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Does your guitarist bring backups?
- Thread starter MultiScaleMale
- Start date
What, no backup cords either?
Well, two guitars means one is at least available as a backup. Most of the guys I play with bring two to the gig.
Ours does. We play a fair number of corporate or private gigs and I think everyone in the band realizes we can't afford to have malfunctions. I only bring a backup bass if it's that kind of gig though.
In almost 50 years of gigging, I've had amps die, speakers blow, bass, guitar & input jacks fail, strings break and a PA amp fry, all at least once.
If it hasn't happened to you, you're either real lucky, or stick around a little longer.
Either way in my experience, not preparing for it is just rolling the dice on when, not if, you let your team down.
If it hasn't happened to you, you're either real lucky, or stick around a little longer.
Either way in my experience, not preparing for it is just rolling the dice on when, not if, you let your team down.
Rather late in my gigging days I started carrying a spare. ( A second P no less)
As a "just in case" bass.
By then I was playing with 2 guitarists who also took back up instruments.
But early on?
I played with one guy for about 7 years who only rocked the same 75 hard tail
Strat. If he broke a string... He fixed it.
In my first couple of bands, we were lucky to have one set up each.
As a "just in case" bass.
By then I was playing with 2 guitarists who also took back up instruments.
But early on?
I played with one guy for about 7 years who only rocked the same 75 hard tail
Strat. If he broke a string... He fixed it.
In my first couple of bands, we were lucky to have one set up each.
I haven't played in some years, like around 15, but as a former lifelong guitar player, yeah, I ALWAYS used to bring at least two guitars, strings, batteries, extra tubes and fuses for my amp, extra strap, extra cords, little repair kit etc. etc. etc. etc.
And it was always the bassists, without fail, who always wanted to borrow my tuner and sometimes one of my cords. Used to kind of p*ss me off sometimes honestly.
And it was always the bassists, without fail, who always wanted to borrow my tuner and sometimes one of my cords. Used to kind of p*ss me off sometimes honestly.
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I play with a bunch of different guitar players. I've never seen a backup amp. It seems like they all have extra strings and winder/cutters. If they have a second guitar it's for a different sound or function (like a slide specific axe or a alt tuning like DADGAD or Nashville). Never seen one with a DI, but maybe they have them and never needed them ?
But, to be fair, I'm pretty much the same way. I bring one bass and replacement strings and the associated tools to change them, no backup amp (although I always have an extra DI in my gig bag) and no backup cab. I also have an extra instrument and speaker cable on hand. I've pretty much operated this way for 50+ years of gigging in all kinds of environments and never had any problems. I can kind of remember breaking a string once back in the 70's, and I did lose a power tube in a Fender Bassman once. It still worked for the rest of the set, but it lost a lot of output.
But, to be fair, I'm pretty much the same way. I bring one bass and replacement strings and the associated tools to change them, no backup amp (although I always have an extra DI in my gig bag) and no backup cab. I also have an extra instrument and speaker cable on hand. I've pretty much operated this way for 50+ years of gigging in all kinds of environments and never had any problems. I can kind of remember breaking a string once back in the 70's, and I did lose a power tube in a Fender Bassman once. It still worked for the rest of the set, but it lost a lot of output.
Some do, some don't. I don't hassle the ones who don't. I worked for years with an acoustic guitarist who would sometimes break a string. We'd vamp on whatever tune we were playing while he chatted with the crowd and changed the string mid-song! It became sort of a "bit" we'd do, but never intentionally. I've had every piece of gear fail at one time or another so I come prepared. I remember back in the day when we were all broke and I just kept the old set of strings as a spare (once I was able to afford a second set!) and guitarists frequently had several partial sets, all missing the same string because that's the one they always broke! 
Singles weren't really readily available in the '70's...
The Bar Band Bassman
Singles weren't really readily available in the '70's...The Bar Band Bassman
Nope. One guitar, one amp. I've noticed that both the guitarists and keyboardists in jazz groups tend to bring a big generic bag of cords, probably containing more than they need for any particular gig, so I assume that the extras could be counted as spares. I'm the persnickety one, bringing in just what I need, and leaving the spares in my car.
I've seen it happen 3 times in the last few years in the different of blues bands I play in. All were tube amps. Once the guitar player's amp died on stage in the middle of the IBC Blues challenge where you're being judged. I was playing blues harmonica in that band so I quickly swapped in my tube amp so he could keep playing, then grabbed a vocal mic and played harp through it. Another time my Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue went up in smoke during a gig - power tube failed and took out a resistor. The amp was less than a year old. In the other band the guitar players tube amp stopped working completely in the studio when we were recording. But I've never seen a bass amp stop working in a live situation.
I bring two basses to every gig.
One fretted, and one fretless for that sound and feel on a few songs, but I have had to use the fretless as a "backup" a few times.
Once when half of a dimarzio P pickup went dead in my P Bass, and in a few venues where my fretless just sounded much better in the house system than the other bass I brought that night, so I ended up just playing fretless all night.
One fretted, and one fretless for that sound and feel on a few songs, but I have had to use the fretless as a "backup" a few times.
Once when half of a dimarzio P pickup went dead in my P Bass, and in a few venues where my fretless just sounded much better in the house system than the other bass I brought that night, so I ended up just playing fretless all night.
I started out, playing the guitar so I feel "attacked" ( 
).
Back-ups? I am the guy who remembers to bring the ants to the picnic.
My back-ups have back-ups. I have a "practice bag" (complete with batteries, more cables than I'll ever need, extra picks (three 12 packs), strings [although these are a bit useless, when I'm playing a double-locking tremolo], you name it; it's in there) and a "gig bag" which has all of the aforementioned and even more.
Instruments? I haven't had less than two instruments at a practice or gig since 1984.
).Back-ups? I am the guy who remembers to bring the ants to the picnic.
My back-ups have back-ups. I have a "practice bag" (complete with batteries, more cables than I'll ever need, extra picks (three 12 packs), strings [although these are a bit useless, when I'm playing a double-locking tremolo], you name it; it's in there) and a "gig bag" which has all of the aforementioned and even more.
Instruments? I haven't had less than two instruments at a practice or gig since 1984.
As a guitarist I never had a spare guitar, but that's because I've always been a hobbyist, never got paid for any gig I did, and never could afford to buy a spare guitar (I mean, I had up to 2 guitars at a time, but typically very different ones). The spares I could afford were strings and picks, even though I never broke a string or lose a pick on stage.
It was certainly a risk, especially considering that I typically play guitars with a Floyd Rose bridge, so if you break a string you just stop playing because the rest of the strings go out of tune completely, and then it takes many minutes to carefully retune all strings after replacing the broken one.
It was certainly a risk, especially considering that I typically play guitars with a Floyd Rose bridge, so if you break a string you just stop playing because the rest of the strings go out of tune completely, and then it takes many minutes to carefully retune all strings after replacing the broken one.
So... how does TB's "Must bring a backup" policy work out for him?Don't have a guitarist, and my piano player doesn't bring an instrument at all
My guitarist doesn't bring a second instrument. More often than not, he doesn't even have his own cables on him.
The guitarist we have in one band (the other one being guitarless) never have a backup or anything except string. So each time, he's got cable problems, pedal batteries problems. Sometimes he doesn't forget his tuner. And one time he even forgot his... guitar !!! 
D
Yes, the guitar players I work with generally always bring a backup guitar in case of string breakage. Guitar players break strings relatively often and I would consider it unprofessional if a guitar player didn't bring a backup guitar, unless there was some kind of logistics issue that prevented it. The only exception would be if the guitar player is struggling financially and can't afford to own more than one guitar. If that's the case I would be ok with no backup, as long as he at least brings extra strings.
Personally I've stopped bringing backups for anything (except a set of strings) because I got tired of transporting stuff I NEVER actually needed. The only times I've EVER needed backups for anything were gigs where I couldn't bring my own amp and had to use poorly maintained rental/house amps that broke down. In those situations my "backup" was an external DI box (and this is also the reason why I never use DI outputs on amps). But even this has only happened to me twice out of hundreds of gigs over the years.
Personally I've stopped bringing backups for anything (except a set of strings) because I got tired of transporting stuff I NEVER actually needed. The only times I've EVER needed backups for anything were gigs where I couldn't bring my own amp and had to use poorly maintained rental/house amps that broke down. In those situations my "backup" was an external DI box (and this is also the reason why I never use DI outputs on amps). But even this has only happened to me twice out of hundreds of gigs over the years.
1. I've played over a thousand gigs with my current three piece (guitar/bass/drums, everyone sings) .
2. None of us bring spare anything except for cables, sticks, strings
3. Our guitarist has broken a string twice, changed it offstage while we did drum/bass improv.
4. Strummer broke a snare skin once, flipped it, obviously didn't sound great but show went on.
5. I had the pre-amp go in an active-only bass once and that sucked but muddled through without the preamp.
6. For years I carried a TE Elf in the car for backup, never used it
Everyone is different but for me, the above incident rate is more acceptable than carrying a second bass all the time. For context we are playing small to mid sized pubs and clubs with the occasional festival here and there.
Having said that, I expect the price of the above hubris will be some catastrophic show stopping failure next time we play. Ahem
Fun anecdote: We had a local quasi-celebrity guitar player sit in with us as a guest recently. He's a properly good player but rolled in the door with an amp twice the size we use and two guitars. If eye-rolling made a sound we would have needed ear plugs.
