Gigging with one guitar....

Gassage

Uselful titbit- Eric Clapton's slowhand nickname came because he used to take one guitar. One night he broke a string and the audience slowhand clapped him whilst he changed it. Fact.

Brad

If it makes someone feel comfortable having a spare, that's no bad thing in my mind. Personally I only take one, and in 5 years of gigging most weekends I've snapped a string maybe 3 times and had an amp issue on maybe two occasions.

What did I do? Well with the strings I just waited till an interval (if it went during the first set) rather than between songs. It's a great way to learn how to play the same things in different areas of the guitar for starters!!

With any amp issues I plugged into the PA. Most people just wanna dance rather than worry themselves over the finer details of my tone. As long as you can get through the gig, that's the most important thing.

Admittedly, if anything really horrific does happen, that could very well change my outlook. Till then I'm not even gonna worry about what ifs and maybes.

jeztone2

Christ Imagine you hire a wedding photographer & his camera broke, would you not expect a spare? Aside from an acoustic musician I saw wittily incorporate a string change into his act. For 99% of people. If they have tech issues on stage & don't resolve them quickly, it looks...amateurish. I can run another EHX mini power amp into my combo, I've even considered a spare pedalboard one of those Tech 21 fly rigs. My last main back line failure was at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen supporting Six.By Seven, my main amp developed a problem in sound check so we always kept the singers old head as a spare. Glad we did.

ICBM

jeztone2 said:

Christ Imagine you hire a wedding photographer & his camera broke, would you not expect a spare? Aside from an acoustic musician I saw wittily incorporate a string change into his act. For 99% of people. If they have tech issues on stage & don't resolve them quickly, it looks...amateurish.

Quickly is the key. If you can change a string in a minute while the singer says something amusing, where's the problem?

Being able to make the show go on is important, how you do it is not. For me, I'd rather carry the minimum of gear that I know is as close to totally reliable as possible in the first place and have a strategy for getting out of trouble if necessary than to carry more stuff which increases the risk of something getting knocked over or stolen, or means you have to make more trips out to the car while leaving the rest unattended etc. The very few times I've ever taken two guitars to a gig, I've found it more stressful than taking one.

I don't disagree with anyone who wants to take two guitars because that's their least-stress way of coping with a problem - although it does put you at the mercy of a second failure, if you don't *also* know how to fix stuff - but I do very much disagree with those of you who say you *must* take a backup and that anything else is wrong. It's patronising and annoying.

p90fool

newi123 said:

At the lower end of the market (ie touring on a budget!) they still do. I brought Richie Kotzen over in 2010 to do a 2 week, 10 show tour. He arrived with a single guitar, leads, zoom g2 and lots of strings. Changed his ow strings before every show.

The most recent rig run down on Premier Guitar for Wayne Krantz, he also says he`s just travelling with one guitar - suhr I believe.

Jerry donahue is the same, hire car, Tele, amp sim.

jeztone2 said:

 I've even considered a spare pedalboard .

You do know that you are the only person in the entire room who gives a shit whether you even HAVE a pedalboard don't you?


Maybe having a backup guitar really is seen as a sign of professionalism but nothing shouts "amateur" to me more than watching a bunch of fat planning officers singing about dem cotton pickin' blues surrounded by stands with every pearloid-scratchplated Strat, quilted PRS and flametop Les Paul they can muster between them.
I don't care what guitars you own, just make me f***ing dance.

lloyd

I never take a spare, I've broken a string once or twice in hundreds of gigs. I can change a string pretty quickly. I'd maybe take a spare between us if I did weddings or corporate gigs, but maybe not. It's not a major issue for me.

Brad

I tell you what I think is amateurish and unprofessional - not learning the the first dance, or the bands set or not being able to transpose a song down a minor 3rd to suit the singer.

Almost anything gear related can be overcome. Unless it is something you just can't account for. What if both PA speakers go? What if your car breaks down on route to the gig? I've been in situations where the PA system has been massively causing concern, and collectively we found a way around it. Do I expect the singer to have a spare PA system in his car? No. Would it make me question his professionalism? No. Sometimes shit happens. Although I do have breakdown cover :-)

Danny1969

It's apples and oranges though guitar strings are a consumable they going to break ..... Just a question of when. Also a guitar string need stretching in if you play rock music and do a lot of Bends otherwise it will be flat very quickly

Get by with five strings, okay try and play Mr Brightside with no open top E string ..... It won't sound right not even to Joe public

Brad

Danny1969 said:

It's apples and oranges though guitar strings are a consumable they going to break ..... Just a question of when. Also a guitar string need stretching in if you play rock music and do a lot of Bends otherwise it will be flat very quickly

Get by with five strings, okay try and play Mr Brightside with no open top E string ..... It won't sound right not even to Joe public

I do, and Joe public love it just fine. I'm not going to take another guitar for just one song ;-) Also, as @ICBM points out, being able to fix things properly saves a lot of hassle in the long run. If I do snap a string, I use the locking method so there is no (or very little) need to stretch the string in.

p90fool

I think the important point is to have a contingency plan, and there is no single approach because we're all different are so are our gigs.

When I started out I used to take a spare guitar to gigs, then when I started doing better as a musician I started to get the sort of jobs where having a spare was meaningless. You can't put down your guitar and pick up another mid song on a live radio session.
The only contingency plan there is Plan A, ie, don't break a bloody string.

In my current covers band we have a couple of songs which aren't on our planned setlist but they can be done without either me or the other guitar player. If either of us break a string (it's never me btw) we just play a song which only requires one of us, while the other changes it.

Some people are happier having a spare guitar onstage, I'm happier not to. I just got out of the habit when I was doing the sort of work which rendered it pointless anyway.

John_P

^ +1       I'm not sure why some people are so insistent that taking a spare or not is a huge deal either way.   Have reliable gear and a back up plan where possible.   Carrying extra speakers is obviously a hassle, but for me grabbing a second guitar as I load up for a gig isn't a big deal.

 if you feel more comfortable chaining  string if one goes then fine, I'd rather grab my spare and sort it during a break - for me that's quicker and I can change strings fast but I don't like doing it onstage. So long as you're good to carry on with the show asap it's all fine.

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

Also a guitar string need stretching in if you play rock music and do a lot of Bends otherwise it will be flat very quickly

If you fit and stretch the string correctly as you tune it up it will be rock-solid immediately.

The only strings this isn't true of are nylon classical strings.

Danny1969

ICBM said:

Danny1969 said:

Also a guitar string need stretching in if you play rock music and do a lot of Bends otherwise it will be flat very quickly

If you fit and stretch the string correctly as you tune it up it will be rock-solid immediately.

The only strings this isn't true of are nylon classical strings.

I guarantee you if you fitted a string for me it wouldn't hold it's tuning until it's been stretched after being fitted as I have a very aggressive playing style. It would go flat.

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

I guarantee you if you fitted a string for me it wouldn't hold it's tuning until it's been stretched after being fitted as I have a very aggressive playing style. It would go flat.

That's why you have to stretch them as you tune up. If you do it properly the string is fully stretched when it reaches pitch - or technically not 'stretched', because they don't, what you're doing is forming it tightly to the post, bridge saddle etc.

If you do it really thoroughly the string will not go flat when you're playing, no matter how heavy your technique. You also need to lock-wrap it to the post to ensure the minimum of winding which helps remove any creep there.

Trust me, I've stage-teched for someone with a very aggressive technique too and he didn't have a problem.

Even if there was some residual slip, how long does it take you to stretch it? Five or ten seconds?

Sassafras

The only time I've needed 2 guitars was when I used an electric and a 12 string acoustic. If I'd wanted spares, I'd have had to cart around 4 guitars just to be on the safe side.

Fiftyshadesofjay

ICBM said:

Fiftyshadesofjay said:

Not to mention the fact that knackering your jack socket is just as easy, all you need to do is step on your lead and pull the guitar at the same time.

Only if you don't run the cable through the strap, and if you're any kind of professional musician you should know better than to not do.

Knackering a proper Switchcraft jack is actually pretty difficult. If you've still got some crappy far-east-made one in your guitar, change it.

I must be unlucky as I've destroyed loads of jack sockets and I've tucked my lead round my strap since I was about fifteen.

Of course it depends on the situation as well, if you're the type of guitarist that plucks the strings lighter than the average passing breeze then you're less likely to have issues.

If you play in a heavy band and are fairly active on stage there's a lot more scope for things to break and go wrong.

Sassafras

I once came close to having a jack socket come loose on a Strat, since then I've always been careful to tighten them up as routine maintenance work. No more problems.

ICBM

Fiftyshadesofjay said:

I must be unlucky as I've destroyed loads of jack sockets and I've tucked my lead round my strap since I was about fifteen.

Of course it depends on the situation as well, if you're the type of guitarist that plucks the strings lighter than the average passing breeze then you're less likely to have issues.

If you play in a heavy band and are fairly active on stage there's a lot more scope for things to break and go wrong.

lol

I suppose I'm talking about normal use - I do thrash the *strings* pretty hard, but I do a passable statue impression on stage so I've never come across that problem .

Have you considered a wireless? Or some sort of much more robust jack (eg XLR)? I tend to change anything that breaks so it won't do it again…

Sassafras said:

I once came close to having a jack socket come loose on a Strat, since then I've always been careful to tighten them up as routine maintenance work. No more problems.

I fit them with a shakeproof washer, superglue and a socket set ratchet handle . They never, ever come loose again - not even on schools guitars, and kids can usually wreck anything.

NB, you have to use a Switchcraft since the far-east ones aren't strong enough to withstand being tightened like that.

Fiftyshadesofjay

ICBM said:

Fiftyshadesofjay said:

I must be unlucky as I've destroyed loads of jack sockets and I've tucked my lead round my strap since I was about fifteen.

Of course it depends on the situation as well, if you're the type of guitarist that plucks the strings lighter than the average passing breeze then you're less likely to have issues.

If you play in a heavy band and are fairly active on stage there's a lot more scope for things to break and go wrong.

lol

I suppose I'm talking about normal use - I do thrash the *strings* pretty hard, but I do a passable statue impression on stage so I've never come across that problem .

Have you considered a wireless? Or some sort of much more robust jack (eg XLR)? I tend to change anything that breaks so it won't do it again.

Funnily enough I'm certain my next purchase will be a wireless system for that very reason. I find myself constantly treading on my lead during shows, which either leads to a broken jack, a broken lead (more common) or at the very least the lead wrapped round my leg a couple of times a show! 

jeztone2

p90fool;636146" said:

newi123 said:





At the lower end of the market (ie touring on a budget!) they still do. I brought Richie Kotzen over in 2010 to do a 2 week, 10 show tour. He arrived with a single guitar, leads, zoom g2 and lots of strings. Changed his ow strings before every show.

The most recent rig run down on Premier Guitar for Wayne Krantz, he also says he`s just travelling with one guitar - suhr I believe.
















Jerry donahue is the same, hire car, Tele, amp sim.






jeztone2 said:

 I've even considered a spare pedalboard .









You do know that you are the only person in the entire room who gives a shit whether you even HAVE a pedalboard don't you?





Maybe having a backup guitar really is seen as a sign of professionalism but nothing shouts "amateur" to me more than watching a bunch of fat planning officers singing about dem cotton pickin' blues surrounded by stands with every pearloid-scratchplated Strat, quilted PRS and flametop Les Paul they can muster between them.

I don't care what guitars you own, just make me f***ing dance.

But I've only had one occasion where my rigs gone down in 28 years of gigging & your trying to make some kind of personal attack?