Re: How long has you Number One been your Number one?
That is very far from the truth IME. There is very little that can go catastrophically wrong with an instrument...and what might go wrong almost never does...and when anything does go wrong, it's almost never catastrophic...and if it is, you can almost always borrow a guitar to finish the gig. I usually bring a backup, but it's not out of fear of failure. It's out of laziness and a desire for a quick changeover in the event that I break a string.
I have to agree with ItsaBass here. I did my first gig in 1975, and I still do 150 shows a year. Not to brag, but it amounts to around 6,000 gigs, give or take a few. In that time, I've seen one catastrophic event completely cancel a show, and it was our drummer and his girlfriend dying in a head-on car collision on the way to the gig, when I was about 18 years old. No amount of preparation was going to save anyone from that. As for equipment failure, I have never seen a single incident finish a show, or disappoint an audience to the point where they wanted their money back. I'm not carrying one guitar through some sort of laziness or ignorance, it is a matter of logistics. We take around 80 flights per year around the country, and we carry most of our own backline. Thanks to some progressive policies toward musicians implemented by one Australian airline (Virgin), we are able to carry what we need within the limits of their baggage allowances. When we have to fly on other airlines, the excess baggage costs become a burden for the artist. If our gear was travelling by road in advance, I would happily take a spare guitar, as I have done when touring with other artists under those conditions. But with the artist I've been working with for the past 14 years, this is the situation, and it has never caused an issue in that time. This is why I can categorically say to anyone who says you MUST do this, or MUSN'T do that, that you most certainly CAN tour with one guitar, and get the job done.
To be clear, I'm not talking about a cheaply made Chinese import, I'm talking about a particularly good '68 Strat that has proven itself over time. Despite its cosmetic wear, it is maintained in excellent playing condition. I'm not advocating what anyone else should or shouldn't do, and that is the point. If you're playing in some local bar and you're lugging your own gear around, take as many guitars as you want. Similarly, if you have advance road transport or unlimited budget for onboard baggage, the same applies. I'm only responding to the notion that there is a right and wrong way to go about things, and calling it out as nonsense. As I mentioned in a previous post, the most time consuming and show stopping events I've seen in 37 years of gigs and 32 years of professional playing are not string breakages or broken cables, but power outages from overloaded three phase or generator failure, especially in the era of digital consoles and keyboards that need time to reboot. No amount of spares or preparation are going to prevent those issues. At a gig like the festival in the photograph, there were probably about 24 guitars floating around backstage. If all of my pickups simultaneously failed, and my strings spontaneously combusted as my strap broke and my pedal board went up in smoke, the show would still go on. If that happened at a gig we were headlining on our own, I would do a little dance and play the tambourine. (Note to self...must pack a spare tambourine). Surprisingly, in over 3 decades of playing, I have never seen that happen, to me, nor anyone else. What I have seen happen is an airline 'misplace' all of a band's guitars, basses and keyboards by putting them on the wrong flight. The poor guys got into town, hired and borrowed what they needed, and the show went on. In that case, spare guitars would have been of no use.
Anyway, I've hijacked enough. Carry on.
Cheers........................................ wahwah
I'm the human incarnation of Murphy's Law.
