A Day On The Job...
A lot of people have seen guitar techs at the bigger shows they go to and may have some idea in there head what the roadies do. I guess even I was in that position until I started working in this role a lot more and getting to learn the depth and breath of the position within a “road crew” and the industry in general. So I'm gonna try lay out more clearly just what it is we do and what it is we have to go thru and look after and more importantly keep going day after day after day.
I used to try explain to people ,my job along the lines of a Pit crew in a Formula 1 team or any race team, (depending on my closeness to daytona it might have been described as a nascar team)
looking after the prized highly tuned piece of machinery that is the guitarist and his guitar. But thats really just the tip of the icebeg. The job really starts way before the house lights go down and the intro music starts.
Before any tour or one off show no matter where it is I have to work with the artist and there managemant to clarify there show requirements, wheter its an acoustic show or a full blown rock and roll band affair. From there I have to work out what backline or amps the artist – or band as I'll call it is using and whether its there own gear or rental gear from a local compnay or whatever compnay can supply us the gear in the town or countrey we are booked ot play. This is itself can sometimes be a challenge as finding particular amps or keys can be a tough job and finding a compromise is sometimes the only case, If we have to settle for a compromise then the band may requirements may have to be altered. Eg, we have to re-look at pedal boards and add things we can't get in the backline we need. Luckly within my own country I know every backline company and every piece of gear they own and constantly keep updated on it so I am one step ahead of the game, espeically when overseas bands book tours thru here and need backline. Some bands won't budge on requirements and you have to start calling on a lot of favours of friends to source guitars or amps or pedals that the bands must have.
As well as booking and confirming or “advancing” any gear we hire I then have to make sure all our gear is ready to drive , bus, fly or sail to the gig. If we need new pedal boards made up I may be up till the early hours making pedal boards and velcroing pedals and making looms of cables or just heading down to the local store and buying what the band needs ,this is as well as all the strings and picks and batteries and spare cables and such stuff we need before a tour. Its not uncommon for me to do a shop with one of my major artists here in nz and spend into the $500-$800 mark just on picks and strings and tape and batteries and feedback busters and capos and all the things that musicians manage to lose a week after there last tour finishes! I have bought capos for one singer for every tour and I'm sure if they cleaned there practise rooms they'd find a bunch..haha
Once all the extra bits and pieces have been bought its usually down to me to pack and check all the cases for the gear and make up any tour cases with all the bits and pieces we may need on that tour. For a tour with one band its easy , On a big Winery tour thru NZ here each summer I have 3 bands to tech for and that means 16+ guitars and 3 lots of strings and bits and extra cables and stuff so I have two super large Road cases or coffins as there called just for my 'Guitar-World' its a lot of stuff to look after day in and day out so I have to keep it as organised as I can or things go missing and when your loading in at 8am and loaing out at 12-1am the next morning and your brains fuzzy and tired you have to be doubly on your game to make sure all the stuff goes back in the right cases , but also fits back in the cases in such a way as it does fit in.. usually this involves a day or two before the tour packing and re-packing the cases until you have every inch of space used for something.. and it does take time to get it just right.. you can;t afford one square foot of space sitting there empty with more stuff to fit in so you re pack and shuffle until it works.. then I take a few photos on my iPhone of the pack so I can get it inot my head for the next coupe of shows then its second nature by then..
As well as prepping tall th bands gear I also have my own gear to prep. I have various combinations of tool boxes and sizes that all get decided on varying on the show and its length and its proximity to large citys.. if I'm thru bigger citys and venues in town, I can afford to travel a bit lighter as I can dash off to a music store to restock. But for the out of town wionery shows then I am miles from any town or music store so I take everyting I possibley coulf need, and spares, from 3 capos, to feedback busters, guitar stands, Pickup surrounds, machine heads, nuts, bridges, acoustic bridge pins, wire, solder, soldering irons, about 10-12 cables including short speaker and long speaker cables, small jack to jacks and extra long arena cables, and IEC jug cords, and fuses and spare screws, nuts bolts washers, practially a complete workshop. The last thing I can be is stuck needing something 10 minutes before doors and be an hours drive away from a town.
Whilst touring the Warped tour I had TourSupply.com at my fingertips and that was a god send.. just email my order and it was on a courier and delivered to me within a day or two a runner would deliver it to my set up tent at the back of the main stage.. that site has pretty much everyhting you'd ever need on the road and is by far the biggest thing I miss about touring the states.. here in lil ol kiwi land the best I can hope for is have something sent to one of the chain stores down the line and pick it up as I come thru town or or try take a shop into fed-exing it to my hotel for the next city.
So a lot of time and effort and checking and rechecking goes into the prep time of the tour . From there depeding on the scale of the tour its getting all my stuff that I have to deal with in my “guitar world” to the truck or the van its travelling in. Some times I'm driving the van as well so thats another responsibilty I have to look after, not always a favourite but I got to see a lot of the United States and Canada driving my band and there van and trailer round those countrys.
On tour I am just a cog in a large wheel, we may have an Front of House Engineer or (FOH or sound guy), monitor guy, Systems tech for the PA if we're touring one, Riggers for flying the PA, lighting guys, loaders, more riggers, production managers, tour managers, site managemant, security, merchandise, and even ushers on the big winery tours . And if we have to all share truck space then you have to do your part sometimes and make sure your stuff gets to that truck in the time it needs to be there as they load it, as just like my coffins the trucks can't waste an inch of space when theres so much gear and also for safetly sake and have the load spread out evenly , a baddly packed truck can tip on a corner or loose gear can break free and cause a hell of a mess. So you have to do your part and get packed down and ready as fast as they need you, which isn't always great when you have stuff thats broken or needs looking at right away. But you do what you can and your stuff there.. especially the first day! You piss people off there you won't hear the end of it all tour..haha
I hate to say this but there is a certain amount of repitiviness involed with being a guitar tech. There has to be, its what keeps the tour and show rolling. You are there to put the same show together night after night as long as the run lasts, or even if its a one off show, the band wants there stuff done a certain way. We have Stage plots for where there gear goes onstage in relation to each other and what needs to go where, these often have meaurements so the front of the drum risers is adesignated distance from the monitor line or guitar amps are an exact distance apart and on the stage symetrically apart. Or risers for keyboards and bass players are a certain distance from the back screen. And you have to make sure you or the local hands and loaders have that info and get that right.. I have to make sure that the stage no matter where or what city we are in is the EXACT same each show. Musicians get better the more they get used to doing something, its common sense, so to shake things up and suddenly have things all different throws a whole show and I have seen and experienced bands have terrible shows because things were just not right.. to the punter in crowd they wouldn't realise or think there prima donna but there not, when its different it can put bands out ther comfort zone and suddenly they are worrying more about why the stage feels different and sounds different ,than just playting the music and suddenly you have a very pissed off guitarist/singer or someone.. so we check and recheck, luckily on some of the big festivals where we tour a massive truck stage we have the floor all marked or “spiked” with each piece of equipment and even lines for people to stand to correalate with the lighting if needed. Everything goes down exactly as the night before, evenm towels and water, the last thing you wabt is a muso reaching for there beer or water to find its been out on the riser behibnd , I've had people between songs absolutley stress and go off at me for putting it in the wrong place when in fact someones moved it while working and left me to get it in the neck.. not fun.
Also for some shows I will have made up a set of cables or “loom” a certain length so it all fits into place when we have all the gear down and suddenly to be short by 5 feet is an issue. Its mostly important when you have a large band to fit onto stage with a lot of risers, one singer - Dave Dobbyn plays with a 7 piece band and 3 risers on our last tour so we had to make sure it was all laid out right, plus the audio/sound guys usually make up looms of mic cables to fit to the stage plot before th tour so it makes there life easier so if you muck them around again, you won't hear the end of it.
A normal tour day.
Waking up far too early 7-8am mostly. And heading to the venue, for me a day may start helping unpack the truck and getting all my gear out of cases and starting to assemble each persons set of stuff. This is normally all the backline and amps as soon as I am allowed acess to the stage. If there is rigging going on in the ceiling it pays to stay clear benath, but usually lighting is in before I have to be there so there all done and the stage is clear. So I position my risers, measure any distances or set to pre ordained marks on th stage, put amps in ther place and leave the sound guys to mic stuff up, we will usually both be working the stage at the same time as I set they set. If there is a lot of movement and people on the stage I won't lay put my pedals or run my cables until its quieter, the last thing you want is someone or something to drive over your pedal board with the irreplacebale one of akind fuzz pedal or the hot wired vintage coloursound.. guitarists hate broken gear! End of Story!.
Once I feel the stage is secure and safe enough I'll lay out all my pedal boards and check positions of mic stands for each musician, they have to be at the right height even for soundcheck. I'll tighten every bit I can on the mic stand so we don't have the impotent drooping mic stand at any time. Then I'll tape up or fit the pick holders if thats what the guy/girl wants. Each band is different so each has there own unique needs and demands of how stuff should be set. I won't tape down my cables as I'll usually be soundchecking in reverse order, so Headline first then second band then first band or Support band last. So I'll have to shift all this gear at the end of the soundcheck and reset for the next band or there own tech will.
The Soundcheck
But once its all in place and mic'd up I'll start be oin contact with the Front of house engineer and go thru and line check each instrument and mic for the performer I am taking care of, on shows where its just me, thats drums and keys included. So its a simple process of starting at the kick drum and hitting it again and again while the sound guy gets his levels and makes sure all the mics are showing up on his desk in the right order, at this point the monitor guy is also getting his levels and making sure I am getting what I know the artist needs in that monitor wedge or in there in ears if there on those. I have my own set of In -Ear buds I travel with so I always have them for each band that uses in ears so I can have a pack on and know the bands got the mix they want or thibgs are going as they should and liase with the monitor guy for any extra needs or requiremnts . From the kick its to the snare and so on thru the kit. Even tho most FOH- desks are becming more digital and have instant recall it still has to be check and rechecked until there happy. To do this job right It pays to know exactly the level and the way the band plays, hit and sings and screams . That way the FOH guy can set all the levels and not have them peak out when the band starts. So you pick up the techniques of the bands you work with a little, and can emulate the way they may strum there acoutsic or how loud there liable to scream in a certain song. All the time spent getting this right now makes the Linecheck faster and simplier for the band, and also saves any loud unwanted feedback when they start playing something at a differnet volume than you'd been checking.
For the guitar amps, I have them all marked where they need to be set, so each night I can dial them exactly as the show before and also have photos so if I'm to fly to another town with a rental amp I can dial in and get as close to the sound as I need. Tho as valve amps are variable things the exact markings can be differnet each day. So I've resorted to decible meteres and all kinds of ways to measure each amp night after night to check its output. So night after night I can get as close to the same set up as the guitarist needs and as it fits with the songs there playing. There are a few times I will have to turn them down as the guitarists turn themselves up night after night.. guitarists are always wanting more.. and it never makes for a great show. The louder you play the less the FOH guy has to work with and in the end the rest of the band is battleing to be heard over the tower of blaring guitars on the side of the stage..
Next up is the soundcheck with the band if there going to be there, or it may be left to the road crew to check it all out. In the bigger festival situations there are no soundchecks unless your the main headline act sometimes, you get 30 minutes between bands for them to clear the previous bands gear and then get your stuff on stage, into place and all run up. Then I have to try get the right tones out of amps and start getting a good monitor mix or an in ear mix . This is usually in 15-20 minutes. This is where the job gets pressured, any cock ups now or things forgotten or left behind or broken really throws a spanner in the works. To make all the time worthwhile I will normally have my pedal boards all laid out side of stage in order and sitting on top of each amp to roll on and I've taped arrows to the back of each map to show the loaders the stage positon so they can be left to roll the stuff right onot position and check it off against the pre sent stage plot.
Normally these changeovers run short on time so its a pressure situation where you have to keep your head and your cool and keep everyting under control and be aware of everything even outside your job and control in case you have to adjust and re assess your plan..
Once the soundchecs are done you may have time with the artist changing pedal settings or experimenting with new gear or switching stuff round.. or you may get left with a bunch of new pickups or things to fit to guitars for the show. If the bands thoughtful they don't dump a bunch of expectations on you an hour before the show but it happens..
If the soundchecks gone sweet and everyones happy I might have to mark the palcement of gear out on stage if it has to move. We call that Spiking. It just means taking some coloredtape and marking out the corners of amps and mic stands and drum kits , keyboards.. you usually have to move at least your pedal boards from front of stage, I might be lucky and not have to move the complete band gear but some shows you have to strip the whole stage for the support bands. This means a lot of spiking..haha . Once the stage is clear its a case of starting re-strings on guitars or more repairs or cleaning of gear like pedal boards before the show. You usually have time to get this done if youe just looking after one band, but on shows where you have a few bands to take care of you normally have to prioritise the jobs and then set up for the next soundcheck. Then try fit in re strings and repairs and general TLC for gear. Some days you may have so much time on your hands you can clean the gear till it sparkles. Take a toothbrush and polish the amps and cabs inch by inch with cleaner or strip the guitars and polish every part. Or you maye just take the time to hit the hotel and get a nap or food or a swim. Its not slacking off some days you need to leave the work area to go over a hectic show in your head and run and rerun the show in your mind and in a zone your clear headed without people or support bands making noise or lighting guys focusing lights and testing strobes and explosions.
After show show starts and the support bands or other bands play I will be tuning and making sure all guitars and effects are ready for the “change-over” cleaning, stretching strings one last time. And just preparing myself and double checking. I'll have water and setlists to set and towels and any other particular trinkets and toys or backdrops that may need to be set.. each band is different and can need there own special things in place for the show.. Finally I'll get the call to set my bands gear and set the stage ready for the show. There will be a quick line check of all the gear again so the FOH guy is happy that everything is coming up on the right channels and I'm happy all the gear works, all the effects pedals go and everything they play or touch is working as planned. If anything doesn't work right then you have to try fix it or get it as it should be. If all else fails then you have to come up with the back up gear or guitars to get the show on the road.. pedals can somehow go down between soundcheck and show time. They can be temperamental , especially if the gears not been looked after prior to the tour.
If everythings going and the rest of the crew are happy then its time to set the bands water, beers, wine, whatever they want and put up the set lists and towells. I usually use an easy to see big white “X” made of gaffer tape on the floor to mark where tha bands refreshments are so if they are in the dark they can see them . Nothing worse than a band searching for waters that are hidden in the dark or set in a different place than normal. It can interfere with there being in the zone again.
So once there all set its pretty much GO time.. I may have to walk to the band and hand them guitars or a mic, or clip on there wireless units and hand them picks or whatever they need then just wait and give them the call to walk onot the stage, when there intros on or the lights are down.. from there on in the shows started and the job moves into the next mode.
I'll hit that up on the next Blog..
