Commuting with Gear

[01010111]

So, I'm going to start looking for different ways to get around, I'm spending close to $300 a month on gas. I've been trying to find portable synths, guitar cases and amps for practicing with a band or playing a small gig if needed.

For an amp I was thinking about the zt lunchbox and a line6 pod to emulate my twin amp.

For a guitar case I'm not really sure. I'm thinking about riding a bike and I don't know of any cases that are good for that.

Where my Pedalboard is homemade I'm probably just going to stuff it in a backpack.

Does anybody else do this or have tips for it?

[mathias]

skip the line6 pod, get a les lius and a reverb pedal The OLC Professor Tweed kit is a pretty good Fender-alike pedal too http://www.olcircuits.com/olckits.html

If you don't want to spring for the Lunchbox, both the little Vox SS practice amps and the Roland practice amps have digi-FX and can get decently loud. You may have to admit defeat and mic up your practice amp at practice, but the lighter you go on the amp, the better.

Or, if you can stow an amp at the practice space indefinitely, do that. Every ounce you're carrying on a bike is going to wear you out faster.

Get a cheap ($120-150) used guitar that you like, guitar stores typically have a few of the 70's clones hanging around for that price range (I just bought a Gibson SG knockoff from the 70's.) A lot of these 70's knockoffs had plywood bodies that were really thin and light. Get it set up and make sure you get a gig bag with it, one with a shoulder strap.

Get panniers for your bike to put the amp and pedalboard in. Wear the gig bag on your back, make sure the neck is aimed over your right shoulder so you can still look over your left shoulder for traffic behind you.

Make sure you've got bike lights. Take a class on riding in traffic if you haven't done it before. Recommended even if you're not riding in an urban/dense area.. riding on the side of the highway where cars are moving faster is actually more dangerous, even if there's less cars.

You'll spend less than $300 on this plan and so it'll pay for itself easily.

Edit: If you can't tell, I commute by bike and actually ride my bike with the gig bag on my back to monthly jam sessions..

[tuffteef]

i hate commuting on busses with gear it really sucks....

[The4455]

Road Runner makes a gig bag with backpack straps that's actually a really nice gig bag. If you got paniers (bags) for your bike you could buy a lunch box amp and one of it's extention cabs.You could always get Love Pedal Les Luis, it'a fender emulator type thing. Pumpkin peices has one here's his demo:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exr0Kd3TBpQ[/youtube]

[01010111]

Biking is probably my only option for commuting right now, unless I take the bus after I get to town. The bad thing is the band room's about 15 miles away. And coming home in the dark is going to be scarier than hell with my hillbilly neighbors wandering around.

That les Luis sounds great, between that and the zt I'd probably be set for amplification. I never use amp reverb or anything so just the fender vibe would be good enough for me.

I can see how carting around my main guitar would be troublesome. I'm going to try and narrow my pedalboard down to a pt nano if possible because my board right now is pretty heavy even though it is only eight pedals.

What about synths/keys? After that thead on the qy-70 I was pretty much sold on it, but that monotribe looks fun for on the fly tweaking stuff.

Mathias that is very solid advice, I'm definitely coin to take a cycling in traffic course if I can find one. Bikers around here are horrible in traffic, so I dont think there is. Thanks for the advice.

Any tips for bus riding? Once I get into town I can take the bus most places. I'd assume it would be much the same kind of advice as for bike riding: pack as light as possible.

[nightraven]

ew no get that lovepedal poo away
the onboard distortion from the lunchbox is way better than that pedal
if you really want fender in a box support the good folks at catalinbread

[Gone Fission]

The Lunchbox's gain is better than I had imagined and there's more than enough for a lot of classic-rock or indie sounds. Not the greatest amp ever, but more than a gimmick for sure. Loves pedals, too. Case is available with a shoulder strap.

An old composite Steinberger of the headless paddle-shaped variety tends to be a great but for trouble free travel -- rugged, neck doesn't shift with temperature and humidity shifts. Not everybody likes them, though. And the usual EMG's don't play well with a lot of fuzz pedals.

[fetch]

Whatever you do DO NOT travel around with those CNB cases. I know this seems a bit far fetched (I love using that phrase when online), and believe me at 6'3" and having done kick boxing my whole life, it was the last thing to enter my train of thought. I guess they thought I was carrying gold bullion or something on the train so they made sure they called their mates to the last stop where I was getting off and cornered me. I do not wish that on anyone as it completely caught me off guard and I was fearing for my life instead of the pedals.

I now use my backpack or pedaltrain mini case exclusively and never carry my guitar around unless it's daylight and in the city instead of the 'burbs. The point is to look regular I guess as if you fit in with everyone else you're less liable to be a target of theft or whatever.

In terms of 'comfort' then yeah- nothing beats a decent back pack. I use my Carribee one that I've had since highschool and it's padded everywhere and has a trillion pockets. Could hold up to and including 10-15 pedals I reckon.

[one bad monkey]

As someone that's spent the last three years commuting to and from work (only 4mi one way, so for me it's more leisure than anything) on a bike, I can give you this:

-Wear a helmet or have your donor card filled out and up to date.
-Ride your bike as if no one sees you, because many of them don't.
-It's not a matter of if you get hit, but when.

Another +1 on storing the amp at the rehearsal studio if that's an option. I'd be concerned about people using it while I wasn't there, but you know the situation there better than us.

[Fuzzy Picklez]

-Ride your bike as if no one sees you, because many of them don't.

This times infinity.
It doesn't matter if you have the right of way. If a car decides they do, you lose no matter what.
I ride my bike almost every day, and since I'm NOT in a bike friendly area, I spend half my time biking just trying not to get hit by cars. Cars are dicks.

[Haki]

I use a gigbag with backpack straps when biking. Just get one with decent padding and that's waterproof. If it has backpack straps it'll likely have some extra space for pedals, cables. I got mine for 25 bucks. The weight isn't an issue and with the neck behind your neck you can look over either shoulder, which increases your chance of survival. Just be aware of the neck sticking out a bit over your head when going through tunnels or low hanging objects.

However I always take a hardshell case when using public transportation just for the protection. People will bump into you/your guitar even without emergency braking going on. I know a few peeps that got a case from a company that makes crap guitars to 'reduce risk of theft'. Though I'm not convinced the average mugger knows the value of various brands.

[Gone Fission]

On incognito cases and the ZT Lunchbox thing, reportedly those fit into the little soft padded coolers for a six pack of beer cans. But if labeled with a beer brand, that might make you a bigger target for thirsty muggers. Tough call.

[01010111]

Current plan:
Reconfigure current pedalboard to fit on a pt mini (homemade board dimensions are weird, something like 18 by 16) so it can be stuffed in a backpack easier, get a backpack and make it look run-down.

I have two guitars now, a Squire Custom Tele and a BT Jazzy. I'll stick a mean 90 in the neck of the Tele so it will sound similar to the BT and use that as my travel guitar; if I can, I'll leave one guitar at the bandroom with my fender twin. The zt will be for when I practice with new people at other places.

Hopefully most of the time I'll just be carrying a backpack, or a bike with panniers, with the pedalboard and either the qy-70 or the monotribe inside. Any case I use for the guitar will be a padded gig-bag that's been made ghetto looking with grease, masking tape and plastic bags.

But, this area isn't exactly good for bikers. Something like 10,000 accidents a year. The population here's only around 100,000 for the entire county. So, if you haven't been hit while riding a bike you've probably hit someone on a bike. I'm getting lots of lights and reflect stuff, so hopefully I won't be as at risk. And Buses only run in town, 8 miles away, and stop running after 8, so buses aren't a realistic option for me because I can only have band practice at night.

I can see how thirsty muggers could be a problem But until I go to grad school I don't think I'll have to worry about muggings too much, this area has a pretty low crime rate and a high police per capita. I'll probably have a better chance of getting hassled by police for having inapropriate bike lights or whatever, than getting mugged.

[Bassboar]

+1 on the amp storage idea. I almost killed myself getting amp to a practice.