[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

My guitars always wear their straps and capos, in or out of the case. Each case also has picks. If I'm heading out with an instrument I throwa Cooperstand and an electronic tuner in. I used to keep a tuner in each case, but the off-gassing VOC's in most cases was breaking down the plastic tuner bodies making them soft and sticky.

Also, both my Martins have a 3.5 mm Tapastring Vintage jack, so each of their cases also have right angle 3.5 mm X 1/4" straight plugs that I made up.

IF I'm going to an open Mic or a gig I bring my separate "open mic den mother kit" - a medium sized foam lined Harbor Freight case with a handle and shoulder strap. It contains spare picks for mandolin and guitar, spare tuners and batteries, spare preamp with batteries, a couple dynamic mics, assorted 1/4" and XLR cables and splitters and adapters, a flashlight, multi-bit screwdriver, leatherman, various adapters for cables, an AC extension cord, electrical tape and zip ties.

I never use some of this stuff - it's for the newbies/forgetful players and when gigging, contains the stuff that our main sound/equipment guy never thinks about.

Good den mother bag!

I also throw in a new set of strings, which I almost always have on hand. It's the one thing that I can do to virtually assure I won't break a string, although it's been years since I've had a string break.