In my experience, you’re stuck with what is onboard. If you are going to be playing the same room every day and not moving, a good eq or even a multi effects with amp modeling might help with getting your tone. It’s a constant struggle onboard, but there are ways to make it work. It just may take some time. Some of the direct boxes with amp modeling that are out there may work for you if you don’t like the amps onboard.

You can always find a place to practice. Make sure you bring a guitar/headphone amp like I mentioned in the last article. Those are great and you can 99% of the time find a little corner somewhere backstage, in the officer bar, or a back staircase to do some practicing. Ask the MD onboard when you get there.

As for jobs, it’s always possible to do what you want. It’s just a matter of finding the job or making the connection. I know many people who have only done jazz combo gigs. Try calling some cruise lines directly and speak with their Ent/Music manager and see what they have available.

Hope that helps.

Also, is it possible to find a place to be alone and practice with headphones. It sounds like the living situation is tight and cramped which will be a little hard for me as I’m a bit of a loner.

Is it possible, once you have developed a relationship with the agency, to move into doing jazz gigs? That’s ultimately what I would like to play. Thanks,
Mark

Great blog. I have done eight contracts as a guitarist on Holland America and I am thinking of going back after a year and a half break. (I think I am the guy that bumped you from the Amsterdam in 2005. Your wife was pissed. Oops.) Are you teaching now at a university, you sound great Well nice to read your stuff, take care!

David

The professional thing to do is be prepared, and I think these articles provide exactly the kind of information many guitarists starting their first contract are looking for.

The purpose of these articles is to give a new-hire a general impression of what to expect on a ship. While you are spot on with your general summary , I felt these articles would give someone with no experience a wide viewpoint of what they are getting into. As with anything, experience gives us a better standpoint to base future decisions on. Glad to see your experience has helped you become a successful, professional cruise ship musician.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

1 solid body guitar- I know you consider yourself a jazzbox/classical/blueridgeacoustic guy, but when you are hired to play guitar, this is what is normal. I brought two guitars on my contracts, on solidbody Hum-S-Hum and one Jazzbox w/a piezo so I could cover all my bases. Most guys will only bring 1 solidbody.

A multi-effects box with an expression pedal [the rocker pedal which you can assign to volume or wah-wah] and a foot pedal to allow you to change your tone on the fly. All of them have built in tuners. Know your gear so you can reorder effects and change your presets! I’ve done multiple contracts with the exact same piece of crap Digitech thing from 1995. Cost me $40 used. If it ever were to die, I would go to a guitar store in port and buy a new multieffect. Most towns, no matter how remote, have a guitar store somewhere…
You need Tuner, Distortion, Chorus, Wahwah. That’s it. Everything else is you being cool in your own mind. no one ever asked me to increase the feedback trails on my delay.

If you are in a your own band, bring as much gear as you like, that’s up to you. You know the sounds you’ll want etc.etc. If you are such a big tone geek that you think the drunk spring breaker will really care that you have a tube-saturated compression, well go ahead and bring that AC30, you’re paying for the shipping.
Just don’t be a tone prima-donna. No one listening cares that you’re playing a solid state amp [another reason for solid state amps is that shit gets knocked around on a ship, I've had my amp flip over in the middle of a gig due to the boat rocking so bad!], you shouldn’t either. When you go home to your studio and want to turn up your Vintage TS-808 thru the Bassman’59 with Mogami cables go ahead, but on a ship, no one will give a damn.

In regards to guitars and pedalboard, you could try to carry them on, but you may have to gate check or stow them. I’ve never had any good experiences with trying to bring guitars on the plane. My last pedal board was small enough so that i could count it as my carry on, so if the case is the right size, you may be able to do that with the POD. Be prepared to pay for extra baggage and weight.

I think you could get away with just your strat for the gig. Humbuckers are great, but you could definitely make the strat work. I would avoid a Floyd Rose trem if you only have one guitar as quick string changes in the middle of the show would be impossible.

Thanks for your questions.

Great blog!! I will be going on a Princess cruise from June 14th through Sep 23rd. As far as guitars I have a Shecter for rock and a Strat for pop and dance. I also have a Line 6 XT pedal board which is everything in one pedal. I know it’s a long shot but do you think there’s any way I could get the guitars and pedal board on the plane?

Also, I am looking for one guitar that can do it all. Do you have any ideas as far as guitars with hummbucking pickups for rock and single coils for pop and dance? I know I’ve seen some with a 5-way selector that is humbucking in the bridge position and in the next position over, switches to the single coil bridge and middle pickup together out of phase. Ideally that would also have a Floyd Rose tremelo for the ocasional Van Halen tune.

Thanks, Matt

Boards don’t have to be expensive or heavy. A small computer bag with tuner, wah, overdrive, dealy would be sufficient. I would avoid computer based setups due to the chances of crashes, reboot time and power considerations on the ship. As well, you may find yourself playing outside in less than ideal weather conditions, and would not want your computer exposed to the elements.

I would avoid loud amplifier like the plague, even though you could use an attenuator it would be more beneficial to bring a pedal to get your overdrive and leave the attenuator at home.