Recently, a visitor asked for a list of things for their gear bag. I’ve listed what I use as well as what I found others using as seem to best fit the church environment. Here you go;
Tools:
- Swiss Army Knife or Leatherman multi-tool. You just need something you can quickly put out of your pocket for tightening, cutting, etc.
- Headphones. I use my E2’s. Some people like the can style. Sometimes you need to isolate a sound so use headphones.
- Tape measure. If you need to measure small spaces and don’t have a measure on you, remember that your thumb width is ~1 inch and your finger width (fingers spread out – pinky tip to thumb tip) is about ~8 inches.
- Phillips and regular head screwdrivers
- Hex-head screwdrivers
- Vise grips or crescent wrench. Works also as weapon when threatening guitarist on stage to turn down their amp.
- Small penlight for hard to reach places.
- Large flashlight.
Tape:
- White tape for writing on stuff like mixing boards.
- Black Gaffer tape
- Electrical tape
Adapters:
- 1/8” stereo jack to ¼” stereo plug adapter
- ¼” stereo jack to 1/8” stereo plug adapter
- Dual-RCA to Mini-TRS cable
- 3-prong to 2-prong electrical adapter (NOT FOR LIFTING GROUND)
Equipment:
- SPL meter
- Multi-cable tester. I use the Ebtech. Prices vary by brand. Ebtech gives a great display as far as pin errors.
- Soldering kit
- Edison outlet tester
Other:
- A pad of paper and pen/pencil
- Black Sharpie marker
- Calculator
- Leather gloves; useful for load-ins and load-outs.
- Music CD’s that fit the genre of music. If you need to fill some dead air with music, such as time to solve a technical problem, you’ve got something to play.
- USB flash drive. Guest speakers bring laptops and stuff comes up where a flash drive would be easier than “is there some way we can connect to the church’s network?” You might want to keep a spare in the sound booth that you only use to transfer files so you can easily clean if a virus arises.
Hi Chris , I’ve found a simple cable tester very handy when checking those intermittent mike cables .The one I have does speakon as well which is handy for those out of phase or faulty speaker cables.I just find it much easier than using a multimeter.
regards
Garry Adams