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BACKSTAGE PASSDOUG REDLER/RICH ROBINSON

S ince graduating from the University of Miami with a BA in music and business back in the late

’80s, Doug Redler has built up a mouth-wateringly impressive CV as a touring technician and tour manager. Doug’s career began back in ’87 when an old friend, guitarist Jeff " all, asked him if he fancied being his guitar tech for a Bryan Ferry tour.

Redler naturally jumped at the chance, and since that early invitation he’s gone on to ply his trade for a host of big names, including the B-52s, David Bowie, Counting Crows, Dixie Chicks, Echo and the Bunnymen, Peter Gabriel, Goo Goo Dolls, Katy Perry, Paul Simon, Steve Stevens/Billy Idol and Tom Tom Club. Doug has also studied at Bryan Galloup’s School of Guitar Building and Repair (www.galloupguitars.com) in Michigan, an experience that he believes has helped him immeasurably.

For the last few years, Redler has spent much of his time alternating his teching priorities between two acts – k.d. lang and " e Black Crowes. “It’s funny how I go from the loudest band in the world to possibly the quietest band in the world!” Doug Redler laughs. “With k.d. I can’t even plug a guitar in while she’s singing because everything’s so quiet during the show, but then the Crowes are so loud… Even on their acoustic set

I have to tune the acoustic guitars in another room sometimes! You’ll see me hiding in hallways or in a production offi ce, trying to tune in between songs, hoping nothing goes wrong onstage!”

Heavy Schedule" is year marks the 20th anniversary of " e Black Crowes’ debut album Shake Your Money Maker, and the band are currently

in the midst of celebrating this benchmark with an extensive jaunt across the States, billed as the ‘Say Goodnight To " e Bad Guys’ tour. Sadly, this tour could well be the southern rockers’ last as they have announced an “indefi nite hiatus” following December’s fi nal six dates at the Fillmore in San Francisco. In the meantime, Doug Redler certainly has his work cut out.

“" e fi rst set is an acoustic set of

greatest hits,” he explains. “" en, after an intermission, they come back and do an electric set, so sometimes they’re playing about three and a half hours a night, which isn’t always easy for an old guy like me, but the fans stay ’til the very end! It’s a long day for me and a long set, and that’s on top of a soundcheck and the load-ins and load-outs. We put in about 12- to 13-hour days.”

When Doug fi rst hooked up with

DOUG REDLER/RICH ROBINSON OF THE BLACK CROWESMatt Frost chats to Doug Redler, personal guitar technician for Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes

Doug takes care of Rich’s favourite guitar – a Gibson ‘62 SG reissue with a custom reliced fi nish by NYC’s Cobra Guitars

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BACKSTAGE PASSDOUG REDLER/RICH ROBINSON

the Crowes back in 2001, he was initially employed as both the bass tech and as guitar tech for ex-lead guitar man Audley Freed, but it wasn’t long before he moved over to work with Rich Robinson as his personal technician.

“Rich is pretty much an entire band in himself,” says Redler. “We have about 30 guitars on the road! But he’s great and really lets me do what I want to do, you know. He trusts me enough to pick which guitar he’s going to use for what song. Our relationship has grown a lot over the years and we’re both really comfortable with each other. Rich is just really a nice, quiet, shy guy. He prefers that I kind of take charge and do what I want to do so he doesn’t have to worry about it. His line is basically, ‘Whatever you want to do, Doug – just do it!’”

Altered ImagesFor the Black Crowes’ acoustic sets on the current tour, Rich Robinson’s main guitars are a Guild D-55 6-string, a Guild F-512 12-string and a Martin D-18 from 1961. Discovering Fishman’s Aura ‘Acoustic Imaging Technology’ has been a revelation for Doug Redler.

“We were having a lot of trouble with the band’s acoustic sets,” explains Doug. “It’s acoustic, but the only person playing acoustic guitar is Rich! We were having a lot of issues with getting his guitar loud enough onstage to compete with the bass and Luther [Dickinson’s] electric guitar and the drums and the keyboards and percussion and everything like that. It’s been a tough road, but fi nally I spoke to the people at

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Fishman and they hooked me up with the Aura pedal.

“We sent a few of our guitars to them and they put the Fishman Matrix pickup in the guitars, recorded them and then modelled the guitars for the Aura pedal so we had them in the library. It really fattens the guitar up and it makes it feel more alive, rather than just having an acoustic guitar with a pickup under the saddle and a feedback buster in it.

“Rich is also using in-ear monitors on the acoustic set, so he hears everything a lot better. We blend the guitar sounds with the modelled guitar and keep it a little heavier on the modelled side. It’s a pretty interesting and deep process and it’s making my life a lot easier out here, so thank you everybody at Fishman!”

Treasured RelicDoug Redler is packing around 20 of Rich Robinson’s favourite electric axes into three mobile Black Crowes guitar vaults for the ‘Say Goodnight…’ tour. " ey include a Trussart SteelPhonic, a Zemaitis Disc, a Zemaitis Metal Front, a ’69 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, a ’67 Fender Telecaster Custom, a Fender Mary Kaye Stratocaster, a Fender B-Bender Telecaster, a Danelectro 12-string, an Ampeg Dan Armstrong Plexi, a ’63 Gibson ES-335 and four Gretschs – a ’67 Country Gentleman, a ’63 White Falcon, a 2010 Black Falcon and a ’58 Streamliner.

Robinson’s main guitar, however, is a Gibson ’62 SG reissue and it’s had something of a makeover.

“OUR RELATIONSHIP HAS GROWN A LOT OVER THE YEARS AND WE’RE BOTH REALLY COMFORTABLE WITH EACH OTHER.”

Rich Robinson takes a whole load of vintage guitars out on the road with him

TONE THE CROWES

Although Rich Robinson doesn’t tend to OD on e! ects, he certainly takes quite a few on the road with him. His custom e! ects rack was built by Rack Systems in LA and contains the following pedals:

• Way Huge Aqua-Puss MKII analogue delay• Way Huge Fat Sandwhich fuzz• Way Huge Pork Loin overdrive• Way Huge Angry Troll boost• ISP Decimator G String noise suppressor • Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe rotary simulator• Tone Freak MelloTremo tremolo• Mojo Lucky 13• Moog Moogerfooger 12-Stage Phaser• H&K Rotosphere

Rich also uses two Fulltone Tape Echo units and a Fender Tube Reverb, usually placed on top of the e! ects rack, as shown above. The following pedals sit onstage at his feet:

• Axess Electronics FX1 MIDI foot controller• CAE/Dunlop Wah • Roland FV-500L volume pedal• Rocktron Celestial Delay• DigiTech Whammy• Line 6 Delay

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TUNING TIMERobinson plays in a variety of tunings, though open G (DGDGBD) is a favourite. All his electrics are set up with GHS Sub-Zero Boomer 10–46 gauge strings, while a variety of GHS strings are used for the acoustics. Doug Redler favours Peterson tuners and has an AutoStrobe 590, a StroboRack and a StroboFlip. He also packs a secret restringing weapon in his workbox.

“I string about six to eight guitars a day,” says Doug, “and lately, if I get a break during the show, I’ll string a guitar. I "nd I can usually string one guitar per song and I have a DeWalt drill with a guitar-stringing bit on it. It really cuts the time in half. A lot of guys don’t like it but I couldn’t live without it. It’s really cool. With the amount of guitars I do, it saves time and it also saves wear on my arms!”

“It was just one of those guitars where the guys from Gibson brought it down for us and Rich said immediately, ‘I love this guitar, I wish every guitar felt this right!’” says Redler. “But the guitar’s a ’62 reissue and it still looked very new and Rich said, ‘Is there any way to age this guitar to make it look old?’

“A very good friend of mine who I grew up with has opened up a guitar shop in the East Village of New York City called Cobra Guitars and they make relic-ed guitars there. He’s pretty secret about how he does it. I know there’s belt sanders and coffee grounds involved and a bit of shellac, but he just hides out in his shop and does it. So while we were in New York I brought Rich’s favourite guitar down to those guys and let them beat it up. It looks like the guitar got its ass kicked! But we took it out of the case and Rich loved it right away.”

Good ReasonsRich Robinson has long favoured Harry Joyce amps and on previous tours could often be spotted plugging into two 50-watt Harry Joyce heads with two 4x12s. However, the volume’s come down

a tad for the current tour, necessitating a change in amplification.

“"e band made a conscious effort this year to bring down their stage volume and we started with a Vox AC30 head and a 2x12 cabinet, and then we had a 65 Amps Royal Albert, which was a 45-watt head and a 2x12 cabinet,” Doug explains. “But I was in a music store in St Louis and the guy working in the store said, ‘You’ve got to hear this amp, you’ve got to hear this amp!’ And I said, ‘Yeah, everyone wants to play an amp for me, I’m sure it’s a great amp but…’ And he said, ‘Just listen to it!’ I said, ‘I don’t want to hear it…’ and I’m walking out the store and he played it… And I said, ‘Wow, bring it over to the gig!’ and I put it up on Rich’s rig.

“It’s a Reason SM50 head, which is 50 watts, with a Reason 2x12 cabinet. We took away the Royal Albert and it’s been his favourite amp ever since. We use that and the AC30 both on together at all times, and since he doesn’t have the two 4x12s behind him, we’ve got an ISP Vector SL Active Subwoofer to give Rich the feel under his feet that the big rig used to provide for him.”

BACKSTAGE PASS DOUG REDLER/RICH ROBINSON

Effects & CablesAlthough there are quite a few pedals on Rich Robinson’s effects rack, he uses them pretty conservatively. “Most of Rich’s sound is really the amplifiers,” Redler confirms. “He’ll take in an overdrive or a distortion just for a little more volume or for slide. He likes to use the [Way Huge Effects] Pork Loin and the Fat Sandwich together a lot for volume and slide, and he uses the Angry Troll pedal for leads, but most of his rhythm sound is just him through the amps. "en he lowers his volume using the volume control on his guitar when he wants a cleaner tone. He has a lot of effects but he’s not a big ‘effects guy’. He does use the tape echoes [a pair of Fulltone Tube Tape Echo units] a lot, though, so there’s a lot of Pink Floyd-y things going on with those during the jams.”

For Rich Robinson and "e Black Crowes, using wireless is a definite ‘no-no’. “It’s a very purist band,” explains Doug. “Using in-ear monitors in the acoustic set is a pretty giant step for these guys, for them to do something like that. I make Rich’s guitar cables. We don’t use anything store-bought. I make them out of Belden 8412 cable.”

The Dream GigIt’s clear that Doug Redler is really going to miss working with "e Black Crowes when they embark on their “indefinite hiatus” following their upcoming San Francico gigs midway through December, but he certainly won’t be betting against them returning to the live stage at some point in the future, no matter how far away that might eventually occur.

“"is is a dream gig for me and I’m really going to be sad when it’s over,” he explains. “It’s really going to be tough to top this one musically, and we also all have a lot of fun out on the road. "e band’s playing better than ever, they’re having fun out there, and it’s really musically fulfilling. To top this? I don’t know how I’m going to do it. k.d. lang is amazing musically and personally, but to go out and rock every single night like "e Black Crowes do… "e only other band like that would be Led Zeppelin! But I figure, in a couple of years time, I’ll get a call again. I’ll probably be in a rocking chair somewhere and Rich is going to call me and he’s going to go, ‘Hey, you old f***, do you think you can do it again?’” GB

Rich uses a Vox AC30, a Reason SM50 and an active subwoofer on stage Doug has studied at Bryan Galloup’s School of Guitar Building and Repair

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