Gigging in a cold climate

[johnallg]

Well, I'm a new steel player... Oh wait, you meant old vs. young...

I meant talented old......

[cjj]

Hey, wait a minute...

[captsandwich]

Try touring Canada in February.
A mechanic in Brandon Manitoba told us to disconnect the air intake on our old Dodge van and point the hose back behind the radiator. This would prevent ice from building up in the carb, causing the engine to stall at highway speed.
We also duct taped the driver's door closed to prevent snow from coming in when anything passed us in the opposite direction, and parked near the hotel's restaurant/laundry exhaust to keep the van from freezing overnight when it hit -45 celsius.
There were an awful lot of blankets in the van, but no Rickenbackers at the time. My Epiphone Emperor survived, tucked away in its case until showtime.

[buchrob]

Randy Bachman, who's been performing in the great White North since the 60's, has an interesting story about transporting harmonicas in the trunk of a car during a Winnipeg winter, arriving late and then rushing directly to the stage with the instruments in tow.

It's not hard to imagine what the outcome was...

I have exactly the opposite problem: storing gear over the summer in Arizona where a non-air-conditioned house can reach 128 degrees.

The more expensive stuff gets stored in a neighbor's closet, and the cheaper stuff get stored in a gigbag, then stored flat in the following "sandwich":

bed mattress
thick quilt
gig bags with guitars
2 more thick quilts.

I've gone 3 seasons without real incident other than the frets of a 650 AND a Fender Tele feeling rough at the edges because of micro shrinkage of the maple neck. And this was regardless of whether the guitars were stored in a climatized environment or not.

The idea with anything made of wood is to provide as much insulation/air space as possible so that the climate changes are gradual.