Running a gear inventory: who owns what, who brings what

Someone bought a DI box in 2022 with money from the band fund, it lives in the keyboard player's spare room, and now the keyboard player has left. Is it hers or the band's? Nobody wrote it down, so the answer is whoever feels strongest about it. Multiply by every cable, stand and mic a band acquires over five years and you get the argument every second band has had.

An inventory ends the argument and, as a bonus, makes packing faster. It is a list; the discipline is in how you use it.

What to record

One line per item, or per identical set of items (eight 10 m XLRs are one line with quantity 8). For each:

• Name and category. "SM58 vocal mic", category Microphones. Categories: instruments, backline, PA, microphones, cables, stands, power, lighting, consumables, cases, merch, admin.
• Quantity owned. The number you actually have, not the number you wish you had.
• Owner. The band, or a named person. This is the field that settles the 2022 DI box.
• Home. Where it lives between gigs: "Anna's garage", "the hardware case", "the PA rack".
• Serial number and value for anything over roughly 100 EUR; the insurer will want them. See gear insurance for musicians.
• Notes. Condition, quirks, where to buy replacements, "left channel crackles".

Twenty minutes with the gear in front of you covers most bands. Consumables (batteries, tape, strings, fluid) go in as well, with a note on where they are bought, because "we're out of gaffer" should be visible before the gig, not at it.

Shared versus personal

Make the rule explicit and write it into the band agreement:

• Band-owned: bought with band money, or donated to the band in writing. Listed with owner "Band". When someone leaves, it stays. When the band folds, it is sold and the money split according to the agreement, or divided by an agreed method.
• Personal: bought by a member with their own money, even if the band uses it every week. Listed with the member's name. Leaves with them.
• Grey area to avoid: "I paid but the band was going to pay me back." Either the band pays within a month and it becomes band-owned, or it is personal. Decide at purchase time.

A related rule: the band does not buy gear that only one member uses (a specific guitarist's amp) unless the band agrees it is a band asset that stays when that guitarist leaves.

Kits: the inventory in useful shapes

The inventory is the master list; a kit is the subset for a type of show. Three or four kits cover most bands:

• Duo or trio, acoustic
• Full band, venue provides PA
• Full band, own PA
• Festival, backline provided

A kit lists items and quantities needed, not owned. The "Full band, own PA" kit might need 12 XLRs though the band owns 16; the festival kit needs cymbals and pedalboards and nothing heavy. Build the kits once, then a new gig is "apply the kit, adjust two lines". The full line-by-line list is in the band packing checklist.

Assignments: who brings what, this time

The inventory says where an item lives; the gig checklist says who brings it today. They are usually the same person, but not always: the drummer is on holiday and a dep is playing, so the band's overheads travel with the bass player this week. Assigning items per gig, by name, is what turns a list into a promise. The load-out runs the list in reverse, and every item is somebody's job to get back into the van.

Loss prevention

Gear does not vanish; it gets left behind, lent out and quietly absorbed. Habits that work:

1. Count in, count out. Cables and mics are counted at the van before the doors close, every time. Two minutes; recovers roughly one item per five gigs.
2. Label ownership. Coloured tape for the band's gear, personal colours for members. Details in cables, spares and redundancy.
3. A lending rule. Band gear lent to a friend's project is written down with a return date, or it is not lent. The keyboard stand that "someone borrowed" in March is the classic.
4. Photograph the empty stage before you leave a venue. It takes five seconds and shows you the pedal under the monitor.
5. A yearly audit. One rehearsal in January is spent with the inventory open: what is missing, what is broken, what has been bought and not listed. Update owners, values and serials.
6. A replacement threshold. Anything under, say, 50 EUR that goes missing is replaced from the band fund without discussion; above that, the band decides. Removes the awkwardness and keeps the kit whole.

The inventory as a decision tool

Once the list exists, it answers questions that used to take a group chat:

• "Do we have a spare DI?" Yes, three, in the spares case at Anna's.
• "Can we do the festival with hand luggage?" Look at the festival kit: 14 items, two people's worth.
• "What is the band worth if we split?" Sum of band-owned values: 6,400 EUR, mostly the PA.
• "What do we need to buy before wedding season?" Compare the "own PA" kit quantities against owned quantities.

Do this today

• Put every item in one place, physically or in a spreadsheet, and write the owner against each line. Do the expensive things first.
• Decide the shared-versus-personal rule with the band and record it.
• Build your two most-used kits.
• Set the January audit in the calendar and name the person who runs it.

Where expert.band helps

expert.band's gear and packing pages are this system built in: a shared inventory with name, category, quantity and notes such as serial numbers and where an item lives; kits saved per show type; and a per-gig checklist where each item gets a quantity and a person, ticked off in the van and run in reverse at load-out. Every member sees the inventory, so "do we have a spare DI?" stops being a question for the leader. Start free and list your gear in one evening.