How many guitars do you NEED for a gig?

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cephus

cephus

Slow Children Playing
The point of the other thread was pretty much that you don't NEED any of them, do you?

Such is this question I am pondering. I am playing saturday at this halloween party thing. I normally take out the jambolin and use it alone all night, with my strat sitting there with shitty old strings ready to rescue me in the even of wardrobe malfunction. Since I have been working on this 2 humbucker squier strat, I want to take it out, too. But it won't really replace the middle pickup on a strat sound that I use all night. So, that's 3 guitars.

AND, I bought this squier mini strat, which I tune up to G. We play alot of shuffles and bluesey things in G and I thought it'd be fun to try them on the mini and get to do all the licks as if out of E. Plus, you always have the schtick of saying "Someone told me they wanted to hear a little guitar tonight. Anyone want to hear a little guitar?" So that's like a half. Three and a half guitars.

That's too much crap to carry in. I always thought guys who brought out more than 2 guitars to a bar gig were gear dorks. I guess I'm one now.

I am definitely digging on the Squier thing, though. When it's closer to done, I'll post a picture. It is totally the disco slut.
 
I take two guitars to gigs. Not always the same two, but two non the less. In small clubs, I may only have room for one on stage but I'll have #2 in case I break a string.
 
When my main guitar was a Gibson (I've had an ES-335, an SG, and an LP) I never broke strings on stage and never needed a backup.

When I switched to the Strat as my main stage guitar, the damn thing would break strings just from looking at it crosseyed. :mad: It definitely requires a backup. (I need to block that tremolo - the tuning goes to shit when I break a string.)
 
There are 3 guitar players in my band. We have 6 guitars on stage. Each player has their favorite and we have an Acoustic/Electric, 12 String Ric, and one Electric tuned to G on the stage.
 
Usually I'd take 2-a Les Paul and a Strat style w/bridge Humbucker-and the Strat was played 75% of the night, with it's variety of tones and lighter weight. Though lately I've used a Tele style with a coil tapping Humbucker in the bridge and got by without a backup.
Mixing the 2 pickups in the middle position I can get a close strat out of phase as well as a beefy Gibson Humbucker tone as well as a single coil Tele twang! Without the tremolo bridge its not as much of a disaster if a string breaks-the tuning doesn't go all to hell anyway.
 
I like to have two with me (a PRS CE-22 and an Ernie Ball John Petrucci Musicman). I hate having to change strings on the fly just in case.
 
cephus said:
The point of the other thread was pretty much that you don't NEED any of them, do you?

Such is this question I am pondering. I am playing saturday at this halloween party thing. I normally take out the jambolin and use it alone all night, with my strat sitting there with shitty old strings ready to rescue me in the even of wardrobe malfunction. Since I have been working on this 2 humbucker squier strat, I want to take it out, too. But it won't really replace the middle pickup on a strat sound that I use all night. So, that's 3 guitars.

AND, I bought this squier mini strat, which I tune up to G. We play alot of shuffles and bluesey things in G and I thought it'd be fun to try them on the mini and get to do all the licks as if out of E. Plus, you always have the schtick of saying "Someone told me they wanted to hear a little guitar tonight. Anyone want to hear a little guitar?" So that's like a half. Three and a half guitars.

That's too much crap to carry in. I always thought guys who brought out more than 2 guitars to a bar gig were gear dorks. I guess I'm one now.

I am definitely digging on the Squier thing, though. When it's closer to done, I'll post a picture. It is totally the disco slut.
Click to expand...

I love my Squier mini-Strat. Spent two weeks playing a cafe every night in Hungary with it, and it held up just fine for that.
 
I guess it would depend on whether the band used alternate tunings during a set or not.
Also, if one guitar wasn't really dependable, but I would use 2 regularly.
One with wammy, and one without.
I felt better if one was on a stand close by in case of a problem too.
 
i would want two just in case of string breakage. i'd probably take both les pauls. the goddess and the studio.
 
Two...one for me on stage and one for the player back stage really playing it.... :eek: :D
 
I always had 2 guitar in each tuning. That normally meant 4 guitars.
 
I usually take 3. If I break strings on all of them in one set, we end the set and i restring one or just that particular string / or if I can, I'll finish the set with 4-5 strings.
 
2 or 3 depending on my mood. I have taken and used as many as 6 but that was a rare thing.
 
i take all of mine.

all of one of them.

:o

but when another happens to turn up in my collection, i'll probably keep taking the squier with me to gigs. i want my singer to start using it and as a back up for broken strings (though i've never broken a string live, and i'm happy with how it holds its tuning for a less-than-£180 guitar :) )

the best bit in our set is when i play trombone half way through a song and don't have a guitar stand - everyone has to be careful not to jump on my guitar lying on the ground for the rest of that song :p

Andy.
 
andydeedpoll said:
the best bit in our set is when i play trombone half way through a song and don't have a guitar stand - everyone has to be careful not to jump on my guitar lying on the ground for the rest of that song :p

Andy.
Click to expand...
Guitar stands aren't that expensive.
 
I usually carry 2 and a set of strings. My SG is always reliable, and for a backup I switch around (depends on my mood, I guess) between my tele, my Greg Bennett LP knockoff, or my old 80's Peavey Milestone. Sometimes I almost wish my SG would break a string so I'd have an excuse to bust out my other guitars cause they are all custom or unknown. The tele was a Saga kit with Bill Lawrence pickups (sounds like sex). The Milestone I got at a yardsale for $25 and it has the Deftones carved (yes, carved) into it. It's the sex.
 
I always carry spare sets of strings. I played professionally for most of my life. I never took more than one axe to axe to a gig except on rare occations and never had problems with strings breaking. Of course I used to change strings 3 times a week. My take is if you are using alt. tunnings you should take more than one axe.
 
Always two, in case of a string breakage! On the odd occasion 3 may venture out!
 
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