Traveling Light With Instruments

Series Summary

As a musician traveling is simply part of the job. We must be able to travel in order to support ourselves and play to new people and crowds all the time so that we build up a fan base. The problem arises when we begin to think about all the expensive equipment we have to lug around every time we travel. Whether it’s by boat, train, plane or car we need to be able to safely get our instruments to the next venue safely so that we can use it at the next show. This has always been a serious issue for the likes of touring musicians everywhere. The protection of their assets, their livelihoods, their gear.

If you are a professional traveling musician or just like taking your guitar with you when you travel this is a fantastic series that will give you great tips that could easily save the life of your instrument. It covers tips on traveling by train, plane and car and offers advice for several different instruments including drums, guitar and keyboards. Take our advice and live by these tips when you’re traveling. It could mean the difference between playing and not!

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is David Jackel with Expert Village and I am here to talk to you about traveling light when you are transporting musical equipment. Now no matter how much musical equipment you have and however much you want to bring, there are some very good reasons for traveling light. First and foremost is security. The more you bring the more you risk losing and if you are carrying a lot of equipment, there is a good chance that you could forget something as well. The more you bring the more hassles there is. There is more worrying, there is more carrying so your best bet is to travel as light as possible. Now one thing you can do for example if you are forming in a club, is check with the place about if they have a back line. A back line is where there is a whole set up of equipment waiting at the club for every band to use common equipment. It is always not that good but it could save you a lot of trouble and it could save your money if something should be damaged of your own. If you are transporting equipment to a studio, contact the studio and find out what equipment they have at their facility. Now there is no sense in hauling out your equipment if the studio has something that is comparable, probably even better. Using smaller amps is a good way to cut down on what you bring and to have much easier time traveling with your equipment. A smaller amp in many clubs is just fine to get a good enough sound particularly if the amp is being miked. It will save you a lot of hassle. You won't have to worry about two people trying to carry a gigantic amp. So even if you have huge stacks, don't always bring them because it is a big pain for everybody and it really isn't necessary. Another thing you can do is really cut down on how many guitars that you bring. Many guitarist likes to have a whole stack of guitars waiting for them because it looks cool and they have the guitars anyway and they have the special stand that accompanies all of the guitars. But really it is not necessary. If you don't mind taking a little time to do tuning for example, then you can get away with having one guitar; maybe two guitars tops. So remember for your convenience and the safety of your equipment, travel light and bring as little as possible. "