Gigging with your expensive guitars ?

[marcwhy]

Yes, I use my nice guitars at gigs -- that's why I bought them!

The OP said the key thing, though: don't let it out of your sight!

[neatomic]

not jazz, but...there's a good story about welsh rocker dave edmunds...he had some beautiful vintage guitars, but while touring with (his band) rockpile, he would use newer, cheaper guitars like "the paul" and hamers, etc...rick nielsen of cheap trick saw him playing with those and reprimanded edmunds saying that people (esp guitarists) want to see him playing his classic guitars, not some (then) modern guitar

he was right!!..



cheers

[floatingpickup]

I always play my good guitars on gigs. That’s why I bought them. I just make sure they are never out if my sight.
Keith

[Danny W.]

I agree with Jeff Matz--you have to use common sense. It depends on the gig. If you're lucky enough to get nice, cushy theater gigs as pictured above by Danny W. and Campus Five, why not use guitars that play and sound the best? On the other hand, if you're playing restaurant and bar gigs where there is no "stage" per se, and people are right there where you're playing--and maybe you're leaving your guitar on a stand while you take a break--why take a chance on having your best guitar damaged in an accident or stolen?

Here in Northern California, it's very common to play outdoor gigs in the summer at wineries where the temperature my get into the 90s or even 100 degrees. For those, I usually bring a nice, but less expensive guitar like a Godin 5th Avenue.

Not all my gigs are in cushy theaters:

Outdoors with my red L-5 Signature "Baby Wes." I use this guitar for most of my outdoor gigs if it's unlikely to rain (which is most of the time here, except when we play outdoors )

An Octoberfest in my own community with a blonde L-5CES thinline:



A private party in my own community with an L-5CES Signature:



Danny W.

[rictroll]

Of course.

I practice on them and I feel more comfortable playing them.

And they sound better

[Chazmo]

It's about having choices. If all the guitars you actually own are top shelf, expensive guitars, then that's what you'll be taking to the gig. If you have a few really top notch guitars, but you also have couple that are still nice, but wouldn't kill you if they got knocked over at a less than perfect gig, well...

[rio]

Yup, my ‘70 L5 goes to practically every gig and rehearsal. If there is a chance of rain for an outdoor gig or I know it will have a chance of being in direct sunlight in the summer then I’ll bring another guitar, usually a PM100 but almost every time the L5 goes with me. I bought it to play it so it seems like a shame to keep a guitar indoors. The guitar had gotten more visible wear indoors because my cat jumps on me and climbs up my guitar to sit on my shoulder so there are some scratch marks on the guitar that weren’t there when I bought it.

I posted a photo of a gig last weekend of a nice outdoor venue during a set break and a fellow jazz guitar forumer who I’m friends with on Facebook asked me if that was my L5 sitting face up on my seat in the photo during the setbreak - it was surrounded by instruments and I was just 15 feet away so I didn’t foresee anything happening to it but I thought about that afterwards and maybe I should put it in the case during setbreaks.

One plus is that my L5 has obviously been played and brought out a lot before I bought it because it isn’t in mint condition or anything so I don’t fret too much about another mark here or there as long as there’s no serious damage. And I don’t think I could ever stand to buy a guitar only to keep it in the house unless there is tangible potential of something happening to the guitar (rain, direct sun on very hot days etc.)


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[cosmic gumbo]

Well, the musicians union can get you full coverage/no deductible insurance on about $8000 worth of gear for $100 a year premium...

[smmllr]

My Sadowsky Jim Hall wasn't cheap, but it was designed and built as a gigging guitar, so I gig with it.

[Stringswinger]

Here I am on a gig last year playing my 1937 D'Angelico Style A along with my good friend Ned Boynton who is playing his Benedetto Bravo. Ned and I see our guitars as tools and we use them for their intended purpose:

[Just Russ]

This was brought up a while back on a guitar podcast I was the cohost of for a while and we could see it both ways (peace of mind using an affordable one, better tone and more inspirational playing with the more expensive ones) and a listener equated it to getting dressed up for church. You don't buy nice clothes to leave them in the closet. I really liked that analogy.

[sgosnell]

Most people don't wear their nice clothes for working in the garden, or working out in the gym. I don't really see instruments and clothes as being similar, but there are many ways of looking at things. My primary criterion for deciding which guitar to use is which one is best suited for the job. What I'm going to play influences the choice much more than the price of the guitar.

[Jabberwocky]

What big knobs...on that Benedetto, I hasten to add!

[floatingpickup]

What big knobs...on that Benedetto, I hasten to add!

That’s for sure. Wow.
Keith

[Stringswinger]

What big knobs...on that Benedetto, I hasten to add!

Ned likes big knobs. He did live in San Francisco's North Beach during the Carol Doda years.

[Longways to Go]

What a bunch of wusses. Talk to cellist, violinist or oboist...

To offer some perspective on "expensive" instruments, I have a painting student who is a retired professor of violin, and also associate concertmaster of the local symphony. Her violin was appraised at $80,000 some years ago, and I'm sure her bow is quite valuable too. I believe she only has the one violin. Different paradigm for sure.

[rio]

I think for orchestral strings it’s different. I do a lot of wedding ceremony and cocktail hour freelancing and the violists I play with often have student violins, electric violins etc. when the gigs are outside, at the beach or other areas that are not in a church. One brings her daughter’s violin. Bringing an 80,000 violin to the beach would t make much sense and if I had a guitar worth that much I would probably take a different instrument too. I mean an L5 is worth a lot of money to me (I could not afford another if something happened to mine) but 80,000 is a whole different thing. The people playing those instruments are often in very sterile venues that have the only danger being some crazy fluke of an accident vs. playing jazz in all sorts of questionable locations. And many players in big orchestras leave their instruments at the concert hall.


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[sgosnell]

What is that big knob in the upper bout? That isn't standard on a Bravo. Maybe a pickup selector? I don't see a switch. And Bravos don't come with two pickups as standard, so there is no standard way to select the pickups.

[Papawooly]

That Beer Holder gets a solid 10 from the judges! Bravo!

[smmllr]

That Beer Holder gets a solid 10 from the judges! Bravo!

How many vocations allow, if not encourage, one to drink on the job?

[Boston Joe]

I don't own anything TOO expensive. For any given gig, I'll take whatever guitar I feel like playing. It's been just the partscaster for the past seven or eight months, though. If the gig is going to involve rough conditions or travel, I'll usually take the Fender Tele. It sounds great and I don't worry about it. The partscaster would probably be OK too, but I tend to baby it more.

[Boston Joe]

The people playing those instruments are often in very sterile venues that have the only danger being some crazy fluke of an accident vs. playing jazz in all sorts of questionable locations. And many players in big orchestras leave their instruments at the concert hall.

There's a hilarious Monty Python audio sketch where a soloist destroys several priceless instruments just attempting to play.

[campusfive]

Only have one guitar. Rock, blues roots jazz my 175 is my partner. It is either in my hands or zipped up in my mono gig bag. I never leave a guitar on stage or on a guitar stand.

PS I have to say Jonathan Stout hello. Love your playing, so much masterfull energy.

Wow! Cheers to you, man! Thanks!

[john_a]

The risk in bringing a pricey guitar to the job is heavily dependent on the venue.

Playing a pristine vintage instrument in the orchestra pit at Music Hall makes more sense than it would to have that gear in a room full of rowdy Saturday night partiers at a rough-house bar.

If there's a chicken wire fence in place to stop beer bottles from flying at the stage, you probably want to bring the more expendable gear!

Transport, secure storage, weather, and other factors can also become important considerations

John

[Uncle Vinnie]

Great arrangement_, and I'm in love with the second tenor's sax, looks like an old Selmer Super Action or an early Mark VI ... maybe even a cigar cutter?