A bass players gig bag is his trusty side kick. It’s their war chest heading into battle. When you’re at a gig there is almost no telling what kind of curveball could be thrown your way. And your only tools are going to be what you’ve got in the gig bag, so you have to keep it well stocked.
Prepare yourself for this problem, because it’s coming your way. You will need power. You’ll get around to plugging everything in, and find yourself short a couple sockets. It seems so simple, but these kinds of things are rarely complicated. Have one of these guys packed in your gig bag and you’ll be set.
The longer the cord, the better. Trust us. Outlets are rarely located where you need them to be, and if the building is a little older there is bound to be a shortage of outlets.
At some point you’ll need some extra power, and this guy will save the day. It’s essential. Pack it in your gig bag.
What items do you stock your gig bag with? Let us know in the comments!
You can’t forget the ZipTies.
not gonna be able to use it with power supplies… there ain’t room between the sockets… also the out cable on the plugs is gonna prevent use of all the sockets … on a scale of 1 to 5… i’d give this minus 5… but thanks for showin it !!! not very well designed at all really…
Have you ever seen the PowerSquid ones Wilba? For the picture I used the basic power strip (since the series is about the bare essentials), but I probably should have used a picture of one of those. They’re work great with larger power adapters.
I’d weigh in on this one, too. Though my own school’s pilcoy default allows me to display my students’ pictures unless specifically requested not to, the easy button factor of allowing anonymous comments, especially from my littlest ones, is negated by having it necessary for them to login to have their avatar display. Most of my kids don’t have email accounts for signup, given their ages (K-4th grade). The result is a comments page with all the avatar pics the bland and somewhat anonymous one. If there were some way to turn off the feature the page would look much more inviting.
Three gig bag essentials:
1) Duct Tape
2) Swiss Army Knife
3) Imodium AD
Almost all gig-ruining catastrophes can be fixed with those three items.
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9v Battery… Always…
For me, my “gig-bag essentials” include a mini Mag Lite, my Leatherman tool (with a wire stripper function), my Axe-Handler mini guitar stand that rests on the edge of my speaker cab, a small roll of electrical tape, small roll of gaffers tape, power strip, and at least one extra instrument cable and one patch cable – usually for the nimrod who didn’t check his gear before the gig!
There are power strips with the plugs turned 90 degress from what this pic has. They work great for wall warts, but cost a bit extra. You should also make sure you have an actual surge protector, not just a power strip. Some places you play, you never know what may come back through that line.
Also: fuses. Lots of them.
Strings, string winder, wire cutters, screwdrivers, hex keys, nut driver for truss rod, various XLR cables, various 1/4″ cables, aspiring, Imodium, condoms, tuner, power strip, various extension cords, 6′ and 20′ speaker cable, knife, guitar stand, batteries, wet wipes…….. I gotta be leaving some stuff out……
For those who have multiple wall warts they make something called a squid.
For about the same price you can get a strip with some surge protection. A good idea if gigging at venues with unknown electrical wiring or in case of lightning strike.
I don’t keep a power strip in my gig bag. I mounted all my hardware in a rack with a furman power conditioner. Because my bass head draws 1500W I won’t plug it into a power strip. I do however pack a heavy gauge extension cable and a heavy gauge piggybackstyle power splitter but will only use these if absolutely needed.
I carry at least two power strips – no-one brings a strip for the PA.