Quickly recovering from performance snafu's
Quickly recovering from performance snafu's Article written by Joel Honea Back to Cover
It happens to the best of us. ________
You're up there on stage, the spots are on you while you soar through a kickin' guitar solo, you bend that one... note... up... and *boink*, there goes your 1st string. If you happen to be playing a guitar with a fixed bridge, you can usually get through the song without a big problem (except for those 1st string notes you can no longer play), and then lickety-split change your string between songs or sets. If you have a floating (whammy bar) bridge though... 'nuther story entirely. If you're lucky, you can quickly change the string, but then it usually takes a few rounds of _______
stretching and tuning for the bridge to settle back in. You know the routine...
So what do you do at the gig when things are less than perfect on a given night? The best solution to the above scenario is obviously to have a backup guitar on hand to bail you out, then get your main axe back in shape between sets. But what about other things? One of your stomp boxes runs out of juice, one or more of the tubes in your amp decides to go 'ker-plunk' in the first set, or your amp blows a fuse. Like it or not, sometimes that guy called Murphy shows up at the gig and he's not always your biggest fan.
So this article is dedicated to outlining some of these Murphy-isms and some simple things that you, as a guitarist, can do to either avoid them or keep them from ruining your night. The simple motto of the Boy Scouts works well here: be prepared!
1. Bring a backup guitar... Some players bring multiple guitars to a gig for a reason. They need guitars that use different tunings, or have a different tone for certain songs. Others just want to look cool with all those axes on their guitar stand on stage. In any case, having at least one backup is always a great idea, and carrying two guitars to a gig is not that cumbersome.
2. Always have extra strings... Did I say "always?" Strings are one of those "don't leave home without 'em" commodities. You don't want to be caught at a gig without spare strings, so stock up when your local music store has a sale. Oh, and if you want to be able to change strings quickly, get a string winder. They're cheap, and they're worth it.
3. Don't forget the allen wrench! If you have a guitar with a locking nut or locking tuners, be sure you bring the appropriate tools along. More than once I've fumbled around for an allen wrench when I needed to tune or change a string. So be sure to bring them, but also have them accessible during the gig.
4. I'll just pick... (One of my favorite Dregs songs, incidentally) Like strings, picks are something you don't want to leave behind. Even if you happen to have some spares in your gig bag, in all likelihood you've played with them before and they have their share of ___
nicks in them. Stock up on new picks, and always bring them to your gigs. If nothing else, you can make the ladies swoon when you throw them out in the audience!
5. Tube amps need tubes... Sure, they're more expensive to both buy and maintain, but ahhhh... the tone. Sometimes a worn-out tube gives an amp a certain character, but other times a worn-out tube can mean yucky sound for your show or no sound at all. So always have some spare tubes for your amp, make sure they are functional and that they are appropriate for the amp's current bias.
6. Fuses, fuses, fuses... Both tube and solid-state amps can blow fuses, so be sure you have a
few of these in your bag.
7. Ample batteries... Wireless units, stomp
boxes, active electronics: they all require batteries. Having a store
of fresh, new batteries comes in very handy. Even if you have a power
supply, having batteries on hand is a good idea. I once arrived at a
gig only to discover that the power supply for my multi-effects pedal
had some frazzled wires and didn't work, and I had to revert to my battery
backups. __
Those batteries saved my sound that night.
8. Cables do go bad... Everybody has run into this one. "Dude, you got a spare quarter-inch cable?" Have at least one spare. 'Nuff said.
9. Some kind of backup rig... I once arrived at a club in Texas for a first-time gig. It was a nice stage, if just a wee bit cluttered. Remember the scene from A Christmas Story when Mr. Parker plugs the Christmas tree lights into an already over-crowded wall socket? This stage was ten times worse. I think the sound guy kept every piece of sound and lighting gear he ever owned, and kept it all plugged in on that stage! So I readied my rig, and everything was okay for sound check, but soon after we began the first song, suddenly there was no sound coming from my amp. I checked all the usual stuff — connections, cable configurations, levels, tubes, etc. — but nothing I did made any difference. I switched to a compact solid-state backup head I carried around, and it got me through the first _
set. So even though my sound wasn't what I wanted it to be that night, I got through the gig because I had a backup rig that worked, voltage fluctuations and all. Even if the house is great, a backup rig can save you if something goes amiss. Some of those 'designed for the floor' modeling boxes from Line 6, Digitech, Boss, Vox, and others are very convenient in a pinch, are relatively small and easy to tote around, and can be part of your regular rig while serving as a backup.
10. Don't play out of tune... Having a tuner isn't necessarily a "backup" item, but since I loathe playing out-of-tune (or hearing other players play out of tune), I stuck this one in for good measure, and to even out the number at 10.
Surely there are others that I have left out here, but these are the things that most readily came to mind. And lest you think you need an oversized SUV to lug all this stuff around, with today's technology you can get to your gig and still travel light with everything you need. I get to most of my gigs with a 1x12 tube combo, a 4 x 12 cabinet (if necessary), two guitars, and a single athletic bag (the wheeled variety) that has plenty of exterior pockets. It really doesn't take up much room to bring extra strings, picks, tubes, and the like. Believe me, you'll be glad you did, and your band mates will marvel at your preparedness!
Joel Honea
MEET THE WRITER - JOEL HONEA
A native of the Dallas, Texas area, Joel began playing both violin and guitar at age 11, but dropped violin at the end of 9th grade due to its “non-cool” factor and concentrated all his efforts on guitar. "I’ve played with numerous bands over the years, in D/FW, Utah, and Seattle, and have also dabbled in session playing from time-to-time. Currently my only musical endeavor is writing, something to which I’ve wanted to dedicate more attention for a very long time."