Have you ever left your equipment over night?

Ray Montee · From: Portland, Oregon (deceased)

Never as a younger player, did I ever leave my g'tar and equipment in a dance hall or club over night. I take that back, I did once at the Corral where we'd played for many years. We played on a Friday night and were due back the next night, Saturday. When I arrived I discovered my strings all slacked out and my picks bent out of shape and my amp was turned on.
NEVER AGAIN!

Later however, when we got to playing two nights per week in Eagles Clubs or where ever, I got brave and left my gear set up for the next night. Perhaps getting older had something to do with that decision. Then too, the bartender reassured us that it was okay because "the club was insured". (This usually excludes musicians' equipment!)

BUT.....I've heard of guys going down to the club only to discover that the club was locked-up tight with IRS Seals on all of the doors and they had to wait thro' a long process to get their gear back.

In other situations, I've heard of clubs going bankrupt and the musicians gear was seized for debt settlement.

One night while watching TV News, I saw a familiar exterior shot of a club we'd just played the night before in Carlton, Oregon. It was totally ablaze and burned to the ground. Do you have insurance on your stuff?

Have any of you had the misfortune of losing YOUR GEAR in any of these situations and how did you make out in the end. How long did you have to go counseling?

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

We had our fuses stolen once. Figured it was from a rival band that wanted the gig.
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James Sission · From: Sugar Land,Texas USA

I typically leave everything but my guitars. The amps, FX and all that I dont tend to to worry about. But I always take guitars with me. I even leave my amps in the the tents at the rodeos and BBQ cook-offs I play and so far, nothing tragic has happened. James

Dick Wood · From: Springtown Texas, USA

I have always left my equipment and never had anything stolen although this does bring back a couple of memories.

One club we were working was broken into and the door they came in was directly behind the drum riser. The only thing they took was the cash register which was empty and a case of Crown Royal which was full.

Another band I worked with in the Fort Worth Stock Yrads in 1983 had all their guitars (but not my steel)stolen. A couple of weeks later the club had a benefit to try and help us buy new equipment.

It was almost dark and I was walking up the street to the club and I see this guy walking towards me. As we met we looked at each other and I said hey aren't you Michael Martin Murphy and he said yep!

He said he had heard about the benefit and handed me $100.00 saying he hoped it helped. He came in the club,autographed the $100.00 talked to the us a few minutes and left. What a super person.

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

I used to do it, especially when I was playing 5 or 6 nights a week.

I was lucky and never lost anything, but a band I played in for about a year lost all it's equipment in a fire shortly after I left them.

It turned out to be arson. The club owner burned down his own club in an attempt to collect the insurance.
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David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

An SVT bass amp you tend not to move in and out every night.
Guitars go home...
It really depends on the venue.
There's some I would NEVER even dram of leaving picks unattended,
and others it's as safe as your living room.
Which of course can also burn to the ground...

I had a Norton motorcycle go into a long holding pattern.

My drummer and his bro in law had a Harley shop,
I hand Norton to drummer to fix, next day,
bro in law dies hitting a semi trailer at 80mph.

Friend's sister loses it and disappears with
shop keys, leaving her brother out of work,
but her lawyer putting up don't touch signs,
while she spent 6 months in mourning
being a groupie with Aerosmith...

I got my bike back after 8 months, not fixed.
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Mike Ester · From: New Braunfels, Texas, USA

Not no, but H-E-Double Hockey Sticks no!

Jim Robbins · From: Ontario, Canada

Lost my favorite amp ever - a Pro Reverb - & a good volume pedal when a hotel burned down between Saturday night and our Sunday load out. I was lucky because I had taken my steel & guitars (well, it was the Sidekick so maybe I wasn't so lucky). The bass player lost a 1960s Rickenbacker, the keyboard player lost a Rhodes, I think, along with sundry amps etc.

Other than that I never had problems leaving my steel set up except clearing bobby pins & the odd scarf off it -- lunch hour dancers seemed to regard it as a convenient table to facilitate their deshabille.

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

Ray, have you heard Jerry Byrd's story of leaving his Sho-Bud behind?

One night at either The Royal Hawaiian or Moana Hotel (he told me it was The Royal, but others swear it was The Moana) while waiting for his ride and talking story at the main door with his guitar/case resting at the entrance, he eventually drove away and went home and to sleep without it. Waking the next day, he realized his mistake and figured "well, that's gone", but went down anyway to see if it was there, and it wasn't.
But the doorman of the night before was there and recognized Jerry and told him he'd put it away for safe keeping, thus salvaging his #1 and now historic instrument.

I stupidly left my awesome Strat in the bike racks at the UH one day for 3 hours and came out thinking exactly what Jerry thot, but there it sat, right as I left it. How does THAT happen in a theft prone area?

Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

Back in the earley sixties I was working with Johnny and Joanie Mosbey at the Jubilee Ballroom in Baldwin Park, Ca. (East of Los Angeles}. It was a Friday and Saturday night gig and we always left the instruments Friday night for the following Saturday. We worked there for several months doing this. One Saturday morning I got a call from Joanie Mosbey with the bad news the Ballroom had burned down along with all the Instruments. It was my first pedal steel guitar, a four necked Custom Wright with 9 pedals along with my Fender Amp and Bigsby foot pedal. Our Guitar player and my buddy Bill Carson who worked for Leo Fender had me set up with a Fender-1000 within a week. Also Joe Maphis and Ralph Mooney lent me Amps until I could get a new Fender. This should have taught me a lesson but I still would leave my equipment on a four or five night a week sit-down job. Fourtunately nothing ever again burned up or was stolen..

Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

Back in the earley sixties I was working with Johnny and Joanie Mosbey at the Jubilee Ballroom in Baldwin Park, Ca. (East of Los Angeles}. It was a Friday and Saturday night gig and we always left the instruments Friday night for the following Saturday. We worked there for several months doing this. One Saturday morning I got a call from Joanie Mosbey with the bad news the Ballroom had burned down along with all the Instruments. It was my first pedal steel guitar, a four necked Custom Wright with 9 pedals along with my Fender Amp and Bigsby foot pedal. Our Guitar player and my buddy Bill Carson who worked for Leo Fender had me set up with a Fender-1000 within a week. Also Joe Maphis and Ralph Mooney lent me Amps until I could get a new Fender. This should have taught me a lesson but I still would leave my equipment on a four or five night a week sit-down job. Fourtunately nothing ever again burned up or was stolen..

Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

Back in the earley sixties I was working with Johnny and Joanie Mosbey at the Jubilee Ballroom in Baldwin Park, Ca. (East of Los Angeles}. It was a Friday and Saturday night gig and we always left the instruments Friday night for the following Saturday. We worked there for several months doing this. One Saturday morning I got a call from Joanie Mosbey with the bad news the Ballroom had burned down along with all the Instruments. It was my first pedal steel guitar, a four necked Custom Wright with 9 pedals along with my Fender Amp and Bigsby foot pedal. Our Guitar player and my buddy Bill Carson who worked for Leo Fender had me set up with a Fender-1000 within a week. Also Joe Maphis and Ralph Mooney lent me Amps until I could get a new Fender. This should have taught me a lesson but I still would leave my equipment on a four or five night a week sit-down job. Fourtunately nothing ever again burned up or was stolen..

Stephen Silver · From: Asheville, NC

I played a sit down gig for almost two years at a club, 6 nights week, back in the 70's. The only time my gear left that club was if I had a session or important rehearsal.

Never lost so much as a pick or a fuse.

Now adays, no one in California plays a club two nights in a row any more for the most part, so the point is moot.

SS
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Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

I leave nothing that cannot be replaced easily and quickly. Which means I leave amps only and maybe a few cords.

Guitars make the round trip each and every time out.

Clyde Mattocks · From: Kinston, North Carolina, USA

Depends on the venue, what is their track record of being broken into, what part of town, etc. Most of the time I leave amps and heavy stuff. If I'm worried, I can run a locked chain up thru the undercarriage rods on my steel and secure it around a post or something substantial. This is no guarantee, but I figure thieves are going to take the stuff that doesn't require much effort to gather up.
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Darvin Willhoite · From: Roxton, Tx. USA

I leave my stuff at the church where I play, but I even had two guitars stolen from there a few years ago. I did get them both back. I don't worry too much about my steels, but my guitars I keep locked up in a closet at the church.
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MSA Millennium, Legend, and Studio Pro, Reese's restored Universal Direction guitar, a restored MSA Classic SS, several amps, new and old, and a Kemper Powerhead that I am really liking. Also a Zum D10, a Mullen RP, and a restored Rose S10, named the "Blue Bird". Also, I have acquired and restored the plexiglass D10 MSA Classic that was built as a demo in the early '70s. I also have a '74 lacquer P/P, with wood necks, and a showroom condition Sho-Bud Super Pro.

Joe Alterio · From: Irvington, Indiana

Never have, never will.

James Cann · From: Phoenix, AZ

Sorry, not an option for three reasons (ascending order):

my feeling of violation when discovering the theft;
my knowing that the thief would never feel the same way about the goods as would I;
my guilt for my negligence (always a factor, whether denied or not).

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

I will leave my gear at most clubs overnight, and have no problem leaving it at a concert hall for pickup the next day. In both cases, we're often the last ones out and the first ones back. But I never leave my gear in an arena. I learned my lesson on that one when I left it overnight once and spent the next day driving around town trying to find the one guy who had the keys to the place. Gear is too easily misplaced in an arena as well.....they could be icing over the floor the next day or anything.

I try to take guitars with me, especially vintage guitars. I try not to leave equipment unattended in my car, because I feel that's where it's most vulnerable. I had an amp stolen out of the hatch of my Civic years ago at university during an hour-long class in the middle of the day.

All in all, in over 20 years playing nightclubs I only lost one piece of equipment, which was the amp. And that had nothing to do with the clubs. Even my pedals haven't been touched. Just luck I guess.
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Ernest Cawby · From: Lake City, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

In Pensacola Fl. at the ensley church, one morning at 4:00 I went to the church to pray, when I came in the front door someone went out the back door. All the guitars were laid out on the floor like soldeirs, chords rolled up amps lined up and ready to load. Months Later he came back and stole everything, all the instruments we had. Then later he came back and burned down the church, they cought him and he is in jail.
We built a new church up on Pensacola Blvd.
I had built the colume speakers for the PA, they were bolted to the ceiling they were all that was left.

ernie

J. R. McClung · From: Oklahoma, USA

Never, ever.
Not even once.
Not even at church.

That's why I still have all my stuff.
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Bobbe Seymour · From: Hendersonville TN USA, R.I.P.

No, but I know a banjo and a accordian player that leave their instruments set-up in a club year 'round. And they only work New-Years Eve.

Laughing

Bobbe Seymour · From: Hendersonville TN USA, R.I.P.

J.R., Cessna 140?

Twayn Williams · From: Portland, OR

Never. The only place I leave my equipment besides home is at a rental rehearsal space where I have a key. And then it's only a pair of amps that are too heavy to move back and forth for rehearsals. At gigs I don't even leave the room where my gear is. I watch it like a hawk and keep people well away from it.
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Ron Randall · From: Dallas, Texas, USA

Played 5 nights a week for 2 years in the Oak Lawn club district in Dallas. Band had 2 electric guitars, 3 double Showman amps, Hammond B3 with the Leslie, electric bass, drum kit, mics...

I always took my Strat with me. That's all. I figured I could replace my amp if I had to.

Nothing ever bothered. I usually pulled a fuse on the amp.

Played across the border one weekend... with private armed guards keeping watch. (paid by the club owner) Left it all setup with cover on the steel. No problems. guy on the roof with M16!

just my 2c

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