Last month I got caught with my pants down.  Figuratively, of course, I always shut the door when I'm changing.  Anyways, my Fender Deluxe that I've been bringing out for the past 11 years decided not to work.  No lights; tried every outlet for power and nothing.  Luckily I got to use Pete's amp and he plugged his acoustic straight into the board.

Lucky is the key word, but the point of this month's lesson is not to rely on luck.

I try to prepare.  Normally I have a set of strings in the gig bag, extra 9-volt batteries even though I've been using the 1-Spot adapter (highly recommended to people that use pedals), a pocket full of picks, electrical tape for the Talk Box tube, and I bring out an extra guitar so if I pop a string, there's no emergency break.  I even carry around a mini-screwdriver/wire cutter set.

Seems like I have all this "backup" stuff except nothing if my amp breaks down.  I think, and I may be wrong, that probably the most important thing for an electric guitar would have to be an amplifier.  And after 11 years of using it, breaking down was just a matter of time.  On the good side, that amp has been problem-free since I bought it and I'm lucky something like this hasn't happened earlier.

So what to do?  Just like after any "emergency", now I'll do some planning.  Planning only happens after the "emergency".

The SansAmp will be kept in the gig bag. It'll make things a tad heavier but that's all right.

Back