so I'm at this gig ...... let's have your horror stories!

[Lt. Bob]

....... and I had spent the night before in my music room taking a bunch of my gits and setting up presets in my modeler for each.

In my experience you have to tweak a modeler for each and every guitar to get good sounds.
The modeler responds VERY differently to differences in output, loading .... anything.
So a paul with burstbuckers will sound totally different than a paul with PAFs.

I have 2 different teles and they actually each need their own presets.
You run into things like what was a pristine clean for one git being dirty with a different one.
So if I want to be able to gig all my guitars (15 of them ) I need a group of presets for each.

Anyways, I was doing that Tuesday and I had fewer straps in the room than I did guitars so I was shuffling them around.
So Wed I'm at the gig and have just finished setting up .... time to grab my guitar and start because that's how I roll ...get there, set-up rapidly and manage to just start on time.

I grab the guitar and, you already know don'tcha? .... NO STRAP!


Oh shit!
So I try to rig up something ..... I'm pretty good at inventive solutions but no-go.
Simply did not have ANYthing that could be fashioned into a make shift strap.
I have no choice .... it's time.
So I'm gonna have to play with no strap!
Holy hell!

I'm playing the Slick which is basically a heavy tele.
So I grab a stool and run to the truck and grab my cord/mic case to use as a foot prop .... that way I can at least hold the git on my knee ...... somewhat.

The case is way too high so it puts my knee up around my throat ...... but at least i can play ...... then it comes time to play the sax and that leaves no hand available to hold the git so I'm playing sax and moving my right leg back and forth trying to balance the git there.
My butt is hurting because of how I have to sit ..... LOL ..... it was pretty freakin' miserable.

So to my modeler, this seemed like the best time to quit working.

So on top of everything I had to plug a tele direct into the PA board which not only sounds less than ideal but now I have no distortion to hide my sloppy playing as I practiced my rodeo-clown moves trying to wrangle all my various instruments into submission.

What a cluster-fuck!
It was slow ..... I got to quit early thank God.

There is now an emergency strap in the truck!




.

[Greg_L]

Lol wtf

[Lt. Bob]

Lol wtf

yep!



fucking funny that I can still be dumb as a rock!

[Tadpui]

We need a video of this balancing act

[Greg_L]

Lol wtf

yep!



fucking funny that I can still be dumb as a rock!

Lol. I use the same strap locks on all my gits for this very reason. I can use one strap for them all!

[Lt. Bob]

yep!



fucking funny that I can still be dumb as a rock!

Lol. I use the same strap locks on all my gits for this very reason. I can use one strap for them all!

then I'd have to move it from case to case when I picked different guitars which would lead to forgetting to do so.
I prefer to have a strap in each case .... usually I do but the shuffling around thing got me!

[JD01]

Lol. Disaster.

[Greg_L]

then I'd have to move it from case to case when I picked different guitars which would lead to forgetting to do so.
I prefer to have a strap in each case .... usually I do but the shuffling around thing got me!

Don't you have some kind of bag or backpack full of cables and shit? That's where I keep my one strap to rule them all.

[rayc]

I had a minorly similar experience in the mid 80s - ended up using my spare guitar cable as a strap - it certainly dug into my shoulder with a bass hanging from it.
You survived Lt. Bob: you always do.

[Lt. Bob]

I actually tried a cord but it wouldn't stay on the strap buttons .... I also tried a vest .... that didn't work either.

then I'd have to move it from case to case when I picked different guitars which would lead to forgetting to do so.
I prefer to have a strap in each case .... usually I do but the shuffling around thing got me!

Don't you have some kind of bag or backpack full of cables and shit? That's where I keep my one strap to rule them all.

yeah I do ..... and that's where my emergency strap now resides .... ( along with the emergency sax strap that I similarly learned I needed .... )
But my guitars all kinda need their own strap length so I wanna have one for each.

But yes, there is now a strap in my cord case!

[JD01]

Could you have not just sat on a stool?

[Lt. Bob]

Could you have not just sat on a stool?

ummmmmm .....

So I grab a stool and run to the truck and grab my cord/mic case to use as a foot prop .... that way I can at least hold the git on my knee ...... somewhat.
but the case is way too high so it puts my knee up around my throat ...... .

No ..... you can't sit on a stool and play a solid body without the guitar constantly sliding off your lap.
You can sit on a chair and it will stay put but I didn't have a regular chair plus I can't really play sax sitting in a chair.
A proper foot rest would have made it work but I don't have one.

[Greg_L]

yeah I do ..... and that's where my emergency strap now resides .... ( along with the emergency sax strap that I similarly learned I needed .... )
But my guitars all kinda need their own strap length so I wanna have one for each.

But yes, there is now a strap in my cord case!

I think I'm pretty lucky that all of my guitars pretty much hang the same way. Les Pauls and the Mosrite shape hang off a strap identically. I can use the same strap between those guitars. The SGs have their own strap because their strap button is behind the heel. So one strap for the three SGs, one strap for everything else. I do have more straps, but I really get by with just those two. They stay in the cables-and-junk backpack.

[WhiskeyJack]

AHAHAHA. I only wish there was some video of this.

Lt, it sounds like you managed to push through it. Still the mental image of the events unfolding are priceless. It's too bad we don't have an amateur hobby animator on the boars well to turn your stories into cartoons HA!

[Lt. Bob]

AHAHAHA. I only wish there was some video of this.

Lt, it sounds like you managed to push through it. Still the mental image of the events unfolding are priceless. It's too bad we don't have an amateur hobby animator on the boars well to turn your stories into cartoons HA!

I do wish there was a vid of it .... lol
Especially when I was playing sax and the git was wobbling this way and that, wanting to fall to the ground! What a maroon!

I think I'm pretty lucky that all of my guitars pretty much hang the same way. Les Pauls and the Mosrite shape hang off a strap identically. I can use the same strap between those guitars. The SGs have their own strap because their strap button is behind the heel. So one strap for the three SGs, one strap for everything else. I do have more straps, but I really get by with just those two. They stay in the cables-and-junk backpack.

also your playing position lends itself to a certain amount of flexibility.
You can wear your git low .... very low .... and really , really low!

I used to wear my bass low but nowadays I need my gits way high compared to what i used to do.
and I've seen pics of you playing and you have that low rock and roll thing going.
It freakin' looks awesome and I wish I could do that but, alas, my gits have been inching upwards for years.

[musicturtle]

That is a tough one [mention]Lt. Bob[/mention] ! Way to get through it though.

That reminds of one of my gigs back around 2000 or so. I was playing a Yacht Club about an hour from my house. I was my first time there and my agent said if they liked me it could lead to monthly gigs.

I had a little Ford Ranger pickup and carried my guitar and speakers in the cab next to me while driving. I got there about an hour before to set up and promptly locked my keys in the truck along with my guitar and speakers. My wife was out of town and could not bring me keys.

So I sheepishly walk up to the manager and explain my situation. Luckily one of the club members was in earshot and said "How about I just call AAA for ya?" He did, and they arrived in a about a half an hour. I got my stuff set up and played. Ended up having regular gigs there for the next 5 years.

Man was I irritated with myself when it first went down. All's well that end's well I guess!

[Lt. Bob]

love those kinds of stories!!

Many years ago in a horn band of mine that did T.O.P., BS&T ... that sort of stuff ..... on a gig about 2 hours from home Herbie ( a sax player) suddenly says "Oh, I forgot my horn!" ... We still laugh about that line to this day.
So what the hell we gonna do?
We're setting up and figuring we're gonna have 2 horns instead of 3 but there's this lady there who says, "My husband plays sax .... he's not home but I could go get his".


LOL ..... we accepted and I let Herbie play my horn as there was no way we were gonna let that idiot handle this guys nice Selmer that he didn't even know he was lending us!
So about 30 minutes into the first set he shows up and he's hot.... let's face facts, no way that woman should have lent his horn out and I bet he corrected her on that issue .... ..... but that band was bad-ass and he got into it and saw I was professional and being careful with his horn and he calmed down and let us finish.

At least I only forgot a strap!

[Bill L]

One gig a couple of years ago I brought the sax player with me to a gig about an hour south of where we live. We get to the gig and I'm setting up the pa and everything else while the sax player is walking around chatting it up with people. About 10 mins before we supposed to go on, he opens his case and realizes that he left the neck of his sax at home. Now, he has to borrow my car to drive home and back while we have to play short handed. So, we're a 4 piece band that relied on the sax and he ended up only playing 1 set with us. I think it was the first time I ever played a full set as a 3 piece.

[Lt. Bob]

hahahaha ..... stupid sax players! .......... oh wait ....


more guys ..... let's have your 'oops' stories!

[vomitHatSteve]

I played a family-oriented sidewalk art festival with my pop-punk band in the middle of the summer some years back.

I play barefoot in that band, so I brought easy-to-remove flip-flops as my only shoes that day.
I was not told that the stage was painted black and uncovered.

After about 30 minutes of burning the everloving heck out of my feet, I decide to do a bass spin.

Right then is when the screw holding one of my strap buttons gives out. My bass lands directly on the cable jack, breaking the only 1/4 to 1/8 cable I have for my wireless.
Obviously, that song is a loss while I grab my emergency cable and replug up.

I then have to spend the last third of the set squatting on the stage, with my feet in agony, and my bass propped up on my knees.

I think I forgot to boom the mic down too, so I couldn't do bg-vox for the first song after the accident.