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What do you bring to gigs?


Silenced Fred

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Actually most of the necessities have been covered.

 

Seriously, I'm a great believer in those "carry on size" suitcase jobbies for "stuff to take to a gig" because they have wheels and a long handle. If you don't have too many steps to take, it's ideal. I've got an antique bag that still carries the antique Univox drum machine, but it ain't got wheels on it. Get something with wheels.

 

Also... and laugh if you want...

 

Kleenexes or your favorite brand of "tissues" are mandatory, IMHO. Inevitably they're handy for everything from blowing your nose to cleaning up coffee or whatever from the guitar or mike or whatever if you do something dumb. (Gee, guess who's done that?)

 

Edit: Oh, the Bobcat is okay.

 

m

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2 Guitars

2 Wind synthesizers

1 Tenor Saxophone

1 Tactile Midi Controller

1 Flute

4 Synth Sound Modules

1 Mixer

1 Effects unit

1 Sonic Maximizer

1 Power amplifier

2 15" Speaker cabinets

2 Direct box/FX/Amp simulator pedals

3 Microphones

3 ThinkPad computers

2 small "hot spot" style monitors

Numerous cords, stands, reeds, picks, strings, and a suitcase full of small spare parts (in case something breaks).

 

Notes

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If you are singing room temperature water or herb tea (no sugar)....

 

A back up amp of sorts just in case your main amps takes a dive.

 

Gotta get a back up amp first [blush]

 

And yeah' date=' I brought tons of water bottles, but I prefer unsweetened iced tea

 

Surprised nobody has said to bring an audience yet [biggrin

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RE: "drinking" when on a singing gig...

 

Careful with singin' 'cuz I know a cupla guys, one a good friend here, who hadda leave the road due to larynx problems. (In fact, he just brought into the office a 15-inch bass speaker cab to do some after-hours pickin'. <grin> Nice thing about music is you can get old and still have the same fun and "satisfaction" whether you're doing it for money or not.)

 

Cruz, I think, suggested the lemon. We useta use "Realemon" or whatever it was in little lemon-shaped squeeze bottles.

 

Duane's suggestion of herb tea is pretty similar, but I'm not a tea drinker at all. The "room temperature" thing I definitely agree with, although I've known guys who chewed ice cubes a lot. I don't think that's a good idea, personally. Duane may know more about why not.

 

I useta personally go through a quart or two of regular OJ in a country gig along with coffee in the first cupla hours of a 4-hour date, then usually just the OJ. Playing rock in my early 20s I drank way too much coke when I wasn't squirting lemon juice concentrate down my throat. The country gigs all were in saloons, and most of them had good OJ and didn't even charge for it since there was no booze added.

 

m

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I bring a thermos of hot tea - a mix of oolong and green. I pour it hot' date=' but it cools to warm very soon and that's when I drink it.

 

And I forgot, I always bring a power conditioner.

 

Notes[/quote']

 

What exactly do power conditioners do? I believe they clean up the signal for plugging in amps and such, but does it make that much of a difference?

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What exactly do power conditioners do? I believe they clean up the signal for plugging in amps and such' date=' but does it make that much of a difference?

[/quote']

A power conditioner does two things that are important to me

(1) eliminate voltage spikes

(2) eliminate minor voltage sags.

 

The results are

(1) When the AC kicks in, the spring reverb tank (if you have one) doesn't make noise

(2) Your tubes and transistors will last longer (along with the rest of the gear)

(3) If everything is plugged into the same power conditioner, the risk of getting shocked is lower

 

Voltage sags and spikes are both bad for your gear. Power in some places are worse than others and some can be very damaging to your stuff. I even played on cruise ships for 3 years and the voltage there is very variable, and I've never blown a synthesizer sound module, computer, or amp.

 

I use a TrippLite model rated for at least 25% more than the total load of my equipment (adding up the power draw from all the manuals). I don't leave home without it.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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