Keep a Spare Handy

This tip is primarily aimed at those who lead worship from the guitar.

Have you ever been in middle of worship set and had a string snap on you? Or maybe had the battery to your pick run out of juice? I actually had both happen to me! So over the years, I have found it quite helpful to keep a second guitar on the platform with me. Now if a string breaks or a pick battery dies, I unplug the problematic instrument and plug into the back up the guitar. Nice, quick and simple.

There are several things to keep in mind for having a back up guitar on hand. First, be sure to have the back up with you on the platform. It wouldn’t do much good if you need it and the guitar was still in its case off in the corner (not that I’m speak from experience or anything). Second, make sure that the back up guitar is in tune and ready to be played. I make sure the back up is in tune and on a stand near by within reach. Also, be sure that the strings on your back up are not too old and/or dead. Finally, it’s a good idea to have a separate channel on the soundboard dedicated to your back up guitar. This is primarily for acoustic guitars. If you are playing an electric then you simply plug it into your rig. The main reason for this is that the back up and main guitar will most likely have a different EQ set ting requirements. I normally ask the sound technician to set up two lines with a Direct Box input for each and then plug my guitars into the separate channels that are EQ’d specifically for each guitar.

Hopefully if you keep your main guitar in good shape by changing your strings and pick up battery regularly, you’ll won’t need to utilize your backup. But trust me, it is such a blessing to have the back up there and ready if the necessity ever arises.