Back up guitar

Lestratcaster

How many of you take a back-up guitar to gigs?

Is it the exact same spec as your main one? Or is it something different but you can use it just to see out the rest of the set?

I always take one but I've not had to use it live (touch wood) yet. 

Currently have been using a Les Paul studio for my main and a Les Paul standard for my backup, both have similar specs, one has slightly lighter strings and a different bridge pickup. Apart from that though I could use either to play the set with.

I got an LTD guitar too that I'm free to do mods to (hardware, pickups etc), now my question is do I make it to the same specs (ish) ie. same tuning, string gauge, pickup configuation as my main guitar or just go hell-for-leather and put different stuff in?

Funkfingers

Do you want to obsess over microscopically fine details or would you be content with “near enough”?

Roland

Different. We sometimes discover pubs with faulty wiring, and I need a humbucker equipped guitar instead of my usual Tele. If Superstition is one the set list then my spare is destined to Eb.

Lestratcaster

Hmm not sure, I don't play in a band at the moment so that's why it begs the question should I make it to the same spec as my main drop tuned band guitar or have it slightly different for say tracking so I can have 2 different guitar sounds or if I'm feeling a different sound I can switch guitars.

Funkfingers

Lestratcaster said:

Les Paul studio …
Les Paul standard …
an LTD guitar

Roland said:

… pubs …

To the typical pub audience, these three guitars are interchangeable. They will neither know the difference nor care.

In your position, I would leave the Gibsons as they are. By all means, modify the LTD to be more sonically versatile. This could well enhance rather than devalue it.

Permanent down tuning might justify a change of pickups. Check out Fishman Fluence for useful possibilities.

Lestratcaster

Alot of this will depend on whether I join a new originals band in the future. If not I'll unlikely use 2 of them in a covers band as they'd be so heavily detuned it'd mainly be for home use.

The pickups need to be replaced on the LTD as the mounts are broken and they sound crap anyway.

Fishman's do sound amazing but for a budget guitar (its an EC-50) would throwing a really expensive pair of pickups in radically change the sound?

Funkfingers

EC-50 definitely not interchangeable with Gibsons, then. 

I’d feed that one humbucker-sized P90 (or a Seymour Duncan P-Rails) and two professional quality A500k pots.

Lestratcaster

Hmm....I wanna keep it humbucker though as I would like to move one of the Les Paul's more into standard/drop d tuning stuff.

stratman3142

My main gigging guitar is an American Standard HSS Strat with S1 switching.

My back up is a PRS S2 equipped with Jim Dunlop JB and Jazz humbuckers.

The guitars are fairly interchangeable because, in my current band, on my Strat, I only use the bridge humbucker or the neck pickup (sometimes in series with the middle pickup in humbucker mode). I've never broken a string at a gig for as long as I can remember, but I sometimes swap guitars on a whim. I just have to back off the volume on my PRS because it has a massively higher output level.

pintspiller

My spares only get take out to gig when the main is away for a service. i remember bringing my spare amp to an outdoor gig, but left it in the car.

TTBZ

I take one if I have space in the car, especially if it's a well paid cover gig. It's just awkward and looks unprofessional doing a string change mid song. 

Re your dilemma, I'd probably go for something similar enough that you can still get through the same set list, but different enough that it can be used for additional texture when recording. 

Lestratcaster

TTBZ said:

I take one if I have space in the car, especially if it's a well paid cover gig. It's just awkward and looks unprofessional doing a string change mid song. 

Re your dilemma, I'd probably go for something similar enough that you can still get through the same set list, but different enough that it can be used for additional texture when recording. 

Yeah this is what I'm thinking, something I can still use that'll sound like my main but just not a carbon copy. Also unsure over Seymour Duncan Sentinent/Pegasus set or BKP Juggernauts.

hotpickups

TTBZ said:

I take one if I have space in the car, especially if it's a well paid cover gig. It's just awkward and looks unprofessional doing a string change mid song. 

Re your dilemma, I'd probably go for something similar enough that you can still get through the same set list, but different enough that it can be used for additional texture when recording. 

Lol I think it can look quite professional if one can do a super quick string change whilst the band is doing something as filler backing music to it Saved me buying another guitar. Unless you’re looking for an excuse to lol

robdynamite

I gigged and toured with one guitar (les paul studio) for a few years and I was confident all would be fine. I have two guitars now but i'd still confidently gig with one.

skay

I've mainly used Telecasters live, so have only ever needed to use my backup Tele once in 27 years of gigging, and that was only because I was bit drunk and hitting the strings ridiculously hard. 

I have my amp and pedals all set for a Telecaster, so although the idea of having a Les Paul for the Rockier songs was tempting, I like to do as little pissing about with settings as possible once i'm onstage playing, so taking a 2nd Tele as a backup avoids having to adjust either pedals or amps and allows me to relax and enjoy performing.

If I need a different sound then i've got another pedal set up to give me that, which is much less faffing around than switching guitars, and as alluded to above, no one actually gives much of a shit ;-D

mudslide73

Tele with spare Strat. I'll give the comp a tweak for the output difference but it's negligible. I've not broken a string at a gig yet* but I'll do a swap for Keith tunings. 

*Bloody jinxed it now, I know.

Danny1969

Always take a spare, could be anything as long as it's got 6 strings and works. None of my guitars cost more than £250 so I'm not precious about what I use

skullfunkerry

When I was gigging I always took 2 guitars, just in case. Don’t think I ever broke a string, now that I think about it... my guitars at the time all had EMG 81/60 sets so it didn’t really matter which one I used, they all sounded pretty much the same. I generally used one of my LTDs or a Jackson Kelly as my main guitar, and an old Jackson KVX10 King V as the backup - mainly because it’s really easy to stand a King V anywhere without worrying about it falling over!

Musicwolf

My preference is to stick to one guitar for the full set (I think that it’s unnecessarily distracting and is one more thing to break up the flow).  I’ve got maybe four guitars which can fulfil the role and I’ve done gigs with each (although for my main band I keep coming back to the Strat).  When I have taken a second guitar it has been because it is something new and un-gigged and I’ve just tried it on a couple of numbers.  Most of the gigs I play are on stages so small that there is barely room for the four of us let alone spare guitars (last time I played Flannagan’s Apple in Liverpool there wasn’t even room for the bass player).  Sometimes the singer / guitarist takes a spare so I could always grab that if a break a string (which I haven’t done on stage in a decade or more).   If I was playing high paid wedding or corporate gigs then having a spare to hand would be the professional thing to do but for a couple of hundred quid in a pub it’s not worth the effort of making an extra trip to the car.  There’s always a spare set of strings in my case.

That said, at one time I must have thought about using two guitars as I bought a double gigbag.

You have to go with what’s comfortable for you.  Some people stress if they don’t have a backup in case of breakages, some people feel that it they need different guitars for certain numbers so that the sound is right.  If you feel better with two guitars then take two, take a spare amp if you wish and wear your lucky underpants – it’s all about performance and if it helps you achieve your best then do it.

skullfunkerry

Musicwolf said:

My preference is to stick to one guitar for the full set (I think that it’s unnecessarily distracting and is one more thing to break up the flow).  I’ve got maybe four guitars which can fulfil the role and I’ve done gigs with each (although for my main band I keep coming back to the Strat).  When I have taken a second guitar it has been because it is something new and un-gigged and I’ve just tried it on a couple of numbers.  Most of the gigs I play are on stages so small that there is barely room for the four of us let alone spare guitars (last time I played Flannagan’s Apple in Liverpool there wasn’t even room for the bass player).  Sometimes the singer / guitarist takes a spare so I could always grab that if a break a string (which I haven’t done on stage in a decade or more).   If I was playing high paid wedding or corporate gigs then having a spare to hand would be the professional thing to do but for a couple of hundred quid in a pub it’s not worth the effort of making an extra trip to the car.  There’s always a spare set of strings in my case.

That said, at one time I must have thought about using two guitars as I bought a double gigbag.

You have to go with what’s comfortable for you.  Some people stress if they don’t have a backup in case of breakages, some people feel that it they need different guitars for certain numbers so that the sound is right.  If you feel better with two guitars then take two, take a spare amp if you wish and wear your lucky underpants – it’s all about performance and if it helps you achieve your best then do it.

Reading that made me realise that it’s a large part superstition for me: as I said in my post I can’t remember the last time I ever broke a string. Especially now that my guitars have Floyds, I know that if I didn’t have a spare with me I’d be stressed out for the whole gig wondering “what if?”

jdbwales

I always gig with two of everything that isn’t easily repaired or ‘separate’, ie two amp heads, two guitars, one pedalboard with a few different drive flavours and one cabinet (plus obviously a soldering Iron/tools for unavoidable maintenance). 

I just think that it’s good preparation and if someone’s booked you for a wedding (or to be honest anything) and you have to stop playing and pack up due to equipment failure that you didn’t adequately prepare for, it’s absolutely fair enough if you walk out without pay. 

 Anyway, in terms of a backup guitar, I’ve danced this dance lots over the years - my main guitar is a Gibson LP Custom and I’ve tried various ‘different’ things for variety and interest (Kramer, Telecaster, LP Junior) and often tried them for a song or two in the set just to see how they go under gig conditions - and I found that without fail, a different scale length, bridge configuration, fretboard radius etc was quite an adjustment under ideal conditions, so under more stressful ones it’s a no-go. It just didn’t feel ‘right’ - I’ve played almost exclusively LPs and copies since learning so I’m extremely used to them, so for me the ideal backup is an Epiphone Les Paul Custom - same scale length and radius, same bridge configurations, same pickups and switches installed, even the same block inlays, plus very affordable second hand. For me it’s an emergency backup, of course it isn’t as good as the Gibson but it’ll get me through if disaster strikes with the minimum of adjustment.