Broken gear stories. How did it happen?How much did you cry?

[theistheman]

My Behringer mixer broke last year. But I just laughed and threw it on the floor. I hated that thing. It sounded like a robot's butthole.

that's priceless.

Anyway, once I was jamming out really hard on my friend's 70's tube champ amp. I guess I rocked too hard, because smoke started coming out of the back, and it just died.

I think he's still mad at me for that one.

[allbaldo]

Mid 70's Gibson Firebird.....My friend knocked it over and broke off the headstock. He gave me the worst piece of shit SG I've ever seen, and I'm still bummed.

Not long ago, my Glyph companion firewire drive started smoking, and quit mounting to the desktop. I only had a couple of things on it that weren't backed up yet, and one of them was a song I recorded with my cousin from Japan. The drive was still under warranty, and Glyph managed to salvage most of my stuff....but not the song with my cousin. I'm still bummed.

[cgarges]

Nothing like having a $15k mic self destruct in your hand.

When I was out at Sunset Sound a few years ago, I saw a 251 in pieces in the tech room. I asked my buddy about it and he said that on one particular session a background vocalist had moved the mic stand it was on because it was "in her way." She put the stand in such a place that when another bubbly singer came bursting though the door, the door banged into the weight end of the boom stand, which sent the mic careening into the wall.

Not that it was mine, but that was a pretty sad story to me.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[BrianK]

I have broken a headstock on a 64 SG, everyone will eventually.

Once, a good friend broguht his prized U47 into our studio. My partner was in the room (we all were) and started yanking on some mic cable in haste. That cable pulled the U47 stand right over onto a concrete floor. Smashed the mic, and afterward, it made sputtering noises with any sound. I told my friend we would "make it right" no matter what. What else can you do?

I called Stephen Paul Audio - only place I knew with serious mic experience here. They looked at it for free - brushed the significant dirt off the capsule (it had never been cleaned evidently!) and it works fine to this day. No charge, no problem - maybe even a better mic now... whew.

[fedexnman]

BOUGHT A LR BAGGS IBEAM acoustic guitar PICKUP active, sucks for stumming, great for finger picking n feedback FEEDBACK feedback, i like that effect on acoustic n my guild d25ch 1973 NOOTTT!!!!, after a gig the next day I ripped it out n smashed it OOOH FELT GOOD.... I HATE MAGAZINE REVEIEWS......... MY AKG D770 CRAPPED OUT THAT SUCKED , WHEN IT BREAKS N U CANT FIX IT GET IT REPAIRED DONT SMASH IT.. UNLESS ITS AN IBEAM !!!!!

[fazeka]

Not my amp, but I saw one of the first Korg reissue Vox AC-30s (this was 1993), on top of the chrome stand come crashing face down when someone who was helping move equipment bumped into the back of it. The sound a crashing AC-30 on its stand makes when it hits the floor is something I wouldn't want to hear again. The amp did work fine thereafter, though, for years. Believe it or slurp it!

[Devlars]

Two consecutive RNCs getting zapped and killed by static electricity in the room I was mixing.

The first time it happened I was just in shock of what exactly had happened, all I knew was that all of a sudden no signal would pass through my RNC and the meters lit up all the way when you would adjust the threshold or gain. So I placed a call to Fletcher (bought it from Mercenary) and he replaced it free of charge. I get the replacement and that very same night I plug it in get ready to do some mixing again. I went to make an adjustment on it and !ZAP! fried MICKEY FICKEY!!!

I had it replaced again, directly inspected and sent out by Mark of FMR (the guy who created the RNC), but not after much table pounding and vein popping.

[Bad Halen]

2 used car salesman friends of mine gave me a lot of money for various things (making a record, van repairs, etc). One day they came over and snorted a bunch of coke and wanted to record something with me. I thought "ok, why not"?

So one of 'em wanted to do a cover of one of those Nirvana unplugged songs. He knew every word and sang with such passion that I was ALMOST impressed. If it wasn't for his tone-deafness, lack of rhthym, and bad choice of a cover I would've, fully, been behind his wish to give this song to his wife for a anniversary present. I told him I'd mix it down and FTP it to him the next day. Within hours after they left the drive made a terrible grinding sound and never booted-up again.

He still insists that since I didn't deem him a "proper musician" I made the story up. But it's true...... and made for an awckward situation. Damn that cocaine.

[apropos of nothing]

Wow. This thread actually makes me kind of glad I've only ever been able to afford shitty gear.

Oh wait. The only time I've left the country, I went to Germany for a gig. It was self-financed. It was at a festival. We were hoping that it would be good promotion. Which it didn't end up being, actually. As a matter of fact, it ended up being that band's last gig. I cried at that. But that's now what I'm here to tell you.

What I meant to say is that my sampler, which had made it onto the airplane, transferred with us in Rajovic, and then travelled with us, what 300? miles via commuter train, well it made it to our hostess's pad, and even worked after all that.

We decided we needed one last practice before the gig.

The sampler did not like the crappy European-to-US power adapter that we hooked it up to. Neither did it like the other sampler, guitar amp, bass amp and synthesizers that were also hooked up to that same crappy Euro-to-US power adapter. The magic blue smoke went right out of it. I swore for a good half an hour straight after that.

Fortunately I had been borrowing a keyboard for controlling the sampler, so I found patches that were not my meticulously crafted crazy sample onslaughts, but could do some of the simpler stuff and I limped through.

There were probably about 300 people at that gig, and I don't think any of them noticed or cared about the samples. Hell, to be honest, I don't think any of them would have noticed or cared if we played to a backing track on CD like I'd suggested. But noooooo.

Nobody listens to me.

See? You don't even care.


PS: After about a year of having my sampler in the shop, they finally found a parts machine and replaced the power-supply. And one of the daughterboards. And a keypad. And now it works fine. Frankensampler!

[ammatapas]

I was so depressed reading this. It brought up some old wounds i had tried to forget.
Here's what happened:
Came home to find the door to my studio slightly ajar (I have a studio room on the floor beneath my apartment). Walked in to find one of my Event 20/20 powered monitors (quite heavy) literally on the ground and in the middle of my recently acquired early early 70's Martin "New Yorker" acoustic. Let's just say I got the guitar from a friend who happens to be a bona fide guitar hero (and a tape op lover), and, this guitar had his vibe and tour scars all over it, as well as having been used on some great records. It was beautiful instrument that I felt very sentimental about-honored to have even gotten it at all from my friend. Well, It was a direct hit-the speaker just blew this thing away. How did it happen???? My girlfriends pitbull, a beautiful female named Mayday, gets really weird when it rains. She tries to hide under stuff, and i guess my studio door was not fully closed. It had rained and she busted in the studio, crawled under my desk, got tangled up in some cables, pulled one of the Events down and, Oila, it landed straight on the guitar which was leaned up on the desk- bullseye, perfect strike. This is so long 'cuz this is like therapy (i mean it). Actually my first post ever. I did not hurt the dog, or my girlfriend (she's now my wife) so, i guess that proves love. Only good news about that deal: My equally priceless sax was lying open directly in the path of that speaker if it had fallen the OTHER way, and it is safe and sound.Moral of the story: don't leave your loved ones out of their cases too long, or, lock your studio door really well, or just don't own 2 scared of rain ass pitbulls. thanks for the chance to heal.
T

[tylernolan]

Once I was playing a show in an upstairs venue that had no elevator. I made the mistake of letting my drummer carry my twin up the stairs. The twin was new to me, a vintage blackface. The drummer decided to weel it up the handrail and boom! He dropped it breaking all 6L6's. The only amp at my disposal after that was someone's Kustom solid state with blown speakers. EWWWW! To make matters worse I was broke and it took me a couple of months to save up monet to get the thing re-tubed.-Tyler