Cables, spares and redundancy on stage

Gear fails in the same handful of ways at every gig, and none of them are exotic. A cable that worked at rehearsal, a 9 V battery that was "fine last week", a laptop that chose the first dance to update. The band that never stops mid-set is not the one with the best gear; it is the one that carries the right spares and knows where they are.

What actually breaks

From the load-outs of a lot of bands, in rough order of frequency:

1. XLR and jack cables. Solder joints at the plug, usually at the end that gets stepped on. Intermittent crackle first, then silence.
2. Batteries. Wireless mics, in-ear packs, active basses, acoustic guitar preamps, clip-on tuners. Batteries fail on the second set, when the pack has been on since soundcheck.
3. Power supplies. Pedalboard supplies, keyboard adapters, laptop chargers. Small, cheap and specific, so no one at the venue has one.
4. Strings and sticks. Predictable, and still forgotten.
5. Drum heads and kick pedal springs. A snare head goes during the loudest song; a pedal spring pops during the count-in.
6. Laptops and tablets running tracks or the mixer app. Updates, sleep settings, a full disk, a flat battery, a Wi-Fi router that reboots.
7. Power strips and extension leads. Fuses, wobbly sockets, one lead too short for the stage layout.
8. Mic clips and stand parts. Wing nuts, boom arm clutches, the thread adapter that lives in someone's pocket.

Notice what is not on the list: amps, speakers and mixers. They fail, but rarely, and you cannot carry a spare of everything. The strategy is spares for the frequent, cheap failures and a plan B for the rare, expensive ones.

Two is one, one is none

For anything on the critical path, that is, anything whose failure stops the show, carry a second. The critical path for most bands:

• Lead vocal mic. A spare mic with its own cable, on a stand or in the case, ready.
• The signal into the PA. A spare DI box and a spare mixer channel are your insurance against a dead keyboard output or a broken bass jack.
• Tracks and click. If you play to tracks, a second device with the same set, cued and tested. A phone with the stereo bounce is acceptable; nothing is not.
• Power to the stage. One more power strip than the plan needs and one longer extension than you think.
• Drums. Spare snare head fitted or at least present, spare kick beater, spare pedal spring, a second pair of sticks per song's worth of enthusiasm.

For everything else, the rule is a spare cable per type and a way to get through the set without the item.

The spares kit

One case, one owner, in the van for every gig. Contents for a 5-piece with a small PA:

Category	Items and quantities
Cables	XLR 5 m x3, XLR 10 m x2, jack 3 m x3, jack 6 m x2, patch cables x3, speaker cable x1, IEC mains leads x2, USB-C and Lightning cables x1 each
Adapters	XLR female-to-female and male-to-male x1 each, jack-to-XLR x2, 3.5 mm to jack x1, mini-jack to twin RCA x1
Power	6-way strip x1, 5 m extension x1, spare pedalboard supply, spare 9 V pedal adapter, laptop charger
Batteries	9 V x6, AA x12, AAA x4, CR2032 x2 for tuners and remotes
Drums	Snare head, kick beater, pedal spring, felts and wing nuts x4, cymbal sleeves x4, drum key x2, sticks x4 pairs, gaffer tape
Strings	Full set for each guitar and bass, picks x10, capo, string winder and cutters
Tools	Multi-tool, small screwdriver set, electrical tape, cable ties, torch, soldering iron if anyone can use it
Stands	Mic clip x2, thread adapter x2, spare boom arm
Hygiene and misc	Spare in-ear tips, alcohol wipes, earplugs x4 pairs, a pen, a marker, a stopwatch

Value of the whole case: roughly 250–400 EUR. It pays for itself the first time it saves a gig.

Labelling

Cables and adapters migrate between bands, venues and friends. Label them:

• Coloured tape at both ends, per owner. Red for the band, blue for the bass player's own cables, and so on. Two turns of electrical tape is enough; heat-shrink is better.
• Length on the tape. Write "10" on a 10 m XLR. At 23:00 in the dark it saves a lot of pulling.
• Initials on small items. DI boxes, clips, power supplies. A marker pen on a piece of white tape.
• Count at both ends of the gig. Eight XLRs go in, eight come out. The packing checklist does this for you if you use it in reverse at load-out.

Testing

Once a quarter, one person with a cable tester (15–40 EUR) and an hour:

• Every cable through the tester. Bad ones get a knot tied in them and go to the repair pile, not back into the case.
• Every power strip switched on and every socket tried with a lamp or a plug-in tester; the reasons are in stage power and safety.
• Batteries in the kit checked for date; anything older than a year is used at rehearsal, not carried.
• Spare strings checked against the current gauges.

Battery policy

Batteries cause more silent failures than anything else, so make the rules explicit:

• Fresh batteries in every wireless mic and in-ear pack before every gig, without exception. A 9 V costs less than a euro; an awkward silence costs a review.
• Rechargeables are fine if someone owns the rotation: charged sets in a labelled box, used sets in another, charged the day after the gig. Rechargeable AA in wireless systems typically last 4–6 hours; check the meter at the break.
• Active basses and acoustic preamps: change the battery on the first of every month, gig or not.
• Write the date on 9 V batteries with a marker when you install them.

Do this today

• List your band's critical path and check you have a second of each item.
• Buy the missing spares kit contents in one order; it is cheaper than five emergency trips.
• Tape and label every cable this week, and put the tester on the shopping list.
• Add "fresh batteries" as a named line on your gig packing list.

Where expert.band helps

Put the spares case in expert.band's inventory as one item with its contents in the notes, plus separate lines for consumables such as batteries and strings with a note on where to buy them. Add it to every kit so it appears on every gig's checklist with an owner, and the "who has the spare DI?" question answers itself on the gig page.