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How does your gear look?


Telecruiser

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I am kind of over attentive about how my gear looks. I have quality bags, covers and cases for everything and a heavy duty cart to haul them on. My gear looks new. On the other hand I see guys with banged up gear, no covers, speaker stands (if they have them) scratched and speakers with scratched and dented front grills. Now I don't do this full time but I like keeping my gear looking good because it looks more professional to have clean equipment. You?

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My stage piano is pretty much new, so it looks dandy. I've asked a local upholsterer to make my a skirt to go around the back and sides of the keyboard because I think the look of a guy sitting at a keyboard with all the wires and knees and stuff is unattractive. I can also fit a powered speaker under there so it's visually self-contained.

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I try to keep my gear looking pristine, especially the PA speakers, stands but also my amps. They all have covers/bags. My near-field monitor system all packs into a storage tub. It may take a little longer to pack it all up, but I think it is worth it.

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My stuff looks pretty good, especially my solo gear for the hotels. My band stuff doesn't have covers but it's mostly "rat fur". On my plastic cabs, I repaint them as needed.

 

I have old beaten up speaker and mic stands for gigs that don't pay much, with drunks that puke. For gigs that do pay, I have nice stands. This summer, I lost a gig I had done once or twice a month, over a period of three years. I kept an old cast iron mic stand there that nobody bothered to steal, because nobody wanted it. The gig was cancelled early August, and I went to get the mic stand last week - it was still there. I also kept some Yorkville Unity U15 speakers at this fairly seedy bar, for a year. I had a twice a month house gig there. These speakers were in public view, and new cost $1400 each with tax. Nobody bothered with them either as they are huge, heavy and old technology. The right gear for the job is what I strive for.

 

I find that more than messy cables or scratched gear, venues care about cases. So I try and keep my cases to a minimum so I'm not having to store a bunch in the back, where someone invariably moves them, or steals them.

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I am kind of over attentive about how my gear looks. I have quality bags' date=' covers and cases for everything and a heavy duty cart to haul them on. My gear looks new. On the other hand I see guys with banged up gear, no covers, speaker stands (if they have them) scratched and speakers with scratched and dented front grills. Now I don't do this full time but I like keeping my gear looking good because it looks more professional to have clean equipment. You?[/quote']

 

I'm pretty fussy.

I have a few electric guitars that have dings in them, but most of my stuff is really cherry.

 

Same with my small pa setups.

 

Covers, cases, and tote boxes, help out a lot.

 

Some folks don't care.

 

I have a 62 tele reissue that, over 30 years old and it's not even close to this relic-ed.

 

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My gear looks well used but not sloppy.

 

I have cases for everything, flight cases for most, but I do one-nighers for a living. My sax has tarnishes, the guitar is a little road worn, the speakers look OK unless you get close enough to see the wear, the stands have marks on them, but our clothes are always neat and clean and the music is always polished.

 

But working one-nighers for a living and I play sax, guitar, flute, wind synth, and sing plus my partner plays guiar and sings, so there is a lot of gear to schlep around. And schlepping it out to the van, in to the gig, back to the van, and back in the house a few times per week takes its toll on the finishes

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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Bought new speakers in 2015 and have covers for them, so they look good. Just bought a new mic and boom stand. I use an old keyboard stand for my laptop and mixer but I cover the stand with a black spandex material so no one can see it. The actual look of the setup could be better because I have two cases on the stand that don't match, but it looks pretty good.

 

Since I started DJing about 12 years ago I found that mobile DJs put a lot of thought into what their setup looks like. For example, any visible wires or cables are taboo with mobile DJs. Musicians rarely care about those details.

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My equipment and guitars are pretty battle-scarred, but I'm very fussy about the way I pack cables. I coil each one without kinks and put it in a labelled zip-loc bag so they don't get tangled on the move and lay flat on stage... Each cable has a place in the computer bags I carry them in so I know where to find them when I'm setting up. People watching me break down probably think I'm wasting time but I get that time back on the next set-up.

 

While watching me go through this process one of my buddies once suggested I find three other musicians as fussy as me and call the band OC/DC!

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To me there is a mid point between abusing my gear and keeping it pristine. And that mid-point is probably different for different people due to their personal requirements.

 

I play in a duo and on stage I play sax, wind synth, flute, and guitar (sometimes keyboard synth too), my partner plays guitar and synth, plus we both sing and use backing tracks (which I make myself at home).

 

That's a lot of gear. We allow an hour and a half set up time (it usually takes an hour, but if we don't leave that time, that's when a cable will fail and troubleshooting/replacing would get us too close to the downbeat for comfort). It takes another hour to tear down.

 

If we were to keep things pristine, it might take 2.5 hours to set up and 2 hours to tear down.

 

We do one-nighters, and rarely are in the same room two days in a row - and I mean rarely. Most of our gigs are either 3 or 4 hours of performance plus the setup/teardown time. One-nighters are notoriously hard on gear.

 

So every instrument goes in a case (flight cases perferred), but the cables and stands get packed in crates and the speakers get schlepped out without cases. Care is taken not to ding or abuse anything, but it happens no matter how careful you are. Anything major will get fixed or hidden if possible.

 

Now if I was doing an amped-acoustic guitar/vocal gig with one guitar, one amp, and one mic it would be a lot easier to take perfect care of everything. But (1) I'm not that good of a guitarist - sax is my main axe and (2) I'd miss sax, wind synth, and flute because they are simply fun to play.

 

So the gear gets dinged once in a while, and the guitar looks a little road worn.

 

Back in the 1970s, when the gear got road worn, we would say the were getting soul.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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My equipment and guitars are pretty battle-scarred, but I'm very fussy about the way I pack cables. I coil each one without kinks and put it in a labelled zip-loc bag so they don't get tangled on the move and lay flat on stage... Each cable has a place in the computer bags I carry them in so I know where to find them when I'm setting up. People watching me break down probably think I'm wasting time but I get that time back on the next set-up.

 

While watching me go through this process one of my buddies once suggested I find three other musicians as fussy as me and call the band OC/DC!

 

Me too. I put each guitar cable into a separate ziplock bag and xlr's get wound onto a cord reel. Same reason - makes for fast setup when everything is organized and untangled, My amps and PA are a bit road worn. My guitars look pretty good but I never worry about dings or scratches... except for my Guild F412 and that doesn't gig much.

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