“I had to change his strings every day. He would play one song and destroy them”: Slash guitar tech reveals what it’s like working for the Guns N’ Roses legend
Ever wondered what it takes to keep one of rock’s biggest guitarists stage-ready night after night? In a new interview, Slash’s longtime guitar tech Ryan Redler peels back the curtain on life in service of the Guns N’ Roses icon – and it’s every bit as relentless, high-pressure, and gear-destroying as his ferocious playing style suggests.
Speaking on Shane Theriot’s Guitar Channel, Redler reveals the brutal workload that comes with maintaining Slash’s road-worn arsenal, starting with a seemingly simple task that quickly becomes anything but.
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“Slash, I had to change his strings every day,” Redler explains. “He would play one song and destroy [them], because of the sweat and just how hard he plays.”
“So I was stringing his guitars every day – six, seven, eight, at least, stretching the strings, too, making sure the nut’s all set,” he says. “Man, I was wrecking my hands. I was changing so many guitars of his a day that on days off, I’d just rest my hands.”
That same intensity also extends beyond strings and into last-minute gear curveballs. During the interview, Redler recalls one particularly tense moment during the 2015 World on Fire tour that nearly derailed a show. Tasked with prepping a last-minute double-neck guitar, he was hit with an unexpected request just minutes before showtime.
“We went to Europe, and he decided he wanted to play a song where he needed a double-neck. We didn’t take his with him, so I found him a double-neck, and right before the show, I showed it to him, and the pickup covers were still on.”
Redler continues, “He goes, ‘You got to take the pickup covers off.’ And I was like ‘now?’ And it was getting close to showtime, and I had a lot of stuff to do. So that meant four pickup covers off, and they’re soldered on there.”
“One of my friends just told me, 11 years later, he’s like, ‘Oh, there’s a really easy way to do this.’”
“But [at the time] I had to do four of them, and it was hot. We were outdoors. I didn’t have my whole work case. So I started doing it. I’m taking the pickguards off… I was melting the solder to get that off, and one of those springs goes flying,” he says. “I was nervous enough, and that spring goes flying, and it’s an old wooden stage. And I didn’t have my stuff with me. I didn’t have a spring, and I don’t know what I would have done.”
With the clock ticking and the stage moments away from going live, Redler scrambled to recover: “I looked for about 15 minutes, and time’s running out. It’s showtime… but I found that spring. I did it, and hopefully it was in tune that night!”
Beyond repairs, Redler’s guitar tech’ing duties with Slash also extend into the performance itself.
“If he’s playing a lead, [I had to] hit a boost or a chorus,” says Redler.
Even so, the pair’s working relationship remains surprisingly grounded: “If we had something go wrong, I could always go talk to him and say, ‘Hey, man.’ He’s always available. You could always go into the dressing room after and say, ‘Hey, I screwed up.’”
The post “I had to change his strings every day. He would play one song and destroy them”: Slash guitar tech reveals what it’s like working for the Guns N’ Roses legend appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
