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Have any of you historic reissue players been caught in the rain when playing?

C-4

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
1,776
I ask this as I play locally in a band and this is our rainy season, yet we are being booked for out door work. :##:hmm

While obviously, we would not start playing if it were raining and we had no over head protection, still I have been caught in rain when we were playing and it started raining in the middle of a performance.

I was wondering if any of you who play reissue LP's got caught in the rain while playing one of your historic reissues?

This happened to me one time, although nothing really torrential or serious, but I just bought a Gretsch G5220 to use when we play in situations where we may get rained on this season, and I prepared a less expensive amp option as well so that while I would hurry to gather my gear up if I were to get caught in the rain, I would not be worried about it nearly as much if I were using one of my historic LP's and a more expensive amp, which I normally use.

What say you?
 

Elliot Easton

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2003
Messages
3,478
I ask this as I play locally in a band and this is our rainy season, yet we are being booked for out door work. :##:hmm

While obviously, we would not start playing if it were raining and we had no over head protection, still I have been caught in rain when we were playing and it started raining in the middle of a performance.

I was wondering if any of you who play reissue LP's got caught in the rain while playing one of your historic reissues?

This happened to me one time, although nothing really torrential or serious, but I just bought a Gretsch G5220 to use when we play in situations where we may get rained on this season, and I prepared a less expensive amp option as well so that while I would hurry to gather my gear up if I were to get caught in the rain, I would not be worried about it nearly as much if I were using one of my historic LP's and a more expensive amp, which I normally use.

What say you?

My best advice would be to get a Joe B Epiphone for those situations if you want to stick with the LP model guitar. If there's a good canopy you may be OK, but a windy heavy downpour on an expensive, valuable guitar is a terrible idea. But you know that already. :pwink
 

Thunder Dump

Active member
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
293
I've played many outdoor gigs with my Historics. However, we have in our rider that we won't play outdoors without cover regardless of weather. Whether it's rainy or sunny you need cover. We also specify "adequate" cover because you'll have someone think a 10' X 10' popup tent is enough for a whole band.

I played one gig where it poured the whole time and although we had cover the tent wasn't quite big enough for the whole band. While I was dry and my guitar and keyboard rig were dry, space was so tight that when I was playing my headstock was sticking out of the tent (unbeknownst to me). The headstock took on significant water and it bubbled the finish on the headstock around the inlays. After it dried it went down quite a bit but you can still see where it bubbled. So lesson learned--always demand adequate cover, verify the size before committing to the gig, and refuse the gig if it is not satisfactory (either before or day of). We never want to cancel day of so we do our homework and have plenty of conversations in advance to ensure cover is adequate.

Also, what others have said is no joke--wireless is the only way I will play outside. Power is often terrible, and the risk of a ground lightning strike is real.
 

C-4

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
1,776
I've played many outdoor gigs with my Historics. However, we have in our rider that we won't play outdoors without cover regardless of weather. Whether it's rainy or sunny you need cover. We also specify "adequate" cover because you'll have someone think a 10' X 10' popup tent is enough for a whole band.

I played one gig where it poured the whole time and although we had cover the tent wasn't quite big enough for the whole band. While I was dry and my guitar and keyboard rig were dry, space was so tight that when I was playing my headstock was sticking out of the tent (unbeknownst to me). The headstock took on significant water and it bubbled the finish on the headstock around the inlays. After it dried it went down quite a bit but you can still see where it bubbled. So lesson learned--always demand adequate cover, verify the size before committing to the gig, and refuse the gig if it is not satisfactory (either before or day of). We never want to cancel day of so we do our homework and have plenty of conversations in advance to ensure cover is adequate.

Also, what others have said is no joke--wireless is the only way I will play outside. Power is often terrible, and the risk of a ground lightning strike is real.

Everyone has added things which I already have thought of or done, and it is appreciated.

As for using a wireless, I totally agree, and have a StageClix for use, ESPECIALLY where water around me while I'm plugged in is concerned. :)

Thank you all for your input.
 
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