Touring Tip Tuesday #1

Today will be the first installment of Touring Tips. Some of these tips will come straight from my personal experience; some from Matt's travels; and some from our friends and family (most of who are still out there on the road.) We want you to be as prepared as possible when you start to plan your tour. Great planning helps you to avoid a lot of stupid problems and mistakes (even though it is sometimes tedious and annoying.) So, we hope you enjoy:

TIP #1: Keep Back Ups of All Your Perishable Gear (i.e. - Strings, Sticks, Picks, etc)

As simple as this sounds, it's one of the most common mistakes that bands make. Be sure you're realistic about how many extra sets you need. The general rule is a full set/pair/bag per show. This means that you should have at least one set of strings, pair of sticks, etc for each night that you hit the stage. I personally like to overshoot this and grab extras of the strings I break most often (for me it's the A string); you can grab great deals at Zzounds.com.

Also, don't forget about things like Tubes (if you have a Tube amp), drum keys, guitar/bass straps, and cables. You don't need to have quite as many backups of these items, but it's good to carry at least a couple change outs per tour.

To wrap this first installment up, I want to remind you that you're going to run into snags and you'll going to undershoot and need to pick stuff up while on the road. My suggestion is to visit www.guitarcenter.com and map out where the closest store(s) will be while you're out there playing.