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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:
Other than that, nobody cares!
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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.
Some other reasons I can think of to change guitars mid set:
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.
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
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.
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.
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).
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.