Providing a bass amp for other bands

[jmstone]

I have always lent out my amp at gigs (and borrowed other people's amps - though generally prefer playing my own). The venue we often play (Troubadour) is a very small club and there isn't really enough room for backline for every band.

It does help that my amp is second hand and bought at a pretty low price - thanks to basschat (though I would be unhappy if it broke). In my experience to date, people have been relatively respectful (barring the occasion where I found someone had tipped Red Bull over it without mentioning it to me)...

My other experience of not bringing my amp was I ended out playing DI, which was OK, but not nearly as enjoyable as playing with an amp. Personally I would prefer to bring my own if needed, and lend it out as reqd..

James

[Doddy]

As I've said in past threads,I neither lend my amp or borrow one. I don't care if I'm 'headlining' ( a bullshit term meaning
you're on last) or playing earlier, it takes no time at all to set up my amp,and even less time and space if I use my combo.
I've had bands be sent home when they walked in with no amps and drums and expect to use ours. It's just not happening.

[Higgie]

I no longer do originals so it's been a while since I've been on the 3-4 bands per night scheme, and back then my gear was pretty cheap. I had a combo blown up by a mate of mine who borrowed it. Since then I've never lent gear. In the last originals band I was in, I did a gig at the Dublin Castle in Camden. I set my gear up and soundchecked, then went to get something to eat. Came back when the first band were on, and thought, wow, that guys got a nice bass tone...At the end of the night the bass player came over to me and said "thanks for letting me use your rig mate!" I was like "WHAT?! WHO SAID YOU COULD USE IT?!" I didn't say anyone could/couldn't use it, but I wasn't asked AT ALL at ANY point in the night! If I was I would have refused after my last gear lending incident - especially as my gear had increased in value a lot by then!

Now I use an Aguilar DB750 and DB212. So unless they're a good friend that would pay to fix it if anything went wrong, I'd be asking for £2k upfront

[Doctor J]

Over here the protocol (on the originals circuit) is generally that the headlining band provides the backline (drum shells and cabs) and you bring your own head. No head, no gig. I bring my head, my own IEC cable, my own speaker cable, make sure I treat the other guy's cab better than I treat my own.

On a guitar playing gig recently the band before us had a Marshall head fail during their soundcheck and asked for a loan. Given the circumstances, I said ok and loaned the guy my brand new €1500 Fryette head, partly so I could get to hear it out front. He didn't mess around with anything, played his set, all well and good, but then didn't bother to even say "thanks" afterwards... just really sucked the good feeling out of what I thought was a fairly noble gesture on my part. Next time, ask my balls.

As for the O.P.'s situation, if it's the promoter who wants it to cover one of his line-ups and isn't prepared to cover damages, then tough sh*t to him, end of story. I'd have no issue at all in telling him where to go. If he can find the money to hire the venue, then he can find the money to hire backline too.

[goblin]

When I gig, I expect to use my own gear so that's what I do...so why should someone else expect to use my gear as well. I was playing a battle of the bands a couple of months ago, and the organiser was pretty much demanding I loaned out my bass amp. I asked if they would be liable incase anything happened, and they weren't, and apparently if I didn't let other bands use my amp, it would mean they would have to cancel the night.

So how can 4 bands get to a final of a battle of the bands, and only one of us had a bloody amp?! In all seriousness, how can the other bands practise and get so far with no gear? It turns out one of them had a nice brand new MarkBass Rig and he didn't want to gig with it, so I just told the promoter where they can stick it!

[karlfer]

Earlier this year (with an originals band) I turned up for a gig.
Our singer asked if the support bassist could use my rig, 10 mins before a sound check.
I said no prob, £500 cash deposit up front please.
Said girly singer decided to call me a knob, so I told her no prob, she could give me the £500 deposit.
I pointed out I NEVER loan gear out after a dickhead blew up my amp a few years back. At the time he just shrugged and walked, I got a £200 bill.

Like many have said, the promoters should be organising this.

Karl.

[harvey1-8]

"What’s that Mr. Promoter; you want me to supply my backline for the other bands? …..Oh bugger, all of a sudden I won't be able to get my amp to the venue, I'll be using my SansAmp DI thingy-ma-jig instead and going straight to the desk. Sorry, but at least your sound man will be happy!"

- That's pretty much my response.

[tombboy]

If no-one asks then I always used to pop out the external fuse after soundcheck.
Had one shoegazer say "Your amps buggered mate" to which I replied "Where's yours? Use that instead."
If they ask nicely first and promise to look after it then no problem.... but I keep an eye on the clip led and WILL shame them if necessary!!

[Lozz196]

It seems to be the theme thru this is that originals bands are always the ones wanting to borrow gear, however I suspect that the underlying theme to this is that the real issue is that promoters don`t want major gear changeovers, so are trying to get the headliners to make things easy for them.

I remember the original circuit only too well - 4 bands, with 4 drum-kits, 4 bass-amps, 4 (poss 8) gtr-amps - no room left for the audience. Luckily I`m out of that now, as I`ve spent a fair bit on my gear and I gig quite regularly. I wouldn`t want to loan it either, for fear of breakage.

[Stan_da_man]

[quote name='alexharvay' post='992233' date='Oct 18 2010, 02:27 PM']"What’s that Mr. Promoter; you want me to supply my backline for the other bands? …..Oh bugger, all of a sudden I won't be able to get my amp to the venue, I'll be using my SansAmp DI thingy-ma-jig instead and going straight to the desk. Sorry, but at least your sound man will be happy!"

- That's pretty much my response.[/quote]
+1 lol.

That being said, a lot of times I've showed up to a venue, the headlining band [b]insist[/b] I use their rig to aid change over times, soundguy etc. This is when I've bought my amp - they could have told me before the gig.

[goblin]

My rig's on wheels - easy enough to slide infront of a mic and plug in!

[tauzero]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='992240' date='Oct 18 2010, 02:28 PM']It seems to be the theme thru this is that originals bands are always the ones wanting to borrow gear, however I suspect that the underlying theme to this is that the real issue is that promoters don`t want major gear changeovers, so are trying to get the headliners to make things easy for them.[/quote]
Possibly also that originals bands are the ones more likely to be on a multi-band line-up.

[JTUK]

Of course change-over is a major issue...it doesn't seem like they care much about anything else though. They get a signal out front and you can lump whatever shows up on stage..?

Again, it all comes down to doing things properly. If the promoter has a stage rig..then fine, put the spec on the rider...but, nope, that isn't going to happen.
He wants band turn rounds because he wants as many bands as he can get on stage to bring a few punters along..to max out the attendance.

All of this is fine if it is a shared enterprise, but he is the one walking away being paid..and the sound-man, but they don't really want to do much leg work to earn it.
Simple question..out of all these shows that seem to be quite prevelent..which bands have earned anything..and how much..?

It has been a while since I did all this, admittedly, but we have a fee even for charity.

[urbanx]

I've lent my amp out once.

First band played it fine. It didn't work for the next band. So neither band claimed fault.

I wasn't insured. Amp was beyond econimical repair.

I went out and bought an identical amp the next day for £887 (we had 3 more shows that week)

I spent the week in a rage and drinking heavily.

Never, ever again.

We've done 24 gig's this year, I've been asked to lend my amp at every single one. Including the 3 upcoming gigs that we've booked but not yet played.

Never, ever again.

[bartelby]

One gig I once did my band and the other support agrees that we'd supply drums and they'd supply the amps. None of my band had cars at the time so we carried the drum kit through town. We turned up to find the other support had brought nothing at all, despite all of them driving to the venue.
They wouldn't go and get stuff, nor give us a lift to collect our amps. So we ran, literally, around to get our amps.
We opened and once we finished, as the arses were getting the instruments together, we took all the equipment off the stage.
The promoter then had to pay us their fee for use of the stuff.
I will shortly have a nice new, to me, compact rig which will allow me to take my knackered old set up as back up in case of having to share stuff.
Or I'll just DI from my BDDI.

[cheddatom]

I've done loads of gigs on this type of circuit - 3 or 4 bands, the headliner provides the bass amp. I've never had a problem, but my pedal board's so huge, I always had to drive to gigs anyway, so i'd always take my full rig. I've never had a soundguy get annoyed with my using my own rig, even when there's a shared rig set up for the other bands. The only time someone told me I couldn't use my own rig was in a battle of the bands, where apparently being able to hear myself would have been an unfair advantage.

[Mog]

[quote name='Bidd' post='990055' date='Oct 16 2010, 11:43 AM']I know there's a similar thread about amp sharing, but this is a slightly different situation. Basically my band are playing in Manchester tonight (Copper Face Jacks if anyone is interested? - shameless plug) and its an unsigned "festival" night so there 7 bands on. Usually the headline provides drum shell and bass amp, but the two bands after us both cannot provide bass amps for different reasons (one had their amp break yesterday, one is a foreign band who have no bass amp with them), so I've been asked to provide one.


[b]I've spoke to the promoter and apparently he won't claim liability for damage caused by any other bands (or the venue staff)[/b]

Then tell him to piss off and get an amp somewhere else

[b]What I will do though is give the soundguy some strict rules (obvious ones like no drinks on amp etc) to relay to the other bassists in hope that they will treat it like their own.[/b][/quote]

That never makes much difference IME. Techs are usually too busy to be bothered unless you throw them a score and other bands will usually be too pumped to take care of it.

If you dont want anyone using the amp you should have said no at the start.
It seems to me that bassists feel they have to provide an amp when asked by a promoter or venue owner. Probably for fear of losing the slot. In truth its bollox, just say no. Simples. The promoters should be professional enough to realise that some people dont to risk their gear.
Its a weird progression, Pub gigs= own rig. Club gig= share rig. Well organised venues will have a house backline. Major venues = back to you're own rig.

[retroman]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='996705' date='Oct 22 2010, 09:18 AM']The only time someone told me I couldn't use my own rig was in a battle of the bands, where apparently being able to hear myself would have been an unfair advantage.[/quote]

That made me smile We won a band of the year event last year, and to my horror, the bass amp that was supplied all the way through was this tiny little Trace Elliot 2X10 combo thing! It was a big venue, with a large stage as well

[tauzero]

Something I'm curious about is what amps have been blown up by other bands, and just how the bloody hell they manage it. I wouldn't want to own an amp so fragile that it can be blown up in a fairly normal gigging situation.

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='tauzero' post='997711' date='Oct 23 2010, 01:58 AM']Something I'm curious about is what amps have been blown up by other bands, and just how the bloody hell they manage it. I wouldn't want to own an amp so fragile that it can be blown up in a fairly normal gigging situation.[/quote]

I've often wondered that, maybe I'm wrong, but I would have thought there would be more chance of damaging the speakers than the amp because of misuse