Do you guys have guitars specifically for stage use only?

[85 San Dimas]

ooh, trans purple SDIII....NICE!

[guitarsjb]

After having to sell most of mine, I'm down to my RR1 and RR5. They both go to every show, one is played, the other is the backup. I rotate them from show to show.

[jgcable]

its nice having a ton of guitars and amps but most gigging musicians use the same stuff night after night live. Thats what I did when I had stacks of guitars and rooms of amps. Now.. I am down to 2 guitars, 2 live amps (one is a band owned 5150II that we drag to all shows just in case), 2 cabinets,a practice amp and a few pedals. I use most of my gear for home practice, rehearsal and gigs. The only problem I am having currently is I am actually wearing out my guitars!!

[ToneZone]

I don't use the Custom Shop or the Musicman simply because they are hard to replace, the custom being a one-off and the musicman being a Limited Edition.

[maluco]

funny you say that...

i played my RG and washburn N exclusively when playing live, i used my homemade red special as a backup.

in the studio i used my AR300 only.

now that i have jacksons i dont play live anymore

but we are working on getting a band going again

[guitarbumb]

i have all mine set up as live players but they all have foam in trem cavitys and all that stuff so they are very studio friendly, but i do have ones that get used live more then others just depends on how the feel being played while playing live, some rock and others i just cant get into live but rock when in the studio.

[shredmonster]

Foam in trem cavity?

[diablomozart]

when i played out live i used to have guitars specifically for that purpose (the white kelly i played comes to mind as does a dinky with a big exclamation point on it)...they just didnt sound good enough for the recordings but live they looked and sounded fine...others i have used for both but generally i have one or more guitars that never see any action live if i really love the way they play and sound...so i save those for studio work only...d.m.

[VoiceX3]

My main live axes are the KV2t the KV2 and the KV Pro. The others mostly get played at home with an occasional appearance live. The 2 that almost never see the stage are my PS3 modded Rhoads and my 86 Soloist which RARELY leaves the case/house.

[Rupe]

I'm more the opposite. I have guitars that I will only use for recording and refuse to take to a gig, but any of my gigging guitars are fair game in the studio. If it doesn't sound good recording, I tweak it until it does or I get rid of it altogether. That siad, there are certain pieces that I gravitate to when recording or gigging that typically outshine everything else...my original purple Rand being the main one.

[shredmonster]

I play everything out (5 guitars) except my Jackson Customshop and Rico Jr. Custom.

The customs are for my personal home use and recording

[Biff Montana]

Foam in the Trem Cavity…I thought I was the only one that ever did that. (lol)
I’ll let guitarbumb expand on what foam does. In short, it’s like putting duct tape on a drum head…it cut down on the ringing after the initial attack.
Heck, at one point I even put foam in my 4x12 to cut out some of the high end that I found troublesome.
At some point I stopped doing the foam thing and did most touring sans foam.
Both foam and no foam provided tone(s) that I was looking for at the time.

In general, us guitarists are a strange breed.
We obsess over which cables, guitar & speaker, sound better. Argue about subtle tone differences between brands of 12ax7.
We even discuss at length what 9 volt battery sounds better in a wireless or pedal…and how many volts works best.
For example I used Deracell because, most of the time, they came with ten volts (yes, I had a meter)
…and in either my wireless or Tube Screamer I could hear when the voltage dropped below 9 volts.
(Distortion wasn’t as tight)


Anyway, back to the thread…
Yes I had guitars that were for stage use.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t record with them, but the point is I felt ok with taking them on the road.
My career consisted of mostly touring cover bands.
I played on an average of 4 hours a night, 5-6 days a week, about 42 weeks a year. (My career was from 87-95)
This schedule took its toll on my stuff.
First off it’s hard to not bump a guitar every now-and-then.
I’ve had guitars fall over; I’ve bumped cymbals; bumped stands; a scratch here and there from God knows where.
My 84 San Dimas was road worn way before road worn was a twinkle in FMIC’s eye.
I kept the guitars with me most of the time and very seldom did they travel with the rest of the equipment in the truck.
I escaped any "anvil rack meets guitar case" horror stories that I know have happened to others.

Also over time I bought guitars to take the place of others.
For example, in 91, for $400 + sales tax, I bought a new American Fender Strat to take the place of my San Dimas.
I got tired of, inadvertently, beating the crap of my Charvel and decided that if I broke a $400 Strat it was no big deal.
Damnest thing is that Strat still looks good today.
If I was playing out now I wouldn’t use the Strat because of fear of damages.
I’d use a new production series Charvel or something like it.

I know it’s nice to show off our guitars, especially if it’s a custom shop, or big $$$ guitar (PRS, Gibson, BC Rich, etc)
but I’d rather beat up three $1000 fiddles than ding a one of a kind beauty.
In the end, only other guitar players care about what other guitar players play.
The people in the bar, club, or bowling alley only care about the music and couldn’t tell the difference between
a $600 Korean made guitar and a one off custom shop…as long as the song sounded good.
Sonically, Joe the mechanic, Ted the stock broker, Betty the bar maid, or Sally the stripper
wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a beat up $400 MIM Fender Strat and a Limited Edition $ 10,000 Yngwie Malmsteen Strat.

Sorry if I rambled…
Peace Out

[guitarbumb]

Foam in trem cavity?

Yeah as Biff Montana said it stops the springs from vibrating and causing excess noise, not really noticable when playing live, its a technique alot of guitarists use in the studio. I actually got the idea from reading an article on Dime, also if you are into evergrey you can see Tom put duck tape over his in one of their studio vids for the recording of the TORN album acheives the same effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzOQJz-uEq4 i managed to find the vid for you it also shows the noise that we are getting rid of. I also have foam over the strings after the nut.

[Blazer]

With Live guitars having a back up is always tough and my back up for my explorer is my heavily modified SG Custom.

They sound very similar although the SG is darker in sound and heavier in weight. (And its an SG, go figure)

So for the upcoming shows my Explorer and my SG will be my stage guitars.

[BenoA]

Foam in the Trem Cavity…I thought I was the only one that ever did that.

Don't laugh but a kleenex or a thin and small piece of fabric will also do the job!