101 Gaffer Tape HitsEvery musician on this Earth, and a few other planets as well have used Gaffer tape to save their life and musical career. This page is a shrine to the universal flexibility of that sticky but useful material. If you wish to contribute to the list sign my visitors book and drop me a line.
1.
Ever been asked for song that your not sure about? Take the words (A4
is best) a piece of Gaffer Tape and stick the top of the words to
the boom of the mike stand. You can just see the words by looking down the
bridge of your nose. 2. Ever
played the dreaded outdoor marquee, where the ground is uneven and your
beer won't stand up??. Take the roll of gaffer tape and place it on
the ground. A pint glass (full of beer) fits neatly in the center and it
stops it falling over. 3. Noisy
pot on your amp or desk? Take a piece of tape tear it down the middle.
With the thin strip wrap around the offending knob so that there is a long
tail. Then pull the tape in the direction which allows the knob to work.
Then stick down on to the amp or desk. 4.
Instant Blues Brother Kit. The singer of a Blues Brother
tribute band that I play in, burst all of the buttons on his white shirt.
We were on in 5 minutes. We managed to fashion a strip of Gaffer
tape in the shape of a black tie, which stuck the front of his shirt
together. It hurt when he pulled it of f,,,oooooh!. 5.
Broken Mic clip? Wrap tape around the boom of the mike and the broken
clip and the mike won't move. Bit of a pain when it comes to pack up
though. 6. The
ultimate cable management tool. Hang cables over doorways, stop people
tripping over cables, loom cables together. Hey don't we all use it for
this? 7. Scratch
Protector. Some of you Guitar heads out there get a
bit upset when your belt buckle scratches the back of your shiny Fender.
Stick a couple of pieces of tape on the back of guitar to protect the
paint work. If you feel really un-cool wrap the tape around your belt
buckle. 8. Split
your trousers on stage??? A piece of tape can hold things
together for most of a gig. Probably a good idea to where black trousers
to start with though 9.
Gaffer tape the cardboard box preservative. I have noticed that
musicians will go to great lengths to keep the boxes their gear comes in.
Pedals, speakers etc. Well over a period of time the edges go. Gaffer tape
lined edges means the box lasts for ever. Because it's relatively thin you
can still get the lids on!!! I've got a graphic equalizer that I
have had for 5 years, still in it's box. (Which is now exclusively made
out of Gaffer tape.) 10.
Get into those fancy dress parties with a piece of gaffer
tape. A friend of mine once got into a fancy dress party by cutting
about an inch of the reel and then cutting it in half again. By sticking
it under his nose, he became an instant Adolf Hitler. However, when he was
in the party he wondered why nobody bought him any drinks!!!!
WARNING!!!!This one might be a bit tricky for you girls out there. 11.
Telescopic Trouble. For those of you who have Mic stands and speaker
stands that rely on a telescopic principle of extension, and no matter how
much you tighten it it just wont stop slipping. Wrap tape three times
around the inner pole in the position you want to use it. Again, a pig
when you come to pack up though. 12. The
essential outdoor accessory. Ever found that embarrassing leak in your
tent, car, or boat cover. A strip of Gaffer can keep the damp
patches away. I had a boat cover completely held together with Gaffer tape
for over four years. In fact the boat fell to pieces first. My thanks
to Han Bavinck who
keeps three different colours around the house, white, silver and
black. Instant repair jobs! Till you have time to get it done proper, of
course. 13.Want
to cover the Drummers Embarrassment? The best thing to do with this
sort of tape is to use it to fix a large back drop behind your drummer. If
you do it right you can use just enough tape for the backdrop to fall 14. Is
the carbon Dioxide level in your Apollo 13 LEM rising? The astronauts
in that ill fated Apollo 13 flight had to figure a way of getting the
square CO2 filters from the space capsule into the round CO2 receptacles
in the LEM. A hard thinking Mission Control team saved the day with a
little help from Duct Tape!!!! Which was used to secure the filter to a
jury rigged tube. (Han Bavinck) 15. Gaffer
tape, The ideal Head Wound dressing. Take one patient with a head
wound that is bleeding, apply direct pressure on wound with hand towel.
Secure towel in place with copious amounts of Gaffer tape. Sit back and
calm patient until paramedics arrive. (Cafemojo). 16. Broken
Suitcase in Vietnam? Steve
Johnston used some to enable him to get his clothes home from this far
off place. Makes you wonder what the thought was, New Suitcase? or pack a
roll of Gaffer? I know what I would choose!!! 17. Left
that Guitar Strap at home? Gaffer tape can help you, take one
roll......... (unfortunately Dan
Shipp didn't tell me how he did it!!!! waiting for the next
installment watch this space.) 18. Have
you been framed? Long strips of gaffer placed around your
favorite picture make the perfect frame for your favorite heavy metal
artist. Barbara Jeszenszky 19. The
Show must go on. A friend of mine (Nick
Cottage) who plays the trumpet for two great bands, Helzaboppin and
the Blues Blah Brothers, fell off his bike and hurt his wrist. When I
picked him up for the gig that night, it was hurting real bad, but he
could still move his fingers. When we got to the gig we strapped it up
with some gaffer tape and got on with the music. It turn out subsequently
that he had broke it!!!!!!. 20. Bouncing
Beer Glasses. This is a variation of number 2. Take a roll, tear off a
strip about 1ft long. Place the roll, on it's side, on a flat point on
your amp. Then tear the strip into four and fix the roll down to the top
of your amp. The beer glass can then be put in the center, and you can do
a rip roaring guitar solo with the knowledge you can have a drink
in-between guitar riffs.!!!! 21. Is
Gaffer tape a bloke thing? (look at what it can do to your fridge). I
thought that Gaffer tape was well into the bloke market. But I came home
from work one day, went to the fridge to get a drink, and found the
cracked plastic containers on the door had been repaired with streams of
my gaffer tape. I now have some where to put me beer can again. 22. Lost
the rubber bit off of your capo? Wrapping gaffer tape around the metal
stem works just as well, and you can use the silver tape for the capo that
looks like nobody else's. 23. Outdoor
gigs can't keep your set list (or your lyrics) from blowing away? On a
recent outdoor gig at a blues festival. The dep singer had some lyrics on
a music stand that kept blowing away. In fact it was so windy the whole
band nearly blew away. Two pieces of the good ol' gaffer ensure that the
requisite song stayed on the stand. 24. The
muso's puncture repair kit. ideal for them Minstrel Cycles. came home
from work one night to see my son repairing a puncture on his brand new
bike with MY gaffer tape. It seemed to work but there was a lot of tape on
the inner tube. His logic came from item 25. 25. Boat
repair from Gaffer. The same son had repaired his fibre glass canoe,
prior to fixing his bike. He said it only let in a little water. 26 Oh My
God..Where's the Mic Stand??.... A good mate of mine, Ant
King.. was playing in particularly dingy working mans club. (is there
any other type!!)<<This may be deleted depending on the number of
complaints>> .. found that he didn't bring a Mic stand.
He managed to find a Speaker Tripod Stand in the back room. This
supplied the upright part of the stand. The horizontal "member"
was made by Gaffa Taping a Broom to the top of the tripod..... using the
head of the broom as a counter balance and his more than extensive
Engineering skills to establish the fulcrum point ....The Microphone was
then gaffa'd to the pointy end of the Broom Handle and on with the show
!!!!!! He did point out that it was a shit gig because of the bingo.
Working Men's clubs may be the subject of a separate web page. 27 Get
the angle on your monitors. Sometimes we turn up to see the
smallest of stages to get the biggest of bands on. The Mic stands have to
be fully extended and the monitors have to be on the floor and just seem
to point at the front of the stage and not at the band members ears!!!! To
overcome this take one roll of Gaffer taper per monitor speaker that is on
the floor and insert it under the leading edge of the speaker. This way
the angle increases and we can hear ourselves. ! |
