Downsizing my rig – the all-in-one gig bag

I’ve got to the stage as a guitarist where I’m basically getting a bit lazy and I just can’t be bothered anymore with lugging loads of equipment around. Where I used to spend hours setting up my perfect rig, now I just want one trip from the car, plug in as few cables as possible and go. Anybody with me?

Even worse than that I sometimes play in London and do a bit of teaching at the moment at the London School of Theology (LST) too. To be honest getting to either in the traffic can be a bit of a faff so when I can I take my gear on the motorbike complete with telecaster on my back!

So as and when my gear needs updating or replacing I’ve become interested in gear that’s simple, flexible, efficient and lightweight. So I got a little bit excited when I came across these very clever gig bags from Fusion. They’ve basically got some nicely designed hooks and Velcro straps that allows you to ‘Fuse On’ (gedit?) a variety of backpacks or rucksacks.

Now I get a bit fed up with having to carry different bags for all the guitarists’ paraphernalia so the thought of one system that could swallow the guitar, stand, some pedals, power supply, POD, teaching materials, cables etc really appealed and needing a replacement for my gig bag I ordered their F1 electric guitar bag plus small and large backpacks.

The gig bag itself is actually pretty substantial with decent quality zips, straps, padding in all the right places and a couple of pockets for cables, capos, sheet music etc, but add the large backpack and you can chuck in a few pedals too. It’s not quite big enough for a pedal board but the whole thing does clip together pretty well and for the convenience factor is worth it as long as you don’t want to fit in The Edge’s effects rig. In fact my other latest acquisition, a Line 6 M9 effects unit even fits neatly into the small backpack alone so it makes for a really portable rig with the minimum of fuss and plugging in.

Of course I can’t get an amp on my motorcycle, yet, (working on it!) but even allowing for carrying an amp it just means one trip from the car, and the convenience factor is great!

The bag is getting a reasonably hard life, including wind testing at 70 miles per hour, and nothing has fallen off yet!! So I’ll report back on how I’m getting on with it periodically but in the meantime if any of you have road tested (literally!) gear that makes the worship guitarists life an easier one, send us some thoughts…

Other posts you might like:

Gear confessional – guitars

Gear confessional – pedals

Gear confessional – amps