Earlier this week I was privileged to be flown with the Rollacoaster guys to the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Tenerife for a gig with a Canadian insurance company.
This is the second time I’ve been lucky enough to be flown abroad for a booking, and as such I was very much looking forward to it, especially since I hadn’t been to Tenerife before.
The weather was fantastic – 27•C and wonderfully sunny – which made the time spent on the beach and by the pool before the gig all the more enjoyable!
Having said that, there are many trials and tribulations a guitarist needs to navigate while in one of these ventures, and the critical one is to do with gear.
Ordinarily, the amp would be hired from a local company, and in this case I turned up expecting a Marshall JCM2000 head and 4×12 cab, and actually got two Fender Twins…! Either amp would have been fine for me, but with uncertainty in what amp will actually be on site when you arrive, you need to be quite clever with your pedal selection so you don’t get caught short, particularly in the overdrive department.
The Fender Twin I used – only one in the end! – was beautiful, and the clean setting was lush as you would expect. The size and volume of the cabinet moved air really effectively, and made for an exciting amp to use.
I had to strip a few pedals from my board and cram them cleverly into my small luggage case, and for this reason I was extremely selective and methodical.
The Fulltone wah, Wampler Ecstasy, Zvex Distortron and Line6 Echo Park all made the grade, and since I wasn’t sure what the power situation would be like at the venue, I used trusty 9V batteries to fix this problem. Only the Line6 drained its initial battery and needing replacing halfway through.
While this got me through the gig, I also like to have a chorus, phaser and additional tuner/buffer/boost/compressor units at my feet. /9 this was a but if a challenge and encouraged me to be creative with the wah especially in moments that needed a bit more interest.
The final piece of the gear puzzle is the guitar (my red Fender Strat with Seymour Duncan Little ’59 in the bridge), and I managed to get this on as hand luggage in my Reunion Blues case. This is a great case. While it is a soft case, it is super sturdy and has a great set of pockets which are well thought-out for accessories and cables etc. I want to try and avoid having it hit the hold of a plane, but from what I’ve seen in promo videos it would probably be ok – it seems to protect guitars well enough when thrown off a two-storey building, so that’s a start!
The gig itself was great fun, but at 2.5hrs straight playing was tough at times, especially since it’s a reading gig. The whole band did great, and the quality of all the other guys really forces you to raise your game. On to the next one!
P.S. Contrary to all the 5* pictures, some work was done!!
