all right so I'm here with Maddie the
famed guitar tech trainers and run in
famed in pain in famed infamous yes
maybe and on YouTube yeah and we're on
stage left which is the cool side of the
stage and I'm going to ask Maddie a
couple of questions he's going to ask me
a couple of questions so what are you
doing right now so that's my first
question
I am tuning up your main six string
guitar it just changed strings cool and
I think I'm setting a new land speed
record today because we're running short
on time so just putting the final
touches on it how do these guitars
maintain like their tuning and separate
music Mangan cards great great yeah and
a lot of stretchings like what do you do
that well yeah so a good way is after I
put the string on I'll just go through
yeah and kind of kind of pull up and
move my way down the neck yeah and I
change the strings two at a time okay
when I go across some of you can't do it
one at a time some people will do it you
take them all off it depends I typically
do it two at a time you can with two off
you can get to all the parts you need to
clean well that's a good idea
I did it so and it helps to maintain the
spring tension on the bridge to the
right two out of whack well when I play
them every night they're always in tune
they stay in tune I use the bar there's
no locking nut so locking nut are you
doing or it's all working yeah well you
know it's predominantly the guitar
construction played great yeah that's it
ten minutes we're done we'll move on to
another one so I got a question yeah
this is a good question yeah so seeing
as how you're such a gear aficionado you
have all of your signature products in
guitar the amp the wah pedal the
dreamscapes pedal straps pickups picks
the whole deal so assuming you were
stranded on a desert island with all of
your signature products right what is
the one piece of gear that you would
want to
what's the one piece of gear aside from
all of your signature stuff I'll be side
from you if you had if you were on a
desert island right and you had your
guitar your amp yeah your pedals your
picks your started missing yeah if there
was one other thing you could have what
would it be my goodness it is a good
question I suppose I need a tuner so
okay I stayed in tune yeah that's you
know something that's important to me
yeah and that fine I often found myself
in situations like oh man I'll have a
tune you know there's phone apps now and
TC has that but a little coupon guy yeah
and kind of it every little practice
thing that is out there has some sort of
tuner yeah you know so yeah I would need
a tuner okay I don't have perfect pitch
there we go there you go see
now speaking to news I noticed you
prefer the strobe method of tuning I do
confuses the hell out of me well as it
should you know when I got started many
many many years ago there were two
luthiers in Orlando Florida Bill and
Doug and they had their own little
guitar shop and they built guitars even
and they have a family and when I when I
started becoming a guitar tech I started
hanging out at their shop and they would
show me stuff and and bill one day said
listen if you're gonna do this for a
living you need to get a real tuner you
get a stroke but more importantly here's
ours where we thought okay heard
McKenzie any critters alright Bob and
Doug Robin doesn't catch that person and
other nice guys there's not putting him
down alright the other thing I'm going
to start playing his acoustic guitar if
it gets any closer to the frickin riser
hey okay I mean you know I know that
he's telling you that he tells me that
you're telling him that you just won't
[ __ ] me I'm sorry tarnish it listen
I'm not even buying you anymore come on
and there you have it James the ring had
one too many cappuccinos as president
that's it no more coffee for you so
before we were interrupted by the great
white north so yeah so bill and dog at
the guitar Factory in Orlando so they
said if you're going to do this for a
living and you're really serious about
it
should get a real tuner and they of
course had strobe tuners yeah so they
set me up with my first Peterson strobe
tuner yeah I think Peterson's still the
only company that makes strobe tuners
these days Wow
and it was the old manual one we had to
select the note right right yep and then
they came out with this model which is
called an auto strobe and you know you
just hit the note it automatically the
exit so awesome yeah I loved it but I
still you know I still use like all
sorts of different tuner pedals right
you know I used this little clip on
tuner specifically for the acoustic
right it's great because I can just clip
it on and tune right before I bring it
out on stage yeah that's really good and
you know sometimes if we're in a like a
festival situation and I don't have
power
yeah I'll use one of these or a pedal or
something great yeah reliable
yeah the display is great so with all
this stuff so we have you know about a
dozen guitars we have this rack and cool
gear yeah my boogies and the X effects
and all this stuff and we're doing so
many shows you know we play all over the
world we're in the US or in Europe and
Asia South America what's your biggest
challenge like - making everything
happen like what kind of what's the
thing that you have a little anxiety
about or that always has to really come
together for you to have a successful
show well the the the biggest thing is
just making sure all the gear works
everyday so the whole goal for me is to
make sure that when you walk out on
stage all you have to do is play right
you don't have to sit there and go and
it's my guitar going to be in tune if I
hit this button on the pedal board is it
going to do what it's supposed to do is
it you know is it sound right in my ears
is you know yeah are the amps work in so
the whole goal for me is to make sure
that when you walk through that curtain
all you have to do is play God so behind
that statement changing guitar strings
making sure even all the rack screws are
tight
no after gear gets shipped and bounced
around in a truck or boat or plane yeah
routine maintenance dusting is good
you know because of the haze machines
that we use they the haze is attracted
to electronic stuff that is so not good
it's not so you know when the gear does
come home there's a couple of days of to
tear everything apart clean it all right
right put it back together and these are
things that most people don't
necessarily have to think about know if
they're not traveling or playing a lot
of items like this well you're doing a
great job because it works every night
you and speaking of that I want you to
tell people the story about this one the
shining moment that you had not that
there was only one but this was a
classic natty moment where I was playing
my guitar and I knew something wasn't
quite right that the guitar didn't sound
like it normally does oh yeah there was
something funky about it I couldn't
really put my finger on it it just
sounded weird
the howling thing right something was
howling is kinda compressing something
was weird so so tell people what it
ended up being and how you made that
conclusion cuz this was like the star
that's our that we this is everybody
took my line at the end of when I finish
the story everybody took the line after
that uh so I think it was in England or
something we were in the UK yeah and we
just finished line check the rig sounded
great we were using the triaxis rig at
that point so the rig sounded great
everything was ready the band walks in
for soundcheck hand John the guitar he
turns the volume up and the guitar just
starts going I'm like the hell just
happened everything was perfect right so
through a long series of troubleshooting
and of course everybody is waiting on me
to figure this out I finally I do
distinctly remember telling you I got
nothing right just let's get through
soundcheck and I'll keep working on
right figuring it out I moved cabinets I
unplugged stuff plugging the guitar
directly into the preamp just going
through everything that I could think of
to troubleshoot and let me just
interrupt you for a second yeah that no
fault being no fault of your own
or any other tack out there that's
usually the conclusion when there's some
kind of weird anomaly because you'll go
through every single thing and it's
nothing you can physically see you're
fine exactly and it might be something
as stupid as though there's a radio
station nearby or there's a transformer
under the stage or shut you know and you
kinda just have to deal with even when
we did Luna Park yeah very noisy stage
and there's really nothing you can do so
this story has a happy ending because
there was actually a solution yeah so
the the conclusion was we were standing
there and I'm talking to John I'm
talking to you rather to edit that I'm
right here so because we're standing on
stage I'm talking to you and I and I in
the back of my head I'm like why can I
hear us talking through the guitar ray I
can hear our voices coming through the
speakers and I don't know what clicked
in my brain because it this had to have
happened sometime in the past but I
looked at the guy from the house the
house master and I said do you guys have
a hearing-impaired system in here anyway
yeah I said as it turned on right now
well I don't know what's up on the
fourth floor let me go see so we gave
him a radio he hikes four flights of
stairs up gets on the races yeah it's
turned on right now
and I I turned the volume up on the
guitar and it's howling away and I go
okay turn it off and he turns it off and
everything went silent
that was amazing and I just went okay
that's what it was and it turned out
that the hearing-impaired system was on
a timer so it would turn on
automatically at a certain time every
day right when they were you know when
so if they had a show they didn't have
to worry about turning and right so
there you go so happy and happy ending
yeah and so after that any time is there
was a noise in anybody's rig they would
go haze or hearing-impaired system in
there
perfect awesome that was a great a great
example of Maddie using you know his
experience in the field and also his
ability to kind of sleuth out a problem
and find a solution and it was one of
those times where as a guitar player it
was like yes yeah it's fixed I don't
have to live with the buzz that's being
caused by some weird thing that we have
no idea what it is so state I was in a
park I still have no idea what it is
that causes it yeah I swear there's a
transform a transformer under the stage
and everybody says no but it's Davison
phase and machina yes all right so this
is John and I'm here with Maddie on
stage left and that was our little
interchange over here I hope you enjoyed
it
yeah it was fun for me it was a fun for
him it was awesome thanks man sir thank
you master of puppets that's what I call
time time time