For those that Gig, do you bring a backup amp/cab?

  • Thread starter Thread starter blackba
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blackba

blackba

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I am curious to know what you guys use as a backup, do you just take a head and not speaker cab or both? Or maybe a combo.

So to sum it into one question, what is your main rig and backup rig that you take to a gig guitar amp wise?
 
right now I only bring a podxt but I'd like to change that in the future. I have all my patches from the vetta I used to have saved to the xt (in xt mode so that they're close enough). I'd have to just go direct with it and hear it through my monitor.
 
normally use a wet/dry rig, so if one goes down I still have the other. for small gigs where I just bring a combo, I now put my rockman in the bag for emergencys.
 
I always kept a Blackface Bassman in the truck in case whatever amp I was gigging with went down.
 
I don't gig now but when i did play out heavily i never really brought a backup. I did use Mesa Boogie's and never had a problem. 5 years worth of gigs at an average of 3 shows a week. Sometimes i had a POD laying around, that's probably all you need to fall back on. Just take an hour with your soundman and set it up and remember all the settings and whatnot and keep it on stage with you.
 
I use a 6505+ head into a Bogner 4x12 for my stage rig. I also have JSX head that I bring as a backup to every gig because I have had heads crap out during gigs in the past. I don't bring a backup cab, although there are some gigs where I use 2 4x12s.
 
I have a Crate Powerblock....that I hope to never have to use. My main rig (today) is a JVM and a rack of stuff...

I played most of a show once with a DS-1 running into a direct box....never again.
 
I have a Marshall Jmp-1 as a backup...if the Cornford fails I can take the Marshall pre into the wet power amp and keep going...or if the Conrnford and the Power Amp both fail(Unlikely), I can go direct.
 
I always use two amps live. I like the girth. If one goes down, :scared: the other is the back up?
 
I take a Crate Powerblock to my gigs as a back up...I've never had to use it and I hope I never have to, but its small, fits easily in my gig bag and it does give me a certain peace of mind knowing that if my amp fails, I have a back up system available.
 
I never bring a backup, however, I could always use my reverb unit as an amp as it has a 100 watt output. In the plus 30 years of playing out I had one amp blow up on me.
 
i usually have my pod xt in my truck just in case anything happens. i remember one gig with my mark iv that the footswitch stopped working on me, it still doesnt work to this day... but anyway every song i played that night was on the lead channel! :rock:
 
My other guitar player usually brings a second head. If needed, I would use that. It's never come to that though...
 
i keep a crate powerblock in my car at all times as a backup...i had to use it this weekend...got me through the gig pretty well...i just ran my pedalboard through it and it worked fine...
 
So it seems that most people don't bring a backup cab.

I was thinking of bringing my '67 Fender bassman as a backup for my band, it can work as a guitar, bass or even keyboard amp, but you have to plug a speaker into it, so if you blow a speaker in your rig, you are in bad shape. My band finally has a couple of gigs scheduled, I hope we get more soon....
 
i've got a roland micro cube that i keep in my van. if my main rig were to go down i'd just direct line the micro cube into the pa and monitors to get me by. i could just use the marshall setting for the rest of the gig if i had to.
 
evhfan":2h0k33fp said:
i 've never come acroos anyone that's blown up a CAB at a show
Click to expand...

I did.

It was an unusual situation because the amp failed causing the speakers to blow on the cab. The filter cap on the amp broke one of its legs off, not at the turret board but right where the leg comes out of the side of the cap. The leg was still making contact and the amp played fine, but when you turned it up and played the lower strings the vibration caused the leg of the filter cap to vibrate and make intermittent contact with the cap. This caused major filtering problems for the power supply of the amp and ended up sending a spike to the speakers that seized up the voice coils on both speakers.

I was able to diagnose the problem on break and could have fixed the amp (I have soldering tools with me) but the leg on the filter cap broke off right at the side of the cap and I couldn't re-attach it. And I don't carry spare filter caps with me.

I run a dual amp rig, so a backup amp is not normally a problem. However, I run both of my amps into the same speaker cabinet via a Tonebone Headbone switcher, and in this case my speakers were toast. So a spare amp head didn't help me at all, my rig was down.

I did have my little Fender Pro Jr. backup with me, which got me through the gig. It was OK through the PA but I could barely hear it on stage, and it had no clean headroom.

I still don't carry a spare cabinet, I figure that was a freak accident and we have 2 guitar players in the band so in a worst case scenario we can finish the gig without me.
 
Way back when I was using my 900 combo (4102) I did bring my Fender super champ as a backup b/c that marshall would just decide to die sometimes. It was a POS nightmare and it had been into the shop repeatedly and they'd think they found the reason and then it'd die again. Had all new cables, batteries you name it, eventually had to replace the OT. Kept the super champ right next to the marshall on stage just in case. And yes, had to use it a couple times. God I'm glad that 900 is gone :lol: :LOL: I know lots of guys defend them, but I had lots of exp with mine and others and while sometimes it sounded good, it was never great, and it was unreliable as hell. The Super champ is 18w (2 6V6s) and while I could put it through the 2 GT75s in the 900 combo, it was often just that little bit underpowered (often weren't mic'd at that point) though it sounded better than the Marshall for most things. With the Bogner I've never had any probs but did often bring my podxt in the car just in case. If I was touring or something I would make sure I brought my spare tubes/fuses w/me and keep the podxt on stage. But I'm not, so not a priority at the moment. Backup guitar is more important. A couple bands back my other guitar player didn't bring a backup, broke a string on stage and then had to use my strat. My other guitar was my jackson which was in another tuning and good luck changing tunings on the fly w/ a floyd :doh: Leaving me to sing w/o a guitar which isn't a huge deal except that most of our songs in that band had sparse guitar parts due to there being two guitars... He was a tool, too :lol: :LOL:
 
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