Gear vs Playing out question

[Tristan]

Good question!
With me it varies with the bands I'm in.
Now I'm in two projects that lean more on the electronic side and in one band our keyboard player / sampling dude just left so I need to start over and fill out quite a few blanks there, that means more pedals are needed.
For a long long time I was only using a volume pedal, octaver, phaser, distortion and a delay with maybe a wah, chorus and simple looper thrown in occasionally and I could manage almost everything with that.
Now I'm building my freak dream board and I'm also curious how it's going to work once we start to play live again as I'm also not the best of keeping track of too many things at the same time, well, we'll see I guess.
Live playing is my goal though, but so is making cool sounds offcourse, it can be quite a tricky balance.
In my experience most pedals just cover about two or three favourite sounds max in a live setting and with a lot of them you have to bend over to adjust the knobs and all, that's not that great and can be a handfull sometimes.
That's why I'd usually rather have a phaser that does an over the top resonance sound like a Small Stone with the color up and a phaser that does a slow subtle sweep like a Phase 90 on my board instead of having one pedal that can do a bit of both but not really for instance.
What do you guys think, how do you go about these things?

[Gearmond]

whenever I play shows, its always with maybe 3 or 4 of my pedals, which is about half.

i've never really had an opportunity to use all of them at once since they're in a room thats been kinda taken over by my brother

[dase]

I'd play at least once a fortnight I reckon. Don't tour much anymore because Australia's a weird place for that, and I have like, five or six friends who're sound engineers so all those issues aren't a problem anymore.

[GardenoftheDead]

I've only played for parties at friends' houses. I'd like to be in a band but the scene in Vegas is shit and I can't find a drummer who's the right balance of "not insane/a criminal" and "can keep time more reliably than a three year old banging the pans together".

[DarkAxel]

oh, so it's the same as here

for example today, we're playing with complete cunts, so to my email where i politely asked whether we can borow anything they only responded "We're sorry"

so we had to bother our friends and various people are bringing in various gear and cymbal stands and whatnots

Borrowing gear is a sensitive subject for me..... I'm going to just put it this way, if you plan on playing out professionally you must act accordingly and have the appropriate tools to do you job. If you have neither don't expect others to provide them for you upon request with a smile on their face. Sharing gear while touring with another band, prearranged sharing between friends, helping out someone who blew their amp at soundcheck or in the middle of a set, are all acceptable exceptions, otherwise don't bring a knife to a gun fight (unless your chuck norris of course).

*edit* not saying there's anything wrong with what you did, or defending the c to unts. But this is a necessary attitude to push yourself forward. People will notice if your constantly borrowing or asking to borrow gear and will purposely stop asking you to play with them to avoid the headache, I've seen it happen numerous times and honestly I'm guilty of it myself. You should always come prepared with everything YOU need, or if theres a transportation issue it should be worked out from the day that the gig is booked, whether it be arranging different transport or contacting the other bands from the get go, but never EXPECT anyone to let you borrow gear. You should strive to be the one they want to borrow gear from.

This went from me not wanting it to be a rant...... into a rant... damnit!!!!

I know what you mean and i'm not happy with it either, but it comes down to either playing or not playing. without a car, moving gear for hundreds of miles is a determining problem

and we did contact the bands immediately and one of them flipped us off, but the other got back to us last minute and then they actually let us play their stuff and were cool about it, i bought them drinks and the whole situation was just FAIR and chilled

the trouble is - you could easily say "don't play in your hometown then", but since we started there, we have a huge fanbase. We sell out clubs back there, you know... so not playing there is not fair to the people who have been our fans since the day we started and who still are our fans even after the year hiatus... i don'T want to cut them off

it's a complicated situation... but when we have our gear, we have no problem to lend it to anyone who asks. So naturally we hope for the same with other people

[dubkitty]

i haven't played out in awhile other than jams. i've spent the last two and a half years going from a Distortion+ and a TC SCF to seventeen devices on a PT-1, planning to use the big board either for band stuff or for my solo looping project. i now have the big board about finished (though i would like to squeeze a W&C Tall Font Russian and/or my Flashback on there) so i can devote myself more to integrating the effects into the concepts i have rattling around in my head...everything's wired up so i can set it up in ten minutes. however, i need to rationalize the looping board somehow so i can cross-fade from one looper to the other without spending a king's ransom on active isolated ABYs and mini-mixers and shit.

[Bassboar]

My rig is very straight forward, bass>pedalboard>amp.
I can have my board and bass packed up before the guitarist even has his amp turned off.
My band moves as one unit when we pack up or tear down, so nothing really takes that long.
My only weak spot is for big cabs, but I have a strong back and know how to lift heavy shit.
As for guys with more elaborate rigs (stereo or what have you), look at it this way:
No tradesman would show up to a job with one saw and a hammer, he would bring what he needs to get the job done and done well.
Mudfuzz's board is the perfect example of this, it may be big, but he needs those tools for the job.
Same with AA, he plays both bass and guitar, and needs separate rigs accordingly.
Would hire a guy with one saw and a hammer to build your house?
I'd rather him take more time to set up and tear down and do a good job.
If someone comes down on you for having "too much" of something (amps, pedals etc.) then they don't deserve to be out playing, they need to go home rethink what they know about music.
A true artist should question another's motives an means to their end.

[Fuzzy Picklez]

For what it's worth, unless I know the band fairly well, I do not lend gear out to other bands.
I don't care if that makes me an asshole. I do not trust other people around my equipment, and providing gear is not my responsibility.

Being totally honest, I really don't care if you can't get your gear out to a gig. I bust my ass to haul tons of stuff every gig, and I'm not letting anyone else screw it up. I can't just go out to a store and buy... anything I use. None of it is really that expensive, it's just sort of unusual and hard to find. I am lucky enough to be a in a band where all the other members have cars. However, I have arranged rides, taken cabs, busses, streetcar, subway, and done what I had to do to get to a gig with my equipment on many occasions.

I hate the fact a lot of people feel entitled to my equipment, despite the fact it is not my problem if you can't get something to a gig. And to be honest, I don't care at all. Transportation is something that needs to be addressed if you are going to be a gigging band who plays around the town. If a band is going to ask to borrow my, or my bands stuff, you better be offering something in return or have a pretty good reason.

If someone's amp broke down mid gig or something I wouldn't mind lending mine, and of course there could be exceptions. It just really drives me nuts when a band sends a message the night before a gig pretty much demanding to borrow a drum set, a bass amp, and offers nothing in return. I have said, and will continue to say this to them in the future. No. I provide nothing, and I expect even less from other people.

[zRobertez]

I have one guitar, two amps (one teensy cheapo), a board, and like three pedals not on the board. I usually play guitar>board>amp at home and at practice. Practice is usually like once a week except for recently because our bass drum head got busted and no one has fixed it yet lol. I play shows maybe 5-6 times a year but I'm hoping once I move to a bigger city in like 6 months, I'll start playing out all the time. I usually bring my full board to performances too. It's like 11 pedals but its all on one board so its not that hard to carry around. I can have my whole set up in two trips and be ready in 5-10 minutes.

But I've been writing acoustic stuff for the past couple weeks anyway.

[MEC]

With my current band we probably play about 6 shows a year.
I have a PT Mini with 4 pedals on it and usually bring 1 or 2 guitars depending on when my last string change was.
My amps an cabs are what takes the most time and effort. I bring two Ampeg V4s, two 215s and a 412.
We play mostly small clubs/bars and to keep it simple and under my control, I never get mic'd.

For the record, I HATE PLAYING SHOWS!

[theavondon]

Why?

[MEC]

I don't know exactly....maybe some weird mix of anxiety and the feeling that I'm wasting other peoples time and money.

[yallerhon]

At my last show, the other acts and I had a laugh because we'd all brought Fender Hot Rod Deluxes. There were four of them, including mine, sharing the stage/side area.

Truly a gigging amp!

[univalve]

At my last show, the other acts and I had a laugh because we'd all brought Fender Hot Rod Deluxes. There were four of them, including mine, sharing the stage/side area.

Truly a gigging amp!

It is a modern Classic already. If i had to, i could also Play a Show with it. I had the Blues Deluxe since 95 to 04 as my Main amp BTW.

[Caesar]

The only playing out I do is with friends at our parties, so I usually know a bunch of the people there. Other than that. I hate being around people or clubs, so I have no desire.