[keefsdad]

Does anyone else attempt to do this? If so, how do you get you and your gear around?

 

[traynor_garnet]

I used to live in Etobicoke and my roommate gigged all the time without a car. He used the TTC for every gig.

He bought a dolly and bungee cords at a hardware store. He would load his cab and head onto the dolly and wrap several bungee cords around it to keep it secure. His bass went in a gig bag over his should and away he went.

Just get a dolly with good inflatable tires and you are set. It's not ideal, but it's not that bad either and doesn't really require much lifting.

TG

Does anyone else attempt to do this? If so, how do you get you and your gear around?

 

[Dirty_Frank]

I used to live in Etobicoke and my roommate gigged all the time without a car. He used the TTC for every gig.

He bought a dolly and bungee cords at a hardware store. He would load his cab and head onto the dolly and wrap several bungee cords around it to keep it secure. His bass went in a gig bag over his should and away he went.

Just get a dolly with good inflatable tires and you are set. It's not ideal, but it's not that bad either and doesn't really require much lifting.

TG

Wow, that is intense. If I lived in a city with a decent transport system, I'd do that too. Until then, cab fare it is.

I'd have to cut down on my gear. One guitar, scrap the pedalboard and only bring the essentials.

 

[keefsdad]

I imagine getting on and off buses, stairs down the subway, etc. would be challenging.

 

[nine]

You've gotta do what you've gotta do. I remember wheeling my Bassman head/4x10 cab to a show on my skateboard once. That sucked! Haha.

 

[Dirty_Frank]

I imagine getting on and off buses, stairs down the subway, etc. would be challenging.

Just make sure you've got it bungeed in tight!

 

[mandocaster]

I gigged in T.O. in the 90's with a mountain bike. I bolted a milk crate onto a standard-issue bike rack and stood my Jazz Bass upright in its gig bag, and stuffed a jacket in there to firm it up.

One night I got spooked off of Bloor Street in front of the Brunswick House, and the bass bounced out of the box, landed face down on the street, and skidded 30 feet...only bent the G tuner shaft. The other strings weren't even out of tune. I bullied the driver who cut me off....the bass eventually got stolen in Vancouver.

I also had a device to lock a road case for my mandolin on the same box, held down with a bungee. Honestly, I don't know how I survived, seeing how I was half-sotted after a few ales by the end of the evening, and tended to ride without lights.

Cuh-razy!

 

[Antz_Marchin]

I gigged in T.O. in the 90's with a mountain bike. I bolted a milk crate onto a standard-issue bike rack and stood my Jazz Bass upright in its gig bag, and stuffed a jacket in there to firm it up.

One night I got spooked off of Bloor Street in front of the Brunswick House, and the bass bounced out of the box, landed face down on the street, and skidded 30 feet...only bent the G tuner shaft. The other strings weren't even out of tune. I bullied the driver who cut me off....the bass eventually got stolen in Vancouver.

I also had a device to lock a road case for my mandolin on the same box, held down with a bungee. Honestly, I don't know how I survived, seeing how I was half-sotted after a few ales by the end of the evening, and tended to ride without lights.

Cuh-razy!

Hahahahaha :banana:

 

[torndownunit]

TO bands without transportation would drive me nuts when my last band was gigging. We'd be driving down there from Orangeville to gig, and the bands would want to use our gear because they had no way to transport their gear within the city. They were 10 minutes from the club, we were an hour.

I think if people are playing in a band, they should have the means to transport their own gear in some way.

 

[Baconator]

I had a friend that played bass here in Kingston that would cart his upright to gigs in a shopping cart. It was 'only' a few kms from his house to the bars where he gigged.

 

[david henman]

...when i moved here in '86 i spent the first couple of years getting to gigs via ttc. i often experienced nightmares where i'd be sitting on a subway car, engrossed in a stephen king novel, my beloved strat on the floor beside me. the car would pull into the station and i would suddenly realize this was my stop. racing for the doors, i barely make it, only to see my beloved strat still sitting next to my seat, as the train pulls away from the station....



-dh

 

[traynor_garnet]

That is why it is important to get a dolly with good, large, inflatable wheels (not those cheap plastic things). Just turn the dolly around backwards, step up on the steps, and pull. Many buses can lower themselves to the curb (to aid those with disabilities) and most subway stations have elevators or escalators so you don't really need to lift at all.

Mind you, if you have a 4x12 this probably won't work. But it is quite doable with a smaller set up.

TG

I imagine getting on and off buses, stairs down the subway, etc. would be challenging.

 

[keefsdad]

...when i moved here in '86 i spent the first couple of years getting to gigs via ttc. i often experienced nightmares where i'd be sitting on a subway car, engrossed in a stephen king novel, my beloved strat on the floor beside me. the car would pull into the station and i would suddenly realize this was my stop. racing for the doors, i barely make it, only to see my beloved strat still sitting next to my seat, as the train pulls away from the station....



-dh

Eeek is right!

 

[Hamm Guitars]

When I has a teenager I used to take my gear to practice without a vehicle, and then cart it home again.

If anyone knows Dartmouth, N.S., this was my gear and route:

1 - Fender Bandmaster Head
1 - Traynor 4 x 12 cabinet
1 - 1 x 15" cabinet
1 - Ibanez Proline Flying V with case and an Ibanez Tube screamer.

I lived in the Caledonia Road area and we praticed behind Penhorn mall. The route took me over a catwalk that crossed the highway, so I had to carry everything up the stairs and then down the other side. Not sure how far this trip is, but it is probably between 7 and 12 Km's, and all uphill on the way home.

Thinking back I did have a little 10 watt Dean Markley amp that I could have used at home, and I probably could have left one cabinet at home and another at practice, but I was young and stupid and remember rationalizing at some point that it was a good way to meet chicks.

 

[Robboman]

I was young and stupid and remember rationalizing at some point that it was a good way to meet chicks.

Good story, thanks! That's dedication, hauling that much gear for practice! I wasn't that stupid when I was young, but then I didn't get many chicks either. You deserved all the chicks you undoubtedly got.

 

[mandocaster]

You would have been a real man if you did two laps of the Micmac Rotary with yer cab. :rockon2:

 

[Hamm Guitars]

I was actually on my way to Nova Scotia when I wrote this. I'm back home now - flight cancelled.

A sweaty guy lugging gear up the street is probably not as attractive as I thought it would have been with the ladies of the time period - allthough if I had a Z-28 I could have done doughnuts around the rotary and been popular with the chicks...

 

[nine]

... allthough if I had a Z-28 I could have done doughnuts around the rotary and been popular with the chicks...

Heck, if you have one now, you can be popular with the same chicks, only they all live in Spryfield now. :tongue:

 

[auger]

I never looked so cool going around the armdale rotary...on my way to Spryfield on the bus....lol
anyone else have to climb the hills in fairview with their gear....

seem a few of us have

Auger

 

[mandocaster]

I notice the number of Haligonians who flew the coop (and bought a car)....after losing control, no doubt, of their Ampeg Refrigerator on one of those wild hills around the Dingle.....

(note the development of a kind of code-talking)