How many guitars do you take to a gig?

[jimdandy]

three -- tele, strat (tuned down) and acoustic.

[Skub]

Mostly just one,but the odd time if the drink's in me I'd drag along the one I keep tuned to open G.

[Oakville Dave]

Two Teles and a Godin A6 for the acoustic stuff,
Two Fender Mustang IIIs, the A6 goes direct.

[twangster2]

2 main and backup..

It's all you need, unless you just like lugging around extra stuff. I don't

[Telesavalis]

Depends on the gig;
anywhere from 2 to 5: Tele-Strat-LP-Acoustic-Ric 12 depending on staging and set lists.
Minimum would be 2...a Tele and Acoustic.

I've found, over the years, that a Telecaster can do it all. (So can a Strat or Les Paul). However I prefer the Tele.

[Roger Tessier]

With my last band (60's only band) between the other guitar player and I, 7 was the norm - but now, ONE ~ a TELE!

[Dejected_Ridge]

Two for me - one I play the entire night and one for backup. The backup I bring can also be used by our singer/part time guitarist in a pinch. I've broken my share of strings and it's easier to just grab the second guitar than change a string mid set.

-DJ.

[MN Punk]

I take the two I built. One has Gibson Burstbuckers (the one you see in my profile avatar to the left), the other has traditional Tele pickups and a Bigsby. I use the Gibson-loaded one for most of the night, because it sounds really nice through tube distortion. Then I switch to the other one when we hit our first clean-tone number and stick with that for the rest of the set. I generally don't like making the audience wait through multiple guitar changes.

If a string breaks on either of them, I finish the show on the other.

[McGlamRock]

One electric. My acoustic-electric too if we are playing our lighter material.

[The Quasar-Kid]

If I only brought one guitar - that would certainly change how I played...
I need at least one to play and one back-up
I use heavy picks and play fairly hard - thus - I break strings

[D_Schief]

Usually just my one tele -- it's a pine partscaster with a Nashville-type three-pup set up. It's versitile, it never "breaks down" (not sure how it could short of a bar fight breaking out and it's needed as a defensive weapon) and I haven't broken a string in the last ten years.

I do bring two small and simialr 1-12" combo amps, because they are somewhat more likely to break down. I use one as an extension cabinet, and if I have a problem and I can quickly switch to the other amp's power section.

[ac15]

Depends on the gig. If I'm playing a 2-3 hour solo gig I bring no backup. I'm less likely to break strings at this type of gig because I play fingerstyle and if I do break one, the gig is so long that it's no big deal to take 10 minutes, change a string and go on.

If I'm playing a 45 minute set of original material with my rock band, I must have a backup in case of string breakage. You have to keep things moving, and stopping to change a string in the middle of a short set because you didn't bring a backup is plain dumb. That's why I always bring a spare amp as well. If a tube goes, I don't have time in the middle of the set to figure out where the bad one is. I just fire up the other amp.

[Don Miller]

Two--my Nashville
west and a parts tele I use as a back up...altho weve ended up doing some tunes in "un-guitar friendly" keys like F#, C# and Ab so I am thinging about tuning the spare to Eb for those tunes. I do dislike changing guitars in mid set tho...so...

[basher]

In general I try to keep the amount of machinery I have onstage to a minimum. Just one guitar does it for me.

[bargoedboy]

Two for me, my tele and my custom made job for slide, will be from now on with lap steel added to set.

[fakeocaster]

Usually 2. strat and tele for blues and rock gigs.

Selmer style and archtop for jazz

[brookdalebill]

At least two.
I always bring my Gretsch, and depending on the "bag", my Les Paul,
Yamaha SA 2000S, ol' bender Tele, or Strat.
The Strat sees the least work.
The Gretsch sounds the best, but it's an unwieldy, big thing.

[mlove3]

I take my full collection of electrics.
One tele.

[Teleblooz]

I bring two - my #1 Tele tuned standard and my partscaster Tele tuned to open G and to serve as emergency backup. I've been thinking about schlepping along my Dot lately 'cause there's a few tunes in the set that those twin buckers would sound good in, but I haven't yet convinced myself.

[Lazloryder]

I used to just bring one guitar to the gig. But my A string broke at a few gigs (luckily there was someone elses guitar I could borrow). So since I've brought an extra in case of emergency, but never really had to use it. :\ go fig.

52 Tele Reissue and Schecter Ultracure (because it has humbuckers)

Don't really care if the song needs more of a Strat Tone, or Les Paul tone, or whatever because everyone's to busy paying attention to our hot chick singer to really care.