Gig-Ready: Build Your Guitar Emergency Kit

Shows fall apart for simple reasons: a dead tuner battery, a snapped string, a noisy cable. We decided to stop gambling with luck and build a compact guitar emergency kit that turns potential disasters into quick, quiet fixes. This episode is a practical, no-fluff walkthrough of the exact items that keep a set tight, your head calm, and the music flowing.

We start with the non-negotiables: spare strings in your favorite gauges, a 10–20 pack of your most frequently broken single, and a fast restring setup with a winder-cutter and microfiber cloth. Then we layer in redundancy with a backup tuner and the batteries or charger it needs, so tuning is never the bottleneck. From there we tackle climate: string lubricants for glide, moisture-absorbing grip for humid nights, and a clean towel to reset your hands and fretboard when conditions get sticky or dry.

Signal chain reliability is next. We stock two dependable instrument cables at 15–20 feet, a longer backup for larger stages, a couple of pedal patch leads, and one solid mic cable. If you sing, a personal vocal mic plus alcohol swabs keeps you healthy and confident. Power gets its own module: fresh 9V, AA, and AAA batteries for pedals, wireless units, and active pickups; a compact power strip; a grounded extension cord; and a small USB power bank with the right leads to save the night when outlets are scarce or far away.

Rounding out the kit are the small wins that make a big difference: a handful of your favorite picks, a capo and slide for sudden key changes or creative turns, a backup strap plus a generic loaner, a bright pocket flashlight for dark stages, foldable guitar stands that live in the bag, and a multi-bit screwdriver for quick fixes. We also share a simple organization system—grouping by function in labeled pockets—so you can reach the right tool fast without dumping the bag.

By the end, you’ll have a checklist you can tailor to your rig and your band’s blind spots. Prepared players play better, and a smart gig bag is the difference between panic and poise when things go sideways. If this helps you get show-ready, subscribe, share with a bandmate, and leave a quick review to tell us what you added to your kit.

Thanks for being here!! I will continue to do my best to bring you the best, most informative guitar discussions to help you along your guitar journey!

The more you share this podcast with others, the more I can continue to grow this channel and offer the best information and advice I can to you.
Thank you!
Steve

Links:

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https://academy.guitarzoom.com/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why A Guitar Emergency Kit Matters
• 2:27 Pack For Yourself And Others
• 2:49 Strings, Tools, And Fast Restrings
• 3:48 Tuners And Redundancy
• 4:22 Humidity, Dryness, And Grip Solutions
• 6:50 Picks And Cables You Can Trust
• 8:51 Mics, Hygiene, And Flashlights
• 10:00 Batteries, Power, And Extension Cords
• 11:40 Capos, Slides, And Straps
• 12:47 Tools And Compact Guitar Stands
• 14:08 Personalizing And Organizing Your Kit

Transcript

Steve: 0:35

Hey, Steve Stine from Guitar Zoom Academy here. Today, what I'd like to talk to you about is the importance of creating what we call a guitar emergency kit, guitar players emergency kit. So if you're somebody who does a lot of performance, okay, you travel or play in bands or whatever it might be, it's important to have some sort of a kit that you bring along that has all of the necessary things in case something happens. And everybody's is a little bit different. And what I want to do, I've got a list here that I'm going to read off, but there's a everybody's a little bit different in what they need, but there's a lot of things that we're going to talk about today that I would love for you to just, you know, make a note of and see if you've got these things. If you've ever been in a situation where you've gone to a show and you broke a string and you don't have an extra string, or your battery goes dead, or your cable is bad, maybe it's a patch cable or a guitar cable or whatever it might be, these things can really stress you out. And so if you've got an emergency kit with you, just a gig bag or um, you know, duffel bag or some sort of a backpack or whatever it might be, you can put all this stuff in there. And so that's what I want to talk to you about today. Let me pull this up here. We'll just kind of start at the beginning and go through this. So obviously, number one is making sure that you've got, let me say this before I even get started. Some of the things that I pack in my emergency kit aren't just for me. They're just in case I get to the show and you know, maybe another guitar player or the bass player or somebody else I'm playing with is missing something, I can help them out. So I pack for myself, but I also make sure that I've got stuff in there that I can help other people out as best I can as well. So the first thing I think is the most important is strings and some sort of string changing kit, you know, a peg winder and string cutter and you know, that kind of thing, making sure you've got that kind of stuff. So bring a set of strings or a couple set of strings. If you tend to break the same string over and over and over, you might, you know, get a hold of the company and buy a 10 pack or a 20-pack of just that one string, right? And then just keep those with you along with a couple of sets of strings. I can't tell you how many times I've I've broken strings on stage. It doesn't happen as much anymore, it seems, but used to happen all the time. And, you know, now you've got 15 minutes in between set one and set two or whatever it might be to get that string changed and get going. Maybe you didn't bring an extra guitar because you're, you know, traveling wherever and you didn't bring two guitars, whatever it might be. It's just nice to have those strings and then whatever you use for string changing. Again, a tuner, which is nice to have, even though you might use, you know, a pedal board that that has your tuner or something like that, it's nice to have an extra clip-on tuner. Even if your guitars all have clip-on tuners, it's nice to have that. Okay. Maybe, which we'll get to batteries in a little bit, but you know, batteries for that particular tuner. Like really reverse engineer the way you're thinking about this to make sure that you've got everything that you need. That way, if you break that string, you've got extra strings, you've got the tools to change the strings, and uh you've got a way of tuning it up very quickly, whatever it is that you need. Okay. The second thing is things for cold, you know, if it's too hot outside, if it's humid, those sorts of things. I live in North Dakota, so we're dealing with, you know, when it's really cold out, we're not playing outside, obviously, but you're dealing with a lot of dry weather. And then in the summertime, we're dealing a lot with humidity. Okay. So the couple things I want to talk to you about. One thing is what I use is called fast fret. Now, there's a lot of different things out there that do a lot of the same thing, but basically it's a string lubricant. So if your strings are feeling kind of sticky, you know, maybe it's humid outside and the strings are feeling a little stickier, maybe they're a little old or whatever it might be, you can put some fast fret on there and make them a little bit slicker, right? Sometimes this stuff is necessary, sometimes it might be in your head. It doesn't really matter. You just need to make it so it's comfortable. So fast fret, I always have one of those with me. Okay. Another thing I use is I think it's called, and this sounds really awful, and it's it's not, I think it's called dry and glide. Something like that. And I learned about this when I was playing in Germany. Uh my friend Henning Pauli, if you know who he is from YouTube, showed me this stuff. And basically, if it's really humid out or things like that, and the guitar neck is kind of sweaty or your hands are, you know, really sweaty from humidity or whatever, it's almost like uh pool chalk, if you've gone and played pool before. That chalk, right? It's almost like that, but it's in a container that you just roll onto your hands and and it you know soaks up the the moisture. It's great stuff. Crazy name, but really, really good stuff. And so I keep uh one of those in there as well. Uh, an extra towel, you know, to wipe off my hands, to wipe off the strings, to wipe off the neck, whatever it is. I always have an extra towel in there. Um, let's see here. I think that's pretty good for that. Next thing guitar picks, have extra guitar picks. Whatever picks you like to have, you know, have a couple of containers of that in that bag. You know, so you've got, don't bring one or two, bring a bunch of them. So you always have extra picks if you need them. Or if somebody in your band says, hey, does anybody have an extra pick? You've got them. Okay. So having picks. The other thing, guitar cables, mic cables have different lengths of cables. You don't need to bring 50 of them, but maybe you've got a couple of you know, patch cords for your pedals. Maybe you've got a couple of you know, 10 or 15 footers. I always would rather have longer cables than shorter cables that maybe are too short to use, right? So I I I try I kind of bypass 10 footers. I tend to go 15 or 20, and then I'm kind of good generally. Maybe bring one really long cable if you do, you know, larger stages. Maybe you've got a 50-foot cable or something like that. But most of the time, I mean 20-foot cables tend to be, or 25 or whatever tend to be suffice. But again, that's that's a you thing. You got to figure that out. Mic cables. It's you you always hope that somebody's got extra mic cables, but maybe they don't. It's nice to have at least one in there that you've got for yourself. If you like to use your own microphone, obviously that's something that you'd want to have in there as well. Some people don't like to have, you know, use other people's microphones, so they like to have their own. If you don't use a microphone, I always bring like alcohol swabs, that sort of thing. So if I'm using a microphone from, you know, whatever sound company, maybe they cleaned the mic, maybe they didn't. But I don't want to get sick from a microphone, so I'll always have alcohol swabs that I can use to wipe off the microphone screen, right? The grill before I use it. So that's something else that's really nice to have. Uh, the other thing would be a flashlight. You don't need a big flashlight, just a small flashlight that's pretty bright is nice to have. Just keep that in there, and that way, you know, if you're on stage and you need to adjust something and it's dark or whatever it might be, or you're behind your amp trying to figure out what's going on, or plug in your cables or whatever, have a flashlight. That's really nice to have. Let's see. Batteries, power. Okay, so nine volts, double A, triple A, have a few of those with you. You know, pedals and wireless systems, and even like I have active pickups in my guitar, so it's very important to have nine volts with me. I have all that kind of stuff. I mentioned the tuner. Well, you'd want to have batteries that for that guitar tuner, whatever kind you have. You know, again, unless you're using some sort of um uh a charging, you know, USB kind of thing, that's fine. But then you've got to make sure that you've got a battery pack of some sort to plug in your USB devices, right? So a wall wart is really good for that kind of thing, but I always have you know some sort of power block as well. So I'm not just relying on having something I can plug in. Maybe that the the wall, you know, the the wherever I'm gonna plug in is too far away and whatever. It's nice to have something I can have right by my stuff. So I like to have something like that with me. This also brings up then having some sort of extension cord. Again, you hope that this, you know, whoever's running sound or whatever has all this stuff, and most of the time they probably do. But sometimes you don't you don't have that luxury, so it's nice to have an extra extension cord, a power strip, you know, whatever kind of power strip you like, have some sort of power strip with you. So now you've got a few of those things that you need. Uh let's see here. Got those. Capo. Slide. Okay. These things are really important to just have an extra one in there. Maybe you don't play slide, right? Maybe you never use a cable, but maybe somebody else that you're playing with needs something like that. So just it's not a big deal. You buy a you know $20 capo, throw it in there or whatever, and now you've got those in there if you ever need those sorts of things. Guitar straps. Having a couple of extra straps in there. If you need a specific kind of strap because of the, you know, maybe you have strap locks or something, great, have that in there. But then have a generic strap in there too, just in case for a particular guitar or somebody else in your band. There's been many times I've played a show where somebody's missing a guitar strap or, you know, missing a guitar cable or just real general things that we we we take for granted. It's nice to have that stuff in there. Some sort of a screwdriver, multi-screwdriver, whatever it might be, but some sort of screwdriver kit set or some sort of multi-thing where you can have different ends on there in case you need to unscrew something. You know, you got a pedal that you need to take the screws off so you can put a new battery in, or you know, something on your guitar. So having a really fine, you know, flathead or or Phillips style, and then having something a little bit bigger, just having those with you. Trying to think if there's anything else that really comes to mind. I think that's most everything that I have in there. Oh, a couple other things. Guitar stands. You can buy these foldable stands that fold into, you know, they're plastic. I forget what brand they are, but um, you know, they fit right in my case and they fold up pretty small. And, you know, are they are they great? I mean, would I rather have like a bigger, you know, guitar stand? Of course I would. But it's nice to have those in case I forget it or somebody else forgot something. It's nice to have a couple of those um, you know, fold up kind of guitar stands in there, so I've got something that I can use. And I think that's kind of it. That's pretty much everything that I had written down. Now, you might have other opinions on some things that you find that are necessary to have, you know, maybe, you know, whatever, more refined things. Like I know some people will bring like um steel wool, you know, different kinds of things like that for, you know, when it's when it's humid out or whatever it might be. Again, everybody's different, but think about again, reverse or engineer all the things that you think about that would be nice to have if you were not at home and you're like, oh crap, I wish I'd brought that. And then start building your own emergency kit because it's really important to have that. And what I do is I, you know, it has a little handle on top and I just bring it everywhere I go. It can sit in the car or I'll bring it, you know, to the stage or whatever it might be. And I've just got it in case I need it, right? I mean, if I'm obviously parked far away from wherever I'm playing, I'm gonna bring it with me, right? But I don't need to open it and take everything out, it's just all in there. And then this bag that I've got's got different compartments around the outside as well. So the inside's got all the cables and those stands, uh, you know, the guitar stands, all that kind of stuff is in there. And in the front, I have all of my string changing, um, all of my, you know, the fast fret, all that kind of stuff. In one side is all of my uh batteries, all that kind of stuff. And the other side is um like the the capo, all of those kind of things, guitar picks, all that stuff's on one side. So I know exactly where to find everything. And so if I need something really quick, I can just go there and grab it. So, anyway, hopefully that helps you in thinking about preparation a little bit. So when you go out to do a show, you're not stressing about, oh, do I have this or I forgot this? Think about those things that would stress you out so you don't need to worry about it. You've got them all with you. All right. So take care, stay positive, keep practicing. And if you're looking at learning more about guitar, um, you know, maybe you're struggling with your playing and you've been stuck for a long time and you you you really want to get past that and really get to where your goals are. Be sure to check out Guitar Zoom Academy. All right. So take care and I'll talk to you soon.