Don’t Change Guitar Mid-Set!

ICBM

Annoying pretentious wankery, mostly.

How many classical violinists change instrument even for radically different pieces?

hollywoodrox

PScreamingDave said:

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!

 

Why let it bother you so much ?  Lots of different guitars have their useful points for certain songs & if you own them why not use them  especially if you have a crew to make it even easier for you 

FelineGuitars

I used to guitar tech for my brother's (grunge) band in the early to mid 90s.

The rhythm guitarist would push his tele so far out of tune or break a string almost every song that having me alternate his guitars was the one way to get the band through a set smoothly.

Did that with another friend's band too later on 

I think with some larger bands it just stops the messing about between songs and makes things run smooth and with some it is like wardrobe changes and keeps things interesting .

Remember that Clapton got the name SLOW HAND from the slow hand clapping that the audience would break into whilst waiting for him to replace a string with Cream 

TheBigDipper

As a member of the audience, I really don't care one way or the other. As a player, I'm lazy. I'll take a spare guitar in case the first one breaks in some way but that's it. And I've never had a guitar fail at a gig, nor even broken a string, so far... But I still take a spare. 

stickyfiddle

TheBigDipper said:

As a member of the audience, I really don't care one way or the other. As a player, I'm lazy. I'll take a spare guitar in case the first one breaks in some way but that's it. And I've never had a guitar fail at a gig, nor even broken a string, so far... But I still take a spare. 

I had a Start pickup go horribly microphones mid-gig once. I won’t gig without a spare now…!! 

AntonHunter

ICBM said:

Annoying pretentious wankery, mostly.

How many classical violinists change instrument even for radically different pieces?

Plenty of classical trumpet players do, however.

davros

I think it totally depends on the venue and the size/fame of the band and whether you have a crew.

We play a mix of pubs, clubs and private functions, and I used to take 2 guitars - typically a LP and a Tele, and swap when the song worked better with one or the other. But, we've got to the stage where we have less than 5 seconds from the end of a song and the drummer is counting in. It stops the crowd waiting around and most importantly leaving the dance floor, but I have to hold my hand up if I need to tune, so changing guitars isn't feasible. Normally a quick strum on the polytune between songs or in a bit where I'm not playing, to see if any strings are far out.

So, I just pick one and use it through the night unless I happen to break a string. The punters don't know the difference and couldn't care less what colour guitar I'm playing for which song. The upside is fewer string changes, as I'm only doing 1 guitar per 2 or 3 gigs, instead of 2+.

slacker

Some bands alternate guitars for tuning. 

It doesn't bother me if it's done with a roadie. However the stuff I do it would be tiresome 8f we had an audience.

merlin

I like to segue all the songs together. There's no time to change instruments. 

Keefy

I almost always take two guitars to a gig, based on their suitability for the music, the look, whatever. The venue could be anything from a pub to a theatre.

Sometimes I only play one, and the other is there as a spare. Sometimes I want to play different guitars on different songs, in which case I go through the set list beforehand and break it up into chunks so that I’m not changing too frequently. Example: Last week I played a gig where the set included Footloose (twangy - Strat) and Fat Bottomed Girls (humbucker, drop-D tuned - Tele Deluxe). Neither song would have worked very well with the other guitar, although I could have managed at a pinch.

Sometimes I’ll find that a particular guitar just isn’t working for me and I’ll play the rest of the gig on the other. I’ve even been known to change mid-song.

If you’re in a major touring band and you want to use a particular guitar for a particular song, fill your boots. Your guitar tech will make sure you have a quick change-over. I’ll never have a guitar tech but I have found that a wireless connection (Boss WL-20) makes for a much quicker guitar change.

Gilly

Jeez. It’s called show business for a reason!

ElectricXII

Keefy said:

I almost always take two guitars to a gig, based on their suitability for the music, the look, whatever. The venue could be anything from a pub to a theatre.

Sometimes I only play one, and the other is there as a spare. Sometimes I want to play different guitars on different songs, in which case I go through the set list beforehand and break it up into chunks so that I’m not changing too frequently. Example: Last week I played a gig where the set included Footloose (twangy - Strat) and Fat Bottomed Girls (humbucker, drop-D tuned - Tele Deluxe). Neither song would have worked very well with the other guitar, although I could have managed at a pinch.

Sometimes I’ll find that a particular guitar just isn’t working for me and I’ll play the rest of the gig on the other. I’ve even been known to change mid-song.

If you’re in a major touring band and you want to use a particular guitar for a particular song, fill your boots. Your guitar tech will make sure you have a quick change-over. I’ll never have a guitar tech but I have found that a wireless connection (Boss WL-20) makes for a much quicker guitar change.

I'm the same. I gig with an LP Special P90 as my main guitar and a Tele or an ES-335 as a spare. Sometimes I'll swap to the other guitar for the second set, or because a particular song just works better with a particular guitar, but I rarely do this.

A downside with swapping from the LP Special to the Tele, for example, is that I need to tweak all my drive pedals which is a pain. I'm suppose the pros who use multiple guitars in a gig have people to tweak their rigs for them. 

Keefy

ICBM said:

Annoying pretentious wankery, mostly.

How many classical violinists change instrument even for radically different pieces?

I see you're on the fence about this issue.

ESBlonde

I take 3 guitars to gigs. An acoustic, 335 and either tele or strat.
use of matched transmitters to a single receiver means swap over is seamless and I group songs so it’s not very frequent, often a couple of times a set including the acoustic which is hard wired to its own signal chain.
I’ve used two electric guitars live since the early 80s without issues.

Fez

I take 2 guitars to a gig so sometimes I will use one first set and one for the second, though I will occasionally change once mid set depending on the song running order as there are a couple of songs we do that can be a struggle if not using the ideal guitar. We do try to keep guitar changes to a minimum. 
Some things depend on the length of the gig on a short gig I would have to have a good reason for a guitar change. For short gigs we often take 3 guitars between us so we have one spare between us in case of a technical issue.

snowblind

Horses for courses as they say. Certain guitars suit certain songs so a semi-hollow, a strat/tele and some form of humbucker bludgeon covers most of the bases.  

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Edge pretty much has a guitar per song. Why? Because he can one supposes. Does he have to play "I will follow" on that explorer?

Also depends to some extent on the rest of the rig. If you are firmly into high-gain territory it is possibly less critical on what generates the initial wave form than if you play through something brutally clean and unforgiving. If your signal chain loses some of the detail along the way so the differences between guitars becomes less pronounced then whatever feels comfortable. 

If you can play a chord and have someone say instantly, "That's a <whatever>." then it probably matters more than how well it chugs. How badly do you want to chase any given tone in a single song throughout a set?

Lestratcaster

I did a showcase at the place where I studied and I did several guitar changes, I think I used 4 different guitars. 1 was acoustic so I kinda had to change it for that song. 1 was in drop d and the others in standard. But we had sidestage techs so changes were seamless.

When I played in my own bands I only ever did a guitar change once, because the cover song we played was in a different tuning.

Since then I've mainly used the same guitar for the whole set with a backup on hand which is pretty much a replica of my main guitar.

stufisher

Rory Gallagher ... nuff said!

BrizzleRocker

ScreamingDave said:

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!

 

I use 4 guitars live:

• Les Paul for standard and drop D/B
• Strat - standard tuning, single coil sound
• Tele - strung with 13s and tuned down a whole step
• Another LP tuned down a 1/2 step

I do it because I care!!! It makes me feel better and therefore I believe I play better. Also trying to capture the feel and sound of many different guitarists. 

It’s borderline wankery but I’ve not had any complaints!

Mattharrier

I understand the feeling behind this - does an audience really care what guitar is being played? They certainly aren't in the best venue, or state of inebriation, to be able to make a judgement - but the same must extend to guitars under any circumstance. If you can gig with one guitar, presumably you can then only own one (and maybe a spare). All of the mythos behind different guitars playing differently, subtle nuances like neck radius, nut width or pickup type are complete bullshit, and anyone who owns more than a couple is a pretentious wanker.

Unless all of that does matter, in which case, it matters regardless of where the player is. While accepting the reality of the situation - a loud, badly sound-proofed venue full of moving people is going to be a great leveller for guitar tone - the only factor that isn't relevant while playing live that is relevant elsewhere is the sound. Everything else is unaffected by the location (except possibly the look of the guitar, but having witnessed someone disparage a guitarist for playing Apache on a Les Paul, I'd say it's pretty important), and so if swapping a Tele for a Mustang, or a Jazzmaster for an SG, makes that player feel more into it, why would they not?

At the level of gig that this might cause huge gaps in the set while the guitarist does their own instrument swapping, you probably haven't paid much money, so just leave and chalk it up to experience. Or talk to the people next to you until the music starts again.