Most Random bit of equipment that's failed at a gig

mikyok

Platinum Member
My butt plate died on Saturday, it's one of those Dunnett R4's that you can unclip so you can change the bottom head quicker. Great idea in principle but it's over-engineered at the cost of reliability.

I was looking for that Schism snare sound at a wedding gig anyway! Teach me for not having 2 snares.

Anyone else had something really random go kaput during a gig?
 
We were doing a "festival" / outdoor party a few years back and the generator went (with no backup on site).

That was challenging.

The replacement arrived 2 hours later, but of a lesser spec, so couldn't power the PA with monitors.

Bad gig, though not sure I can stretch to carrying a spare generator...
 
The snare cable failed, that was annoying ; ended the show with electric wires to keep my snare on !
 
Snare strainer came apart. Not unscrewed, it snapped and fell off. Singer played Teqila on my toms while I raced out to the car to grab my spare snare.

Another time the whole neighbourhood had a three hour power blackout, half an hour into a four dinner dance. We thought the power would come back on after a few minutes. Ended up singing around an old upright piano by candle light, with acoustic guitar and a snare with brushes...
 
Been fairly lucky so far - The only drum I've had fail on me was a strainer that died on me at a festival gig.

The "drum tech" was nowhere in sight (I later spotted him chatting up the girl behind the bar), and I had absolutely nothing to fix it with so I ended the show playing 4-5 songs with no snares.

Other than that, it's always been hardware incidents - The usual story of cymbal stands falling off the riser, thrones that steadily get lower and lower as I play, loosening hihat clutches, etc. In general, stuff we probably all expect to happen whenever we play backline kits.
 
The snare cable failed, that was annoying ; ended the show with electric wires to keep my snare on !

Get a reel of ribbon to fix that. Bog standard arts and crafts grosgrain polymer.

Lives in the cymbal bag, dirt cheap, one reel lasts a lifetime. I learnt the hard way too!
 
You remember when DW made such a big deal out of that ball bearing hinge on the DW 5000 back in the 1990s? Mine broke during the middle of a show. As in, broke really bad. Luckily there was another drum set there and I snagged the pedal off of that one.

I wrote DW a letter (handwritten), and they sent me a new hinge, chain, and all kinds of stuff for absolutely free. I've used nothing but DW ever since and have never had a problem with them.

Looking back, it probably was more user error than anything. Back in the day, I used to throw my pedal in my hardware bag with everything else. It probably got damaged in transport. DW asked no questions and simply sent me what I needed.
 
I had a ported BD reso head that split. A ported head. I still can't figure it out.

I had a snare cord fail. Every time I hit my snare, I made a buzzing sound with my mouth to compensate.

Not really.
 
I had a ported BD reso head that split. A ported head. I still can't figure it out.

I had a snare cord fail. Every time I hit my snare, I made a buzzing sound with my mouth to compensate.

Not really.

I've had the same happen, Evans EQ4 ported I think, ripped right across in the middle of a set.

I got the Jojo pedal and it started to fold up by itself while I was playing. Sonor sent me a replacement but I still don't trust it.
 
I used to have a Gibraltar rack, and at one show the rightmost t-clamp cracked int he middle of the first song, causing the entire right side of the drumset (three cymbals, two racked floor toms) to slowly rotate over and come to rest on my shoulder at the beginning of the second song of the set. I was frantically mouthing to my wife in the audience to come up and help me, but as she was new to this whole drums thing she couldn't tell anything was amiss.

I had a wingbolt on a Yamaha stand strip out as I was setting up for a gig last summer, but my bass player has an entire music store in his van and pulled out another Yamaha cymbal stand (which he said I could keep).

I don't know how many times the linkage on my kick pedal has come undone either during the set or right at the end, or how many times the hoop clamp has slipped off the hoop and the kick has flopped away from me. I try very hard to check and double check my pedals every time as it's very tough to overcome a kick that can't be kicked mid-song.
 
I put new bearings in a double pedal but didn't get all the cleaner/lube off the tab that the driveshaft connects to so the stupid thing kept sliding off mid song.

Also had a cymbal boom fail at the tilter. The boom arm basically fell in my lap. It was cool though, as some random dude immediately ran up and held the stand for me while his buddy used about a whole roll of duct tape to "secure" the boom to the stand.

For you failed snare cord folks, a drink straw works in a pinch.
 
I how many times the hoop clamp has slipped off the hoop and the kick has flopped away from me. I try very hard to check and double check my pedals every time as it's very tough to overcome a kick that can't be kicked mid-song.

This! I also had a beater fly off during the first 10 seconds of the first song of the second set. I compensated by making my left-hand more busy and my band mates didn't even realise. I check the hoop clamp and tighten the beater between every other song now
 
I let someone setup the kit for me one time, and halfway through the first song, I lost the ability to use my kick drum very well and thought I was just tired/drunk or having a really bad night. After the second song I finally noticed what happened.

The pedal was never clamped and had slipped off the hoop entirely. It was sitting in front of the bass drum and the beater was barely able to touch the head so I was still technically making noise with it, but it was anemic at best and none of my kick pedal work was going right!

Probably doesn't count as broken, but it's equipment/setup malfunction.
 
Also, a taped on set of snare wires makes more noise than you'd think. Not great but better than nothing. You can just tape them directly to the head.
 
Does trousers count? No, the trousers didn't fail, not in the way one might think...

But I was dressing up for a gig with a pair of chinos I hadn't used before, sporting slightly shorter but wider legs. First songs were fine, but when the intensity increased the BD suddenly failed on me. I really digged into the pedal, with no sound at all... What happened was that the beater got stuck in my trousers leg on each beat!

Had to put my right sock around the leg (bicycle style) to get through the gig. Something I still do, just to make sure this doesn't happen again.
 
Does trousers count? No, the trousers didn't fail, not in the way one might think...

But I was dressing up for a gig with a pair of chinos I hadn't used before, sporting slightly shorter but wider legs. First songs were fine, but when the intensity increased the BD suddenly failed on me. I really digged into the pedal, with no sound at all... What happened was that the beater got stuck in my trousers leg on each beat!

Had to put my right sock around the leg (bicycle style) to get through the gig. Something I still do, just to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Which is why Neil Peart always wore that bicycle safety reflective strap around his right leg...

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I've had the trouser leg thing, snare cord, and hh clutch on a backline happen.
The spring on my 20yo Iron Cobra snapped on the first beat because it was always thrown in with the hardware.
I had a new Yamaha pedal, whatever used to come with the SC, where the entire spring assembly slowly came apart during the first song. It wasn't mine. It was fresh off the press and never played and the nut at the bottom just needed to be tightened.
My funniest one was a Ludwig Accent backline kit. 2u/1d and the tom tree was toast. The 2 racks rolled to the left and right, respectively. They provided 13 B8 hats, 16 K Crash, and a 14" Wuhan China where a ride should be. Not one cymbal or drum would stay where I wanted it. All of the hardware was stripped and it looked like a horrible craigslist ad.
 
I once realize my snare stand was broken.

The casting at the tilt mount was cracked.

I should have taken a picture of it before tossing it.
 
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