Preparing For London - Equipment

Every busker will have their own set of equipment that they need to bring to their pitch. For some it might be just a tin whistle or just a guitar. I wish life could be that simple for me, but to make decent money, I really need to be amplified. When I go busking, my bare essentials are my electric fiddle (in its case with all the accessories), a good quality amplifier, leads, my card reader and phone holder and my tablet for backing tracks. In the last few months I’ve gone through lots of trial and error to figure out what works for me.

My Fiddle
I’ve never weighed my original violin case, but it is heavy duty to protect my violin and it feels much heavier than my acoustic fiddle case. My acoustic fiddle case is not waterproof as I found out some years ago when I had to walk with it in the rain to work one day. So the heavy duty version did the trick for a while, but eventually I had to look into investing in something lighter but still strong and waterproof. What I would really like is to have one of those cases that fits two violins so I could use my acoustic at the sessions, but that would be added weight on my back.

Some underground stations don’t have lifts so I have to drag everything up and down stairs. My amp is only 5.9 kg but it gets heavy pretty fast when you have to lift it all day for a couple of days. I have no idea how much my fiddle weighs, but the case is pretty heavy on the shoulders after a while.

I considered getting cushioned backpack straps for it (and then carry my overnight bag separately), but they cost £30. I’m trying to save money and not accumulate more stuff. I’ve also considered getting a more manageable trolley and the official Roland Street Cube cover so I’m not carting a heavy suitcase around. But the cheapest case I found was between £55-£60 and apparently the zips last only a few weeks. So I think it’s really not worth buying.

I resigned myself to using a suitcase, so I thought about how to carry my overnight stuff. I managed to just about fit my fiddle case in my big backpack with use of the side pockets for my other stuff. But it gets really tiring after a while.  After some weeks I decided to put my electric fiddle in my acoustic fiddle case instead and then keep that in the bag. At least the bag is waterproof.

However, I noticed that my fiddle was not entirely secure in that case. The shape is all wrong so it wobbles around in there. I didn’t think that was particularly safe so I have invested in a HIMA Carbon Master Case with backpack straps. Cost me a pretty penny and I’ve already scratched it up, but it’s exactly what I needed. Extremely lightweight and I don’t have to worry about if the violin is protected. The only thing I don’t like is that it slides up my back or to the side if I lean forward. It’s very slippy in that regard.

My Amp
I’ve been using the Roland Street Cube for the last couple of years. It’s worked great for all sorts of scenarios. Busking at markets, monitor or amp at gigs, and busking in the underground.  Keeping it in a suitcase has presented me with problems though. The suitcase I was using failed to be usable after a while since I’ve had it so long. The wheels were going and the handle wouldn’t come out anymore. So I binned it and got a cheap one from sports direct.

I quickly got tired of that because it would topple forward if it wasn’t leaning on something. I’ve also had trouble carrying it up and down stairs so recently I got a stair climber trolley. It’s a great trolley really. Folds down and it’s easy to go up and down stairs and over any bumps. I have another heavy duty trolley which I use to go to markets in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire so I’m going to sell that one to save myself some space and recoup some of the cost. I then used the big backpack to keep my amp and accessories (since I don’t need it for my fiddle anymore) and strapped it to the trolley, which made life a little easier. However I still have to keep my overnight stuff in a separate backpack, so I ended up carrying 3 things down every time I went.

Recently I’ve talked to a couple other buskers in the underground who have used the Roland Mobile Cube. I heard one of those buskers play violin while using it in the underground and the sound was pretty decent. Loud enough because it’s underground and quality sounds ok. It doesn’t have all the same features of the Roland Street cube but it’s significantly smaller and fits in a normal backpack.

So last week I took the plunge and bought myself another amp specifically for the underground. I will try it out when I go down to London tomorrow. Excited and nervous. Because it’s so small, this is now all I will be carrying which is great.

Card Reader
I also have a card reader so I can take repeat payments of £1 or £2 (whichever I set it to). This is through iZettle, a company that is working with the London Underground. I hope more buskers use them so people get used to seeing them around and aren’t afraid to use them. The only problem is they don’t currently offer the repeat payments option on android devices so I’m borrowing an old iphone for the time being so I can take payments. Without this feature I would have to click into the screen every time someone wanted to make a payment which would disrupt me while I’m trying to play. However, I’ve tried it a few times and not getting that many payments on it to make it a problem for the time being. I might attempt to experiment with going back to my android device for a while and see how that goes.

When I first got it the set up for it was very confusing. I had to contact the company twice to get them to set up the repeat payments feature on my account correctly. Then I had to figure out how to connect to Wi-Fi in the underground. I have to do it through my phone provider. But now that I’ve done it, it automatically connects which makes life easier. After about an hour the Wi-Fi disconnects automatically and I have to stop playing and reconnect that. Other than that I now have an easy routine with it. It’s great to give people another option when they say they don’t have change.

Other Equipment
As for my other equipment, I try to bring plenty of spares. Spare batteries, spare leads, spare strings, and plenty of chargers. I also have a couple of signs which I put up. People notice them more if they’re on the floor so I blue tack them to the ground within my space.

And that’s all I have for you on this topic. If you found it interesting, let me know in the comments. I now know more about the rules so may do an updated blog post on that. I’m also planning on writing about booking slots. The London series continues!