Weirdest thing that's broken/gone wrong mid gig?

ElectricXII

stratman3142 said:

I was playing a 'marquee in a garden' function gig with my amp tilted back on one of those Standback Ampstands.

At one point, I turned around and noticed my amp wasn't there, but I could still hear it.

It turned out that it had slid off the rear of the raised stage and was lying on its back on the grass. The mic, looped through the handle, was still picking up sound. So I carried on, until a got a brief moment to go and retrieve it.

You're a true pro my friend!

kennedydream1980

I once took a Partscaster Strat straight to a gig right after purchasing it and after having it setup by someone recommended to me. Not my usual go to guy.

Towards the end of the second set on the gig the intonation screws for the B & G bridge saddles just fell out. So the string tension was the only thing holding those saddles in place. 

I made it to the end of the set. Luckily the singer had his Music Man silhouette in the band van. So I used that for the 3rd set.

Jeremiah

A dog jumped up on stage and knocked over an acoustic guitar on a stand behind me.

(When I say "stage", it was more like a slightly raised area in the corner of a pub...)

LuttiS

An amp caught fire at one gig once. Something about an active bass going through a solid state guitar amp..

JayGee

trolley said:

I've had several over the years, but the 2 'worst' involved my Roadster footswitch.
At one gig, the singer stepped backwards as I was about to solo and landed on a footswitch button. No sound! He'd managed to find (and activate) the mute button!
Another gig I lost all sound suddenly and none of the channels were working. After unplugging the footswitch, I found that the DIN plug that went into it had moved (OK I caught it with my foot) and wasn't fully in. Plugged it back in and voila - all back to normal.

AAAAAARGHHH! Bloody Mesa and their DIN footswitch cables, especially when they (as with my 5:25) they plug in behind the shield over the tubes…

ICBM

LuttiS said:

An amp caught fire at one gig once. Something about an active bass going through a solid state guitar amp..

When I was 17 I had just started playing guitar, and a friend came round to my house with his bass for a jam. My 'amp' consisted of a home-made mixing unit plugged into my Pioneer hi-fi amp and a pair of Sanyo speakers, to which I connected both instruments... my parents were out so I decided to impress him with how loud it was.

He played about one note and blew both the speakers. No fire, but it was still quite impressive!

That was when I learned that hi-fi and musical instrument amp and speaker ratings are *completely* different things. Luckily the speakers were just cheap ones I'd acquired and I then replaced them with the Wharfedales I still have and use (with the same amp) to this day, but I've never played guitar or bass through them again at anything above whisper volume.

maltingsaudio

I was taking part in an acoustic session at a local pub, and the bloke playing his double bass had the headstock fall off mid song. No coming back from that one!

maltingsaudio

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jul/07/broadway-hand-to-god-cellphone-charge-fake-outlet

HerbieTheRadDorklift

It's not particularly weird, but I was running my Mesa Mark IV into a GCX channel switcher, TC Electronic rack unit, some pedals into a GCX Ground Control. We were a modern metal band of sorts. Anyway, come solo time rather than switching to my lead channel with phaser, delay and a bit of chorus, it actually switched to the clean channel with the effects and I ended up shredding like some 1980s Chuck Berry.

HerbieTheRadDorklift

Oh, and once at a wedding we were interrupted by the father of the bride. He got on the mic and told everyone that the bride's mother had just died. He then asked us to carry on and "bring it up lads"

bloodandtears

1) Drop my Ibanez Jem on a stone floor in pub once.. had to stop myself from a cry/spew!

2a) Line 6 Flextone II HD stopped working, had to play the rest of the gig with a POD v2 Bean

2b) Line 6 PD HD stopped working, had to play the rest of the gig with a POD v2 Bean

3) At St Annes festival 2 weeks ago, raised stage, large open sided marquee, seats to rear affair.. a cyclist pushed their bike across the dance floor to take a short cut!!
4) Last Friday a fella came up mid-song and asked us to stop playing cos the boxing is on!!

ICBM

maltingsaudio said:

I was taking part in an acoustic session at a local pub, and the bloke playing his double bass had the headstock fall off mid song. No coming back from that one!

Was it a Gibson?

DefaultM

Same time I played the tent in the field, we got there to set up in the morning and the farmer had told us that when we arrived later we shouldn't drive on a certain bit of grass or the cars would get stuck in the mud.
I came back later and couldn't remember where he'd said not to drive, but soon realised when my car was stuck in the mud.
We couldn't get it out so I had to carry all my gear across the field, find the farmer and he pulled it out with his tractor a few hours later.

digitalkettle

bloodandtears said:

1) Drop my Ibanez Jem on a stone floor in pub once.. had to stop myself from a cry/spew!

...

Was this the result of a 'sling it over your shoulder' manoeuvre?

bloodandtears

digitalkettle said:

bloodandtears said:

1) Drop my Ibanez Jem on a stone floor in pub once.. had to stop myself from a cry/spew!

...

Was this the result of a 'sling it over your shoulder' manoeuvre?

I wish I had such an excuse.. nope, I was naive and wasn't aware of strap locks..

Bod

On Saturday night, my wireless pack flew off my strap, disconnected from its cable and just disappeared - nowhere to be seen.  I quickly grabbed the output from my board, adjusted the amp and carried on.  I found it a couple of songs later in a gap between the stage and the wall.

Bod

Same gig.  A male and female couple on the dancefloor started kicking each other.  They were laughing initally and it was reasonably gentle but quickly escalated, with them taking full swipes at each other.  It was utterly bizarre.  It ended with the bloke stumbling backwards against the low stage and falling into the guitarist's mic stand kncking it over and sending his mounted iPad flying and narrowly missing his Helix.  Mic stand leg completely broke off.  She was later seen in tears outside. 

digitalkettle

bloodandtears said:

digitalkettle said:

bloodandtears said:

1) Drop my Ibanez Jem on a stone floor in pub once.. had to stop myself from a cry/spew!

...

Was this the result of a 'sling it over your shoulder' manoeuvre?

I wish I had such an excuse.. nope, I was naive and wasn't aware of strap locks..

How on earth do you get a Jem without a Cliplock attached?

guitarmangler

I played bass in a jazz band outside in a posh hotel garden. Sitting on top of the amp and playing not notching that half of the amp started gradually sinking into the grass. At some point I came unbalanced and and toppled off, almost, but was saved by the keyboard player (mid song, impressive). Phew! Onto the next song quick! All wrong notes. Can’t make it sound any good. Angry keyboard player shouting changes at me. Stop the song. Find out that he’s whacked the transpose button on his keyboard. 
I’ve got a few involving drummers, alcohol and falling off stools. But, haven’t we all…

Bod

guitarmangler said:

I’ve got a few involving drummers, alcohol and falling off stools. But, haven’t we all…

I played with a drummer who stopped mid-song to go for a piss.