Don’t Change Guitar Mid-Set!

ScreamingDave

Just wondering what everyone’s feelings are on changing guitars frequently when playing live.

 

Personally I find it irritating when a guitarist keeps changing guitar.  I saw Spandau Ballet a few years back and Gary Kemp changed guitar just about every song. Pissed me off no wnd, especially as the guitar wasn’t that prominent in the mix.

 

My own take on it is to find a good gigging guitar and stick to it.  The only good reasons to change guitar mid set are:

 

1. Malfunction (broken string, etc. )
2. Fundamentally different kind of guitar (changing to a 12 string or an acoustic guitar)
3. Different tuning

 

Other than that, nobody cares!

 

fastonebaz

The pros often do it for either tuning reasons or perhaps marketing where they're sponsored to be seen playing certain guitars.  Mainly tuning though I reckon. 

Everythingon10

I can't for the life of me work out why you'd be annoyed by someone else changing guitars. Whatever you think about it, it doesn't affect you very much?

I suspect the main reason a lot of pros change guitars mid set is the same reason a lot of people on this forum own loads of guitars: because they can, and they enjoy it. I think that's enough of a reason.

Joe Perry doesn't have particular guitars for given songs on tour. Each night, he will tell his tech between songs what guitar he wants to use for the next number—just whatever he's in the mood for. It's his way of keeping it interesting for himself, and varying the tones. If you see him play on three dates on the same tour, you could hear Walk This Way on a Les Paul, a Gretsch, and a Strat. I think that's really cool.

I know Clapton doesn't do this, but if he pulled out a Les Paul for some Bluesbreakers material, an SG for some Cream stuff, and the Strat for his later solo stuff, I think a lot of guitarists in the audience would really appreciate that.

Some other reasons I can think of to change guitars mid set:

• One song requires a floating tremolo, while the next has a load of country-style oblique bends in it that only work with a fixed bridge.
• Original recordings of the songs had very different tones that need different pickups to reproduce
• A particular guitar is associated with a given song because it appeared in a famous music video, and diehard fans will appreciate seeing it
  
• Certain songs need a guitar with specific hardware, like a Bigsby, a sustainer, or a killswitch
• You want different string tensions for different songs, because one song has a lot of bending and another song is just leathering power chords all the way through
• One guitar looks cool/sounds great but is heavy as a bastard and you don't want to use it for too long
  

blobb

I was musing on this in my Johnny Marr thread. Queen is Dead tour (so with 5th Smith Craig Gannon) he got through 3x LP's and 2 strats while CG bounced between the Scooty Moore, a tele and the 12 string Ricky. The two alternating high / low frequencies in the sound stage. The two strats were different tunings, not sure about the LP's but I conluded that JM is all about wall of sound frequencies and the live guitar swaps were needed to give the tonal balance he wanted. Johnny had 3x amps in some sort of stereo high/low setup, Craig had 2x amps presumably high / low to match the part he was playing in the wall. When there were 4 of them he did it on his own using different guitars and stereo split amps. After QID I guess he devoloped some studio techniques that warranted an extra person on stage along with the finely choreographed guitar swaps. 

topdog91

Username checks out.

Blueingreen

I honestly don’t get it when some players change guitar on almost every song when I think they could use the same guitar for most of them and it wouldn’t make much difference, but it doesn’t bother me either. Maybe it’s theatre rather than music, maybe it’s a tad pretentious (with my golden ears I really need the older Strat on this one) but it’s harmless.

ScreamingDave

topdog91 said:

Username checks out.

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stickyfiddle

To quote Sadler Vaden on threads the other day…. “It’s wardrobe”

Rich Robinson played a different guitar on every song the other week, though to be fair in his cases he does use a shitload of tunings. 

Personally I don’t like to take more than 2 guitars to a gig unless I really need extra tunings. And in the 2-guitar case I’ll only change if it’s really needed for the material - Beat It really isn’t going to work well on a 21-fret Tele. That said my recently-acquired 355 is that rented at least partly to give me one guitar that genuinely can do 99% of a set without issues

Danny1969

Beat it was done on a 21 fret guitar to be fair .. you can hear him bend that last fret up a minor third but not quite getting there ... the last high E is a bit flat 

Tuning is the main reason but often sweetened tuning rather than overall ... if a song is built round a riff or bunch of chords in a particular shape then it makes sense for the tech to tune the guitar so those positions are spot on. It's a studio trick that has got into live use over the years. Some players like EVH used to just do it by ear between songs 

More than 2 guitars is a pain to carry about so I make do with a Tele and either a Strat or a fake Les paul 

Musicwolf

There's a big difference between a headline act and a weekend warrior / pub band situation.  If you've got a roadie ready to hand you a new guitar and take the old one away, plus you are performing the same set night after night so that everyone knows what is going to happen and when, then fine.  Go for it.   For someone like me, gigging once every three weeks, guitar changes can disrupt the flow of the gig and so I only change when absolutely necessary. 

Until recently our set was organised so that I played the first spot with my PRS Hollowbody, making use of the piezo for acoustic sounds.  Second spot with another guitar, maybe my Rickenbacker, then back to the PRS for the encore (again for the piezo sounds).  Since getting my PRS Fiore I've been using it on all numbers (both bands) and I take my Silver Sky as a backup in case of a string break.  The Silver Sky sometimes sits 'off-stage' in its gig bag and is never seen.

monquixote

If it's a pub band and you have 10 minutes of dead time between songs as a result then I hate it but for pro bands where you barely notice I'm fine with it.

springhead

I have to change between a ‘normal’ guitar and one in open E for slide. I made myself a little 2x1 changeover foot switch so both guitars are plugged in on their own leads and it takes just a few seconds to swap. 

stickyfiddle

monquixote said:

If it's a pub band and you have 10 minutes of dead time between songs as a result then I hate it but for pro bands where you barely notice I'm fine with it.

I've sometimes structured setlists to ensure no dead time when I genuinely have to change guitars - either make sure we have a synth pad or extended drum intro or just scheduled bit of crowd chatter. There's not much worse than a band who takes 30s+ to start the next song. Though in my experience that's more just down to shit bands than shit bands doing slow guitar changes

Supportact

I have a feeling that if I had my own tech/roadie there to sort it all out for me then I would change guitars mid set, for different sounds,  or for slide parts. As it is though that's very unlikely to ever happen so I just take my main guitar (baja telecaster) and keep a back up close by in case of string breaks/malfunctions (cheapo strat copy). 

monquixote

stickyfiddle said:

monquixote said:

If it's a pub band and you have 10 minutes of dead time between songs as a result then I hate it but for pro bands where you barely notice I'm fine with it.

I've sometimes structured setlists to ensure no dead time when I genuinely have to change guitars - either make sure we have a synth pad or extended drum intro or just scheduled bit of crowd chatter. There's not much worse than a band who takes 30s+ to start the next song. Though in my experience that's more just down to shit bands than shit bands doing slow guitar changes

Yeah, I've been in bands where guitar changes were required because a bit of the set required guitars in drop C, but we put all of those tracks together so it was minimised and we made sure it corresponded with a talky bit / song with a long guitar free intro or whatever. 

It's when you see a pub band where it's Les Paul in standard tuning first song, SG in standard tuning second song, 335 in standard tuning third song, with 5 minutes of tuning and noodling each time. I usually want to start throwing stuff at them by that point.

stickyfiddle

monquixote said:

stickyfiddle said:

monquixote said:

If it's a pub band and you have 10 minutes of dead time between songs as a result then I hate it but for pro bands where you barely notice I'm fine with it.

I've sometimes structured setlists to ensure no dead time when I genuinely have to change guitars - either make sure we have a synth pad or extended drum intro or just scheduled bit of crowd chatter. There's not much worse than a band who takes 30s+ to start the next song. Though in my experience that's more just down to shit bands than shit bands doing slow guitar changes

Yeah, I've been in bands where guitar changes were required because a bit of the set required guitars in drop C, but we put all of those tracks together so it was minimised and we made sure it corresponded with a talky bit / song with a long guitar free intro or whatever. 

It's when you see a pub band where it's Les Paul in standard tuning first song, SG in standard tuning second song, 335 in standard tuning third song, with 5 minutes of tuning and noodling each time. I usually want to start throwing stuff at them by that point.

And of course the second guitarist is also playing an HH guitar playing exactly the same parts, and both with the same tone via identical Marshall DSL / Fender HRD combos... 

CaseOfAce

My preference is to play the whole gig using one guitar (currently a telecaster with a strat as backup - just like Danny above).

 I find swapping guitars a distraction, breaks up the set (which has no requirement for non-standard tunings) and a faff to adjust volume settings (i.e. going from single coil to humbucker and back) - all under the gaze of my bandmates who are keen to get on to the next song in the set.

ScreamingDave

monquixote said:

stickyfiddle

It's when you see a pub band where it's Les Paul in standard tuning first song, SG in standard tuning second song, 335 in standard tuning third song, with 5 minutes of tuning and noodling each time. I usually want to start throwing stuff at them by that point.

Yeah, this is exactly what I’m talking about

Gilly

monquixote said:

It's when you see a pub band where it's Les Paul in standard tuning first song, SG in standard tuning second song, 335 in standard tuning third song, with 5 minutes of tuning and noodling each time. I usually want to start throwing stuff at them by that point.

Does that really happen though? Who’d be dump enough to take a load of valuable guitars to a pub gig? 

monquixote

Gilly said:

monquixote said:

It's when you see a pub band where it's Les Paul in standard tuning first song, SG in standard tuning second song, 335 in standard tuning third song, with 5 minutes of tuning and noodling each time. I usually want to start throwing stuff at them by that point.

Does that really happen though? Who’d be dump enough to take a load of valuable guitars to a pub gig? 

I've seen it happen and it can be a Harley Benton Les Paul and SG not a CS (although I've seen this too). 

relic245

If it's needed yes. 

I can't remember who it was at download a few years ago, but one band the guitarist changed guitars almost every song. 

I'm not buying it that they were all different tunings as he must have gone through at least 15 different guitars. 

To me that is pure ego,. Look at me I've got 15 high end guitars and I didn't pay for any of them. I just phone Gibson or PRS and they just give me as many as I want because I'm doing their advertising  for them. 

From a sustainability point of view I don't like that. 

If you're in a pro band with 4 different tunings I get that you might want 8 guitars so that you've got multiple backups but there is a point where it becomes pure wankery.