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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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I also always make sure I have a spare guitar lead, spare amp kettle lead, spare strings and picks. I also take my own belkin gold extension multipoint which has surge protection and whilst not a full line conditioner does help to filter out unwanted mains hum. And regardless of built in tuners on the tonelabs or tuner in my pedalboard , I always also keep a little planet waves tuner in my guitar case with a spare battery. If I take my pedalboard I take a spare mains lead.
I know it sounds boringly sad but its really about being confident and relaxed that if something should go wrong I can finish a gig. Its not that I'm unduly concerned with my gear reliability as its very rare anything fails. But even well maintained gear can let you down sometimes eg mfx unit goes on blink or valve goes etc and I just like to be prepared so I don't let anyone down.
@thomasross20 maybe having a Blackstar HT Dual would cover your need for a spare amp*, as it's (effectively) a valve pre-amp in a box.
It does however need it's own power supply.
*for a small gig you could easily just use this straight into the PA.
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Same here. No room for a spare amp but i take a Magnum 44 which i can use through my amp's speakers. Spare guitar, leads and strings = essential, for me
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When using house PA we bring loads of DI stuff and XLR cables, and the mics we need. Too many close calls.
Essential tools that have been used many times: Gaffer tape, cable ties, screwdriver, pliers.
If our double bass players snaps a string it's all over, as they take several days to tune up from new.
Good call. I have an HT Dual on my board anyway, and it's my backup if the amp should go pop. It has an emulated out that I'd put through the PA if necessary.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Last night I had a string go. It hasn't happened in a year. But that's why I lunk a second guitar to every gig. The change of guitar took seconds.
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I also keep forgetting to mention - if you're going to think about getting a spare head to use with a combo, you need to make sure it's compatible with the impedance of the speakers.
This may be an issue with the Blackstar ID because I think the combo speakers are 4 ohm - if so, you can't connect most heads directly to both of them, because that would give a 2-ohm load. You would need to either use a stereo power amp which will handle 4 ohms per side, use only one speaker in the combo, or (best) make a special cable or splitter box to connect the speakers in series to give 8 ohms.
Even if this doesn't apply you will most likely need a speaker extension cable since usually the speaker plug in a combo won't reach to a head sitting on top of it...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein