no. Loaning gear is too expensive.
I have broken 1 friends amp (Well, it stopped working while I was playing thru it) and we called it even because he blew a set of my monitors. I got the short end on that one as well. He ended up needing 2 tubes. I needed a new set of studio monitors.
SHARE AFTER CAREFUL THOUGHT!!!!!!!!!!

[McLean]

I let a band mate use my bass set up at a gig. All was cool with that. Than I found out he let the next band use it as well. The bass player used his amp head though. This blew the speaker and I do not have a speaker in there to this day. He sent a email to all of us and to the folks in the other band with no response, of course. Why would you swap heads like that? Sure the head he used was better, but it was obviously not power rated for that speaker. Wouldn't you want to figure that out before you plugged 500 watts into someone elses cabnet. Screw him.

On a different note, I have used other peoples drum sets a different gigs that I have done. This is a weird thing to do in general. I really haven't broke anybodys stuff, minus a few sticks that I did replace. But it is strange to use a different set. Not only because of the different sound it made, but also usually drummers a perticular about how and where the drums are set up. So I usually preform according to what and where I am used to doing on my personal set up. This would lead to alot of missing cymbal crashes and other missed hits. In addition to that, most drummers sets that I used where crap. There was one gig that the drum set was basically falling apart throughout the gig. That sucks and it makes you look bad on stage. I try to use my own gear as much as possible, but due to the size of a kit and transportaion issues that is not always feasible.

[Nubus]

Originally Posted by Whoopysnorp

And that's why I endeavor to use only my own gear at shows. That's a bad situation man--do you think anything he was doing to the amp caused it to break?

Just a late, late update on the busted amp. It had a bad tube socket which caused a short, an easy cheap fix minus the labor. But I never heard squat from Mr. Bad Azz Bassist.

[GearJunkie]

Originally Posted by Nubus

Just a late, late update on the busted amp. It had a bad tube socket which caused a short, an easy cheap fix minus the labor. But I never heard squat from Mr. Bad Azz Bassist.

Un-reliable musicians?! SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!