I forgot my amp

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 7 Jun 2003 6:29 am

Oh, man....

Last nite I had a gig in Northville, MI in the town gazebo. Unloaded band members, P.A., guitar, banjo, steel guitar, seat, and...DOH!

Fortunately I had a Baggs Paracoustic DI, so I plugged her in. Saved the day, if not my tone.

First time that ever happened.

ashamed in MI,
Drew

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Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 7 Jun 2003 6:40 am

my very first steel gig, I was so uptight that I brought my gear down to the lobby, went down the street to get my car and started driving toward the Brooklyn Bridge to the gig, leaving my gear in the lobby. Recovered in time but was pretty shook to discover how shook I really was!

Bob Metzger · Post by **Bob Metzger** » 7 Jun 2003 7:47 am

Don't they have an special inflatable steel for guys who gig in NYC. The only thing worse is a B-3 or a double bass.

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 7 Jun 2003 8:09 am

I left my little bag with Bar and Picks at home once.
I hate when that happens.

richard burton · Post by **richard burton** » 7 Jun 2003 11:07 pm

I use a check list.

Kurt Graber · Post by **Kurt Graber** » 7 Jun 2003 11:31 pm

Pete,
I have feared leaving my picks and stuff at home for 20 years. The only real bad thing that has happened to me was my amp blew when I turned it on one night five minutes till show time. The guitar player and I shared an amp(peavey vegas dual channel). LLOOOOONGGGG night that was. I also broke a knee lever at sound check(lower e's) and we were playing at a museum ("Museum of the Horse", Ruidosa, New Mwxico) Would you believe the museum had a complete machine shop and this machinist made me a bracket just in time to play the gig. Honest, that is a true story.

Paul Graupp · Post by **Paul Graupp** » 8 Jun 2003 3:26 am

A old WWII vet piano player in England once gave me a line that served me well in the coming years.

A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYTHING IN IT'S PLACE !!

It sure kept me on the straight and narrow so that I always had everything after that.

Regards, Paul

[This message was edited by Paul Graupp on 08 June 2003 at 07:57 AM.]

RON PRESTON · Post by **RON PRESTON** » 8 Jun 2003 5:20 am

I left my "Peterson" Strobe tuner in Logan, Utah, back in '88, and didn't discover that it was gone until we sat our equipment up in SEIRRA VISTA, ARIZONA two days later. I called the club to have it shipped to me, (we were to be in Arizona for two weeks)but, they never found it. I DOUBLE CHECK when leaving a club now......and I do not let anyone else pack my "Stuff" without me "Seeing it First".

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 8 Jun 2003 1:51 pm

I leave an extra volume pedal in my car always.

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Brad Sarno
Blue Jade Audio Mastering
St. Louis

Emmett Roch · Post by **Emmett Roch** » 8 Jun 2003 2:58 pm

Back in the days when I took a steel, fiddle, mandolin, electric and acoustic guitars, two amps and half the PA to every gig, I once discovered that I had grabbed an empty acoustic guitar case on my way out the door.

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GFI S-12 extended E9

Tony LaCroix · Post by **Tony LaCroix** » 8 Jun 2003 4:40 pm

A few weeks ago I showed up for a Zydeco gig. The drummer forgot his cymbals and the rub board player forgot.. you guessed it... his rub board! Luckily, there was free beer.[This message was edited by Tony LaCroix on 08 June 2003 at 05:40 PM.]

Wayne Cox · Post by **Wayne Cox** » 8 Jun 2003 9:47 pm

RON PRESTON once left his steel AND his amp at my house! Luckily,he also plays standard guitar!~~W.C.~~

RON PRESTON · Post by **RON PRESTON** » 10 Jun 2003 10:56 am

Oh, Yea,
I forgot about that one. At least WAYNE COX can PLAY that thing.

Len Amaral · Post by **Len Amaral** » 10 Jun 2003 12:43 pm

Last Friday night I got to the gig and discovered that I forgot my speakers. When I got home, they were exactly where I left them, right in the middle of the driveway.

Oh well...

Michael Frede · Post by **Michael Frede** » 11 Jun 2003 2:37 pm

Someone I know left his picks and bar sitting on the tuning head of his guitar(rhyme unintentional)at a club over night.He discovered they had been "lifted" the following evening before the gig.Played the entire night with a spark plug socket and his fingers.

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 11 Jun 2003 3:43 pm

Almost 30 years ago I bought a new Les Paul Custom.

A few weeks later, after the last set, I carefully wiped it down, and put it in it's case and left it on top of a table in front of the stage, while I helped pack up the trailer.

I then got in my car and left. About 30 minutes later I remembered, did a U-turn back to the club, found their doors locked, but saw a cleaner at work. I pounded on the windows.

They let me in and I retrieved my new guitar. They didn't know me. They would have let anyone have it.

Close call! I still have it.

Matt Martin · Post by **Matt Martin** » 11 Jun 2003 4:56 pm

Not to get off the subject (sort of) but I used to skydive at Zyphyrhills and used to do camera work for one of the teams. Low and behold, another guy doing video got so involved, he forgot to don his RIG!! Can you imagine cruising thru 2000 feet at 120MPH
and reaching back and not finding anything??
And thers no going back for that one. Wonder what his last thought was......

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 11 Jun 2003 8:31 pm

In my younger days, while still living at my parents home, I went to a playing job about 30 mi. from home, in the ice and snow. After the job, I carried my equipment to my '52 Merc., Set my Amp behind the car, for the trunk, and went to the side of the car, opened the door and jamed my Sho-Bud into the back seat, turned around, climbed into the car, backed up over a small pile of {snow?} and pulled forward and took off for the 30 mi trip back home. When I pulled up in front of my parents house, my Mother stuck her head out of the front door, and called to me, “Where is you Amplifier?” I said Ah!–Aah!–I don't know! The fellow that I worked with that night had called my mother and told her what happened. I went back the next day to see what was left of my Maroon Naugahide covered Custom Cabinet containing my old '54 Fender Twin Amp. Well the noise I heard the night before was not ice caught in the wheel-wells! It was the sound of my Twin Amp. sliding along the ground, on the snow and ice. But, fortunately there was a good ending to the incodent. There was no damage to the Amp. at all. All I had to do was pop about two tubes back into their sockets and the Amp. still worked fine! One time in my life I was lucky! Since then, it's all been down hill!

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‘Til L8R, “Uh~” ƒƒ< “Big John” wknsg® http://community.webtv.net/KeoniNui/BigJohnBechtels

Bobby Boggs · Post by **Bobby Boggs** » 11 Jun 2003 10:23 pm

I forgot my way home one nite.True story, you can ask my wife.

No I forgot my leg bag one nite.Found out just how good I am with a bar.Never happened again.

-------bb

Winnie Winston · Post by **Winnie Winston** » 12 Jun 2003 3:19 pm

I once forgot the volume pedal. Someone said, they had one and they lived close. It arrived and was rigged to get softer when pressed, not louder! Ugh.
Two years ago I got to the gig withgout my picks, bar, and tuning wrench. Happily, I had extra pics and a wrench in my pack-a-seat. Also had a big jack-knife in there. It serves as the bar for the night.
Now I carry a spare of everything.

Ain't like the time I did two shows with Bill Monroe. It was so exciting that I drove off after the show without my banjo. Got about 20 minutes down the road, and remembered. Went back and it was still sitting backstage. Whew!

I'm more careful now. Gotta be careful with those "senior moments."

JW

Rich Young · Post by **Rich Young** » 12 Jun 2003 4:23 pm

When I was younger I was playing in a rock and roll band in upstate NY. We went up the night before the gig to this club out of town where we played all the time. We set up and rehersed. After that, a couple of the guys on the crew (one being my older brother

decided they wanted to get me drunk, so they kept buying me shots "Here, you've never had this before, try this one". Yes I got drunk. After they got me home, I woke up the next day and realized I left my guitars, a 60 strat and a '60 es330, sitting in their cases in the middle of the dance floor. I freaked. But luckily, the bartender, who knew us well, took them up to his apartment above the club.
Since then, I've made a habit of walking the stage and backstage before leaving. I once found the other guitar players guitar in the shower of one of those big camper things we were using as a dressing room. I never did ask him how it got there.

ollie strong · Post by **ollie strong** » 13 Jun 2003 9:19 am

About a year ago I got to a job without my bar..I found a store owner that had a 6-7" ajustable wrench,,,the kind with a round end on the handle,,,he had a hacksaw and cut off about 4" of the handle and got me through the night....I still have it if anyone would like to buy it.....I hope I won't need it again

Les Pierce · Post by **Les Pierce** » 16 Jun 2003 8:44 pm

Many years ago I once played a drum job with a broken stick I found under the bandstand, and a wooden spoon borrowed from the kitchen turned around backwards.

When you have little ones, you better check twice just to make sure you have all that you think you have with you.

Take care,

Les

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 17 Jun 2003 5:36 am

Back in my married days, I played a gig on Friday night, then unloaded my gear from the back of my SUV so she could get groceries the next day. I then drove 1 1/2 hours to Saturday's gig only to find out when I opened the back, that I had forgotten to load up!

Luckily I had been playing with this band for several years, they all got a big laugh out of it, and sent me home to get my stuff. It was almost midnight when I got back to the gig, but they still paid me for the whole night.

Ever since then, I always double check before I leave home.

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 17 Jun 2003 9:23 am

The worst one for me was the drummer forgetting the singer...for 100 miles.
left HIM sitting in the driveway...before cell phones. I never liked that drummer anyway.

I have gigged in NYC with a upright bass. Some taxis are so stupid they think the bass in the soft case will damage the car, and won't take me. But the will stop the car to tell me they won't take me.. AUUGGGHHH!!!

I have also had the pleasure of doing a NYC subway turnstyle with a upright, a sack of stuff and a Gallien Kruger amp. Now this was the 7 foot tall set of rotating parrallel bar turnstyles not the jump over and run ones..
You have 1/4 of the circle to use.
Move it all over an inch and shift my butt, move it all a inch, shift my butt, and on and on.

I have been in the habit of having a plasticized check sheet,
that I look at before I go.
A legacy of several thousand PA gigs over the years.
I hadn't yet done one for the current system and forgot the PA speakers for the last Irish bar gig... it was only 20 minutes away, but there was some serious 1 legged butt kicking that night.