Grateful Dead Music Forum

Harvestwind wrote:back-up items:
- spare bass strings (Usually the last ones on my bass, boiled and put back in the box)
- cables 1 guitar cables and a patch lead
- extension chord
- power strip
- duct tape
- spare guitar strap
- allen keys, screwdrivers and pliers
- spare fuse for amp
- batteries 9v

"spare bass strings (Usually the last ones on my bass, boiled and put back in the box)"

I found that submerging the strings in 90% alcohol dissolves the grime, dirt, skin, sweat, and BBQ sauce build up, and brings back the bounce and brilliant tone of bass strings very well. At 30-40 bucks a set a $1.00 bottle of alcohol is a good investment.

myoung6923 wrote:I have one extra each of the critical items - guitar, chords, strap, strings, BATTERIES, you name it... I also just picked up a Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight amp for a backup - it's only 7 lbs and does a damn good job at a twin tone. http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 2277000000 I've found that it's not as powerful as the twin but I can just boost in my monitor if I need. It also has a direct out so I could always go that route if I really needed.

I always have this fear that some critical component will go out on me during a gig and the whole gig would be blown - hasn't happened yet (knock on wood)! Backup is a good thing

So if you had a jam could you bring the Fender Ultralight and be happy with your tone all night?

strumminsix wrote:

myoung6923 wrote:I have one extra each of the critical items - guitar, chords, strap, strings, BATTERIES, you name it... I also just picked up a Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight amp for a backup - it's only 7 lbs and does a damn good job at a twin tone. http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 2277000000 I've found that it's not as powerful as the twin but I can just boost in my monitor if I need. It also has a direct out so I could always go that route if I really needed.

I always have this fear that some critical component will go out on me during a gig and the whole gig would be blown - hasn't happened yet (knock on wood)! Backup is a good thing

So if you had a jam could you bring the Fender Ultralight and be happy with your tone all night?

I'll vouch for the Ultralight - I liked it! Sounded about like a Twin to me - bright and snappy, good for the Jerry stuff. I didn't hear the drive channel.

Rehearsal Recordings, I'm pretty sure these were made with the sound guy's H2.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mqmmjz4zz ... Part_1.mp3

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ozmemvmin ... Part_2.mp3

I get pretty lazy about carrying backup stuff. I usually just take one amp and one guitar especially if I am playing in town. I'll bring a backup guitar and an acoustic if I'm going out of town. We play down in the OBX of North Carolina every summer and I've had all kinds of electrical problems out there so I'll bring an extra amp and guitar to that one. I always have strings, batteries, tools, tape, and crap. If my amp fails at a gig, I'll just plug the Lexicon MPX G2 straight into the board, it's good enough to get through a gig. If both fail, I was not meant to play that gig

strumminsix wrote:

myoung6923 wrote:I have one extra each of the critical items - guitar, chords, strap, strings, BATTERIES, you name it... I also just picked up a Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight amp for a backup - it's only 7 lbs and does a damn good job at a twin tone. http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 2277000000

So if you had a jam could you bring the Fender Ultralight and be happy with your tone all night?

Absolutely!

myoung6923 wrote:

strumminsix wrote:

myoung6923 wrote:I have one extra each of the critical items - guitar, chords, strap, strings, BATTERIES, you name it... I also just picked up a Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight amp for a backup - it's only 7 lbs and does a damn good job at a twin tone. http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 2277000000

So if you had a jam could you bring the Fender Ultralight and be happy with your tone all night?

Absolutely!

Cool. Last question - have you AB'd this rig while DI'd out?

What I'm trying to gauge is if what is produced via the PA sounds near to what is coming from the actual amp/cab

I haven't tried it through the PA yet - next practice I'll give it a whirl.

They say that the amp has a speaker emulator in line before the direct out - but I do expect that it would still be pretty sterile sounding but good enough in a pinch. I will check it out though.

myoung6923 wrote:I haven't tried it through the PA yet - next practice I'll give it a whirl.

They say that the amp has a speaker emulator in line before the direct out - but I do expect that it would still be pretty sterile sounding but good enough in a pinch. I will check it out though.

Thanks. One area where every guitar “DI Out” I’ve experienced fails is that it sounds VERY different from what is coming from the speaker. It’s understandable that it will sound a bit different but most are drastically different.

(Usually the last ones on my bass, boiled and put back in the box)"

wow - i never heard of that before, amazing. Does this work for guitar strings as well? are only wound strings affected by boiling them?

i generally can't get old strings on a guitar properly, i always cut off the excess ends.

back on the subject off gigging materials and backups - i always have plenty of business cards for myself and my band to give out. i'll take extra fliers for the next gig too. and a few extra tunes in your back pocket for emergency situations.

LazyLightnin wrote:

(Usually the last ones on my bass, boiled and put back in the box)"

wow - i never heard of that before, amazing. Does this work for guitar strings as well? are only wound strings affected by boiling them?

i generally can't get old strings on a guitar properly, i always cut off the excess ends.

Guitar strings are cheap enough that nobody bothers to boil them, I think. It should definitely work for the wound ones, but not sure about the unwound.

In my experience it does bring them back to mostly new, but they don't last as long the 2nd time around.

Bandaids and super glue, for that inevitable cut you will suffer on your fretting hand.

I was taught a trick for guitar strings that is much easier and I'm sure works for bass:
1 - mask the finger board with newspaper or waxed paper
2 - go over the strings with a green kitchen scrubby
3 - buff back up with high quality 0000 steel wool

Works wonders, faster than the boil method and no restringing.

I think my back-up is giving me OCD... I'm nearly blowing out of this:
http://www.gatorcases.com/Default.aspx? ... logID=9441