Your First Gig - Part 2



3. Prepare your gear.

It is always a good idea to make sure your equipment is going to serve you well during your performance. One of the worst things to happen during a gig and the most common is to be let down by inadequate or faulty equipment.

Let first look at your guitar:

BUY AN ELECTRONIC TUNER! You cannot tune your instrument by ear at a show. It’s a scientific fact that the louder the sound you are listening to becomes, the less accurate your perception of fine difference in pitch becomes. Plus it’s not a pretty thing to have 2 or 3 blaring guitars all tuning by ear at once. I would recommend a Boss TU-2. You can stomp on them and cut your guitar sound and turn the tuner on in one hit. It’s easy to see in the dark and it’s a solidly constructed unit. Many top players have these in their rigs. Their only shortcoming in my opinion is that they are a little hard to see if you are doing a daytime show in broad daylight. There are many other great tuners available also.

Have your guitar serviced shortly before the gig. Take your guitar to a competent ‘luthier’ a week or two before the gig. A luthier is someone who builds or repairs stringed instruments. They should have the musical, wood-working and electronic skills required to fully service your guitar, electric or acoustic.
Even the most expensive guitars need regular expert attention to start perfectly in tune and reliable enough for a live performance. Ask the luthier to check your ‘intonation’. This affects how in tune each note of the guitar fretboard is. If your intonation is even a little out it could make all the chords you play sound off key or out of tune.
Your luthier may advise that you have your frets filed or crowned. This is a normal procedure and every guitar that gets played often will get worn frets and need this done from time to time. If you don’t get this done you will have trouble with your intonation.
If fret wear is bad, you may be advised to get a re-fret. This is also a standard procedure. NOTE: if you are borrowing the guitar you should ask the owner first, they will probably be glad for you to pay for a re-fret, but you should ask permission first.
Get the luthier to check the electrics. If your volume or tone controls are crackly, have him or her apply some contact cleaner or replace the control pots. Have all the internal wiring checked. If there is significant corrosion around the connections in the internal wiring it is good preventative maintenance to remove each wire, snip the end and expose a new section of clean copper before re-soldering the connection. Your luthier should be familiar with this kind of procedure.
Check the instrument jack where your guitar cable connects with the guitar. If you can make this crackle or pop or lose the sound by touching the cable or bumping the guitar body, have the luthier replace the plug. If your plug has a plastic mounting, ask the luthier to look at replacing it with a stronger metal one where possible.
Fix up any broken parts of the guitar. If there are parts that are lose, broken or have been broken but you have got them to ‘kind of work’ and they’ve been getting you through practice, now is the time to get them properly and professionally repaired. Don’t wait for your guitar to let you down on stage in front of a large group of people.

Put new strings on your guitar the night before your show. Remember to stretch them thoroughly and don’t forget to buy the same gauge strings that were on the guitar when the luthier serviced it. If you suddenly change to a heavier or lighter gauge your neck will flex slightly and this may be enough to put your intonation out or cause the strings to rattle against the frets. Make sure you have several spare sets of new strings at every show you do.

Have a backup guitar. You never know when you might break a string so it’s important to have a spare guitar on hand. And YES, it needs to be serviced and have new strings too!

Check all your guitar cables. This includes speaker cables and midi cables if your guitar setup has them. If your guitar cables are faulty throw them in the bin. If you have a friend who can fix them, do so but don’t use them at a live show. They’ll be fine for practice but don’t trust them for a live show. Buy a new lead, and don’t go for the cheapest one at the shop. Find a good quality lead. In fact buy several. You should always have a spare lead and a good one at that. What’s the point in having a poor quality, old or un-reliable lead as your back up to your good quality new one that just failed?

If you have battery-operated equipment, carry plenty of spare batteries. Someone else will have definitely forgotten one even if you didn’t.

Check all the fuses in you amplifier and make sure you have spares. If you don’t know how to do this, take your amp to a professional repairer and get them to check it. Have the repairer show you how to safely check and replace all the fuses in your equipment. Always carry spares at your shows.

Test all your gear at home before you set out for the show. Make sure you set it up the way you intend to at the show and test it thoroughly. When you’re done pack everything away tidily so that its easy to set up quickly when you arrive at the show. You may not have much time to mess around after the other band gets off stage. Double check that you have everything you need packed up neatly, including any spare equipment. Most importantly if any gear isn’t working 100% get it checked out by a profession repairer.

4. Logistical considerations

You’ve learnt the songs, you have a killer set and all your gear is working perfectly and sounding great. Here are some things to organize in advance to make sure your gig goes nice a smooth on the day and you hit the stage prepared, confident and ready to rip!

Find out where and when the show is. Find out exactly where the show is; check a map to see that you know how to get there and what time you are expected to load your gear in. Also find out if you are going to get a sound check and if not what time of the night you are going to change your gear over and start playing.

Make sure you have enough vehicle space to get your gear to the show and back in one load. As a general rule you shouldn’t leave any gear at a show. The risk of things going missing or being stolen is too great. You should be able to pack all the bands equipment and shift it in one convoy back to a safe storage location.

Check with the organizer of the show that you have all the equipment you need for the show. Its not going to be fun if you show up and realize that you were expected to bring lighting or a PA and you don’t have them. You probably won’t be able to set up let alone book this equipment at the last minute. If it’s your first show and you are playing before another band or bands this probably won’t be your responsibility, but don’t take any chances. Make sure.

Don’t take any more gear than you need. If you are able to use another band’s equipment this is often a good idea. If you can use another guitarists quad box or amplifier this will save a lot of time changing over equipment and it will mean that you need less transportation and have less gear that stands to be wrecked or stolen.

Make enough copies of your set list for the whole band the night before and pack it away with your gear. This way you won’t forget to take it.

5. Right before the show

Right before the show you will probably be feeling some degree of nervousness. At this point it’s important to try and focus on your guitar. Stage fright will take your attention off the songs and your instrument and focus it on the mistakes you might make, the things that may go wrong and the fact that your audience may not like what you do. These are all fears that every performer experiences and at this stage in the game it’s too late to worry about any of these things. Give yourself as much time as possible to warm up your fingers. Go through as many scales as you can for as long as you have time. Also review your set list quietly in your head. Think though each song. How it starts, how you finish it, what’s the first chord and how fast it should go. Run through these carefully and calmly and then continue to warm up your fingers. Breathe deeply and slowly and do some stretches if they help you to relax. Think plenty of encouraging thoughts to yourself and tell yourself that you are calm, relaxed and confident. Try to feel happy and confident and most of all enjoy the anticipation. You will never have more than one first live gig. It’s a special moment.

When it comes time to set up, be careful and deliberate about what you do, but don’t rush too much. This will lead to mistakes or make you feel more anxious. Put your amplifier in a position where the speaker is pointing towards your head and you can get to the back of it if you need to change a lead at any point. If you have gaffer tape use it to secure lose leads to the ground to avoid tripping over them and tape down your set list in a place you can see it. Place your spare guitar in a position where you can easily reach it but it won’t get knocked over by you or anyone else. Tune your spare guitar carefully then tune your main guitar. Put your main guitar in its stand and you’re ready to go.

Last thing is: make sure you go to the bathroom if you need to. You may be on stage for quite a while!!

When the time comes go out there and have fun. This is the reward for a lot of hard work and practice. You won’t play perfectly so don’t get rattled if you make a few mistakes. No one ever plays the perfect gig. Have fun and enjoy yourself. Rock’n’Roll!!