Why I carry a spare guitar to gig.

midlifecrisis

I always carry a spare guitar in case of string breakage , for me its quicker to swap guitars than replace string but last weekend im even more aware of the importance of a spare.    half hour before gig starting, im set up just tuning my trusted LP studio and the g string tuner feels gritty and uneven , then it just fails, like the gears inside are just slipping. Who carries a spare set of machine heads with them? not me. luckily i had a spare guitar so no disaster. but a reminder why to carry a spare, as anything can fail.

ICBM

This is true, although if you avoid guitars with those shitty machineheads (I'm assuming it was the tulip-key ones with the front nut, if it was an LP Studio) it tends to happen less often .

Of course, if you gig with a Gibson you can always break the headstock off too .

I don't normally take a spare, but I admit I also very rarely play gigs where we're the only band - since I don't do the weddings/functions circuit - so in a real emergency I'm sure I could ask nicely to borrow someone else's guitar... on the grounds that I've quite likely already worked on it at some point, going by the bands we tend to play with!

Sassafras

I've never needed a back-up guitar but that's only because Fenders are nigh on indestructible.
I'll take an acoustic as a second guitar if the set calls for it.

midlifecrisis

haha yes, shitty tulip tuner, in case of headstock break my backup....telecaster

Lestratcaster

I always take a back up guitar, I don't recall a gig where I've never taken one, although I've never had to use the back up its reassuring to know I can pretty much switch guitars within 8 bars of a song and no one will notice. Both the guitars are similar (Les Paul's) with the same pickup (just different magnets) so I would pretty much get the same sound if I swapped.

simonhpieman

Always take a spare guitar as only guitarist in 3 piece band.

Have broken strings a few times. In the summer months I've even broken 2 or 3 and had to restring mid song - THAT impressed the drummer! Although my finest moment was breaking a string on the intro to Thing Called Love by the Darkness and managed to switch guitars between the first and second lines of the verse. Sadly everyone had fucked off outside to stand in the sunshine so no one saw what must go down as the greatest rock n roll maneuvre of my life.

simonhpieman

Oh: and my G tuner did exactly the same on my LP Studio. I have it in a Hiscox case and wonder if it doesn't let the guitar move around a bit and knock that most vulnerable tuner out.

ICBM

simonhpieman said:

Oh: and my G tuner did exactly the same on my LP Studio. I have it in a Hiscox case and wonder if it doesn't let the guitar move around a bit and knock that most vulnerable tuner out.

Probably not - those tuners are just notoriously crap. I can't remember how many I've changed - it's so common that I always keep a couple of partial sets, usually the other five I've bought back from someone who wanted better ones rather than just more of the same!

One of the major advantages of being a repairer of both amps and guitars (and pedals) is that I get to see what breaks and what doesn't, so I have a very good idea of what I can rely on at gigs and what I wouldn't risk using without a backup.

midlifecrisis

simonhpieman said:

Oh: and my G tuner did exactly the same on my LP Studio. I have it in a Hiscox case and wonder if it doesn't let the guitar move around a bit and knock that most vulnerable tuner out.

my tuner had previously a couple of years ago had fallen over and the stem of the tuner had bent, id managed to bend it back but probably weakened it so wasnt totally surprised. ive ordered a new set but dont know if they are any better. Still, the guitar is 10 years old so its not a monthly occurance (il probably break the other 5 next week)

ICBM

midlifecrisis said:

my tuner had previously a couple of years ago had fallen over and the stem of the tuner had bent, id managed to bend it back but probably weakened it so wasnt totally surprised.

It's actually more surprising that the whole thing didn't just fall apart then... they usually do.

midlifecrisis said:

ive ordered a new set but dont know if they are any better. Still, the guitar is 10 years old so its not a monthly occurance (il probably break the other 5 next week)

If they're the same style then no. Just make sure you don't throw the other five away, and possibly keep them in the guitar case... you could actually change one between sets in five minutes with a small screwdriver and a spanner.

midlifecrisis

ICBM said:

midlifecrisis said:

my tuner had previously a couple of years ago had fallen over and the stem of the tuner had bent, id managed to bend it back but probably weakened it so wasnt totally surprised.

It's actually more surprising that the whole thing didn't just fall apart then... they usually do.

midlifecrisis said:

ive ordered a new set but dont know if they are any better. Still, the guitar is 10 years old so its not a monthly occurance (il probably break the other 5 next week)

If they're the same style then no. Just make sure you don't throw the other five away, and possibly keep them in the guitar case... you could actually change one between sets in five minutes with a small screwdriver and a spanner.

in view of how little space thats gonna take up i think i will do that

vasselmeyer

I rarely break strings but sod's law means that it only happens at the most inconvenient times. We once played a tiny TINY place and there was room for virtually nothing. The drummer used an electric kit, the bassist went and I went DI and there were no monitors. I just took my PRS in a foldable gig bag.

Halfway through the second set I popped a high E string. I couldn't play on as I have the trem set floating so I had to do a string change. The PRS locking tuners made this an absolute doddle and I was up and playing again in less than a minute. The only problem was that I couldn't get the ball end of the broken string out so I just left it in there and threaded the new string through the block. Back at home it took bloody ages to get something in there so I could get the old ball end out.

midlifecrisis

vasselmeyer said:

I rarely break strings but sod's law means that it only happens at the most inconvenient times. We once played a tiny TINY place and there was room for virtually nothing. The drummer used an electric kit, the bassist went and I went DI and there were no monitors. I just took my PRS in a foldable gig bag.

Halfway through the second set I popped a high E string. I couldn't play on as I have the trem set floating so I had to do a string change. The PRS locking tuners made this an absolute doddle and I was up and playing again in less than a minute. The only problem was that I couldn't get the ball end of the broken string out so I just left it in there and threaded the new string through the block. Back at home it took bloody ages to get something in there so I could get the old ball end out.

nothing worse than trying to get your ball-end out on a crowded stage

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

This is true, although if you avoid guitars with those shitty machineheads (I'm assuming it was the tulip-key ones with the front nut, if it was an LP Studio) it tends to happen less often .

Does anyone make a good direct replacement for those tulip button, bolt bushing tuners?  There are Grovers and Schallers, I think Faber have them now too, but they all look so similar to the Gibson ones I'm not sure if they're actually the exact same tuners.

TonePros/Kluson made them for a while, but they're not available any more. 

drwiddly

I always bring two guitars to a gig. I rarely break strings but better safe than sorry. I quite often switch between then throughout the night to add a bit of interest (mainly for me - I doubt the audience notices any difference )

As I use a digital rig, I carry a spare preamp, a spare Midi switcher (2 button) and loads of spare cables. Dib dib dib.

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

Does anyone make a good direct replacement for those tulip button, bolt bushing tuners?  There are Grovers and Schallers, I think Faber have them now too, but they all look so similar to the Gibson ones I'm not sure if they're actually the exact same tuners.

They're all the same basic design - a soft alloy cast cover which holds the gear shaft in place, fixed to the baseplate by either two rectangular, or one rectangular and two round pins. Because the metal is too soft and not strong enough, the pins either pop their rivetting or simply snap off, very easily if the key gets bashed but sometimes just by themselves. If the rivets have just popped out (more common with the rectangular ones) you can fix them, but if they snap off (more common with the round ones) it needs a new tuner.

There are no other better equivalents with both the same two-screw footprint and a threaded front collar. The only simple alternatives are to use vintage-style Kluson-type pressed-steel tuners (which are much stronger and don't suffer from this) with a conversion bushing, or a different threaded-collar tuner with a different screw fitting - Grover Rotomatics actually fit the lower of the two holes so you don't need to drill anything, but they leave the upper one visible, and a lot of people don't like the look or weight of them.

Sorry, this has become a bit of a tuner-specific thread! They really are crap though, and it's one thing that would make me think twice about gigging with a guitar with them, with no backup. Although, I have...

newi123

I never take a spare guitar. Strat (trem flat to body) or tele for me. So a string break wouldn`t mean a hard stop. In saying that, I have never broken a string at a gig............ probably until this weekend! :-)

I do take a EHX Magnum 44 as a spare amp solution. Again, never yet needed.

midlifecrisis

newi123 said:

I never take a spare guitar. Strat (trem flat to body) or tele for me. So a string break wouldn`t mean a hard stop. In saying that, I have never broken a string at a gig............ probably until this weekend! :-)

I do take a EHX Magnum 44 as a spare amp solution. Again, never yet needed.

i think thats brave. My concerns are that even if strings/tuners dont break there are other things ie jack socket could fail, switch or wiring could fail, all things easily fixed in the comfort of your home and a soldering iron but wouldnt want to be dealing with that at a gig scares me.  8 years gigging now, never had a guitar fail apart from occasional string break and last weekends machine head fail, ive always taken a spare guitar. Im actually considering taking a 3rd (cheapy guitar) to leave in the car just in case (something like a used £100 job that wouldnt be earth shattering if it got nicked, but would get me through the gig in the unlikely event of two guitars failing.

ICBM

midlifecrisis said:

My concerns are that even if strings/tuners dont break there are other things ie jack socket could fail, switch or wiring could fail, all things easily fixed in the comfort of your home and a soldering iron but wouldnt want to be dealing with that at a gig scares me.

This is one of the things I like about my Rick 4001 bass - it has two pickups, two independent sets of controls, and two jacks... the only electrical component which could fail and stop me getting a signal out of it is the switch, and even that failing in a way that wouldn't let at least one pickup work is almost impossible. It might not necessarily be the pickup I would want, but it would get me by. OK, I could still break a machinehead or the neck, but that's still a whole lot of potential failure possibilities taken care of.

Same with valve amps - the last one I gigged with had two separate channels, two speakers, four power valves and even two rectifiers - with just a couple of spare fuses I could almost certainly have got it going again just by pulling or disconnecting whatever was faulty.

It's also one of the things I try to make sure of with any band I've been in - everyone else's gear needs to be similarly reliable, and if that means replacing jacks with top-quality ones, cables with good ones, providing spare power supplies, etc etc, then I've always been happy to do it - I'd far rather fix things in advance and not have to worry about it on stage than the other way round.

simonhpieman

ICBM said:

Philly_Q said:

Does anyone make a good direct replacement for those tulip button, bolt bushing tuners?  There are Grovers and Schallers, I think Faber have them now too, but they all look so similar to the Gibson ones I'm not sure if they're actually the exact same tuners.

They're all the same basic design - a soft alloy cast cover which holds the gear shaft in place, fixed to the baseplate by either two rectangular, or one rectangular and two round pins. Because the metal is too soft and not strong enough, the pins either pop their rivetting or simply snap off, very easily if the key gets bashed but sometimes just by themselves. If the rivets have just popped out (more common with the rectangular ones) you can fix them, but if they snap off (more common with the round ones) it needs a new tuner.

There are no other better equivalents with both the same two-screw footprint and a threaded front collar. The only simple alternatives are to use vintage-style Kluson-type pressed-steel tuners (which are much stronger and don't suffer from this) with a conversion bushing, or a different threaded-collar tuner with a different screw fitting - Grover Rotomatics actually fit the lower of the two holes so you don't need to drill anything, but they leave the upper one visible, and a lot of people don't like the look or weight of them.

Sorry, this has become a bit of a tuner-specific thread! They really are crap though, and it's one thing that would make me think twice about gigging with a guitar with them, with no backup. Although, I have...

There is one other option...

You can get one of those G-force/robot sets. Everyone hates on them for some reason so they're cheap. I got mine off here for a decent price. A set of replacement Gibson Deluxes (I couldn't find anyone selling a single) will cost far more than the robots and I quite like them, too.

Even if you only use them as a built-in string winder, I've really liked using them and they took minutes to fit. Plus it's completely reversible if you change your mind - no screws or drilling required!

Ossyrocks

Headstock breaks are not just a Gibson phenomenon. 

On a gig, our singer once managed to break the headstock clean off a Gretsch I had at the time, and not a cheap Gretsch either, it was a Malcolm Young Signature model.

Always two guitars at gigs for me, but I like to swap anyway just because I can.