General Music Chat

Nice move Ryan. Somebody playing the songs solo before the set is annoying enough. Playing out of tune is enough to get the axe. Not stopping when you know your out of tune is way WAY inexcusable. Good luck my man.

We're doing this show last weekend and he breaks a string in the middle of a song, so he hops off stage, and borrows a guitar from another band, jumps back on and starts playing with this guitar that is not even close to our tuning....

A professional musician has a second guitar, tuned, strapped, and ready to go. Then it takes no more than 10 or 15 seconds to switch between the two, and is hardly noticeable, as the PROFESSIONAL band continues playing while you do so.

I broke a string at the gig before last. The band knows to keep playing, I switched out quickly, and was right back into the chorus and finishing the song out.

He should also have a spare 1/4 inch cable ready to go too. Just in case.

What Craig said.

I definitely agree.

I don't have a spare axe I can't afford one yet. But I have spare everything else. I can replace a broken string and be tuned back up in about 30 seconds.

A spare guitar is very high in my priority list but we have been putting all of our extra cash into 1. Gas for shows and 2. Recording funds.


We're getting back into the studio next week to record a song called "Trudge" that we are also recording a video for. It's gonna be sick.


But anyways, dude didn't even have spare strings....

Congrats Fastfret! Who wouldn't get stoked playing Rockapalooza. You have a great band. You did the right thing concerning your guitarist. Been there done that. Fortunately I haven't had a single problem yet with my second guitarist and I'm a guitar nut so I have several backups for us both.

well,

I think he should've had spare strings, or a spare axe..

Exactly. As Craig said, it takes 10-15 seconds to swap, I've swapped during songs with bands that didn't know to keep playing and they still kept playing, fortunately.

I keep 6 electrics onstage and the acoustic and usually my lap steel. 3 in standard tuning, one drop D, one open G, one open D. If drop D happens to break a string (very rare, I change strings every gig for guitars with whammy bars, every other gig for those without) I can retune the Cort to drop D in a few seconds.

I prefer to always keep it to 20 seconds or less between songs, I can swap guitars in 10 seconds every time, been doing it for years.

Interesting anecdote, slightly off topic, onstage one night, first set, had trouble getting decent sound and any volume. My best friend was there, she usually is, I had her (during a song) grab a spare guitar cable and set it beside my guitar rack. Between songs I ran it to the volume pedal, bypassed all other effects and wireless, straight into the Super Reverb. Played out the rest of the set with no trouble.

Between sets I started troubleshooting, add one thing at a time, and of course the last item, the wireless, was the problem. I had forgotten to turn up the output volume before I started, it was sending almost no signal at all...made me feel like an idiot, but if I hadn't had a spare guitar cable I would have been forced to either run without my volume pedal (a fate worse than death for me) or troubleshoot while everyone waited...out of the question...

So yeah, I bring spare everything, I'd bring a spare equipment truck if I could...

I think you were right to fire the guy, sounds like he was just a wannabe. I play as little as possible before the show, just enough to get my tone and effects dialed in, and just doodles, never any recognizable songs. Volume leval can wait till the sound check. I never doodle onstage between songs either, I'd bet this guy did plenty of that too.

Borrowing a guitar from another band is just a bad idea. I borrowed an amp from another band, the guy offered so I said ok, at a battle of bands in Port Arthur Texas, 1973. He pulled the plug halfway through our second song, got us shut down pretty quick. I found out later he had seen us before and knew we would blow his band right out of the water so he sabotaged us. We should have made it to top 3 at least...

I never borrowed from another band again except for an opening gig for 4th of July in Baton Rouge, I was plenty worried but that one worked out great, we were using the other band's entire setup, again they offered, so we wouldn't have to haul all our gear for a one hour show. It went really well that time and the band we opened for loved us, they had never heard us but had heard of us, and we had a great reputation, that's why they asked us to open the show. I think they told us 3 other bands recommended us when they couldn't make it for other commitments.

Were definately better off now.

We won the first round of the Battel of the Bands last night, without him.

Congrats. As a small boost to my ego, I wore my band logo T shirt to work today. Had three people ask for my card so we could play for their youth groups. I guess so of you guys good luck is filtering down the food chain.

Cool sh*t!!

Keep it up dude. I know I'm late to the party, but it sounds like you guys are kicking ass. Congratulations man.


I know I'm late to this topic too.
But here's a cool little pedal I picked up years ago at a pawn shop.



I hook up 2 guitars and my acoustic to it, and it allows me to equalize the volumes between the electrics and the acoustic before going into the amp. If you break a string, just grab another guitar. It's already plugged in. It works great.

Cool stuff!

Cool stuff!