Tony: First off Greg many thanks for taking the time to do this
between changing strings, tuning and keeping groupies from the stage.
Greg: Not a problem. I'm actually at home for 9 days after 3 weeks in
Japan. We still have 2 shows to do in the US, then the band is taking a
year or so off.
Tony: First off can you give us some backround of how you got started
in this biz? How did you get to where your are now touring with
Aerosmith?
Greg: I guess I started they way most people do by being a guitar
player. I worked in several of the music stores in town for a few
years, then started touring with a regional band playing guitar. Got to
know a lot of different people. One of my friends was Pearl Jam's
original guitar tech (from the van days to stadiums), I figured if he
could do it so could I <LOL>. Basically from hanging out in clubs and
knowing people I got a few small gigs, running spotlight, guitar
teching, monitors, etc. I had some friends who were in a band called
DAG, they were signed to Columbia and touring and needed someone to do
backline for a few weeks, so I went out with them and I was hooked.
After that brief run I started getting a few calls for other work and
it just progressed from there.
Also, in the early 90's I started a pedalboard company called Fxperts.
I was basically one of the first to sell pedalbaords on the web.
Through that company I also made a lot of contacts in the biz, building
stuff for a variety of artists. I eventually shut that business down,
as I was touring too much to build 'boards. After touring for almost 10
years, I retired in 2002 and started running pedalboard.com for a
friend. After selling a pedalboard to Joe Perry's tech, a few months
went by and he called me to see if I wanted to work for Brad. He didn't
realize I had toured until he talked to a few of our mutual friends
(small world). After recommendations from contacts at Gibson and from
Audley Freed, who I teched for a number of years, I was in.
Tony:Did you start teching for others? If so who?
Greg: After that first short tour with DAG, I was recommended to
King's X. I took the job teching for Ty Tabor, this was my first 'bus'
tour. After each tour ended, I usually got a call with an offer for
another gig. It's all word of mouth in this business, basically you
make calls saying you're available and offers start coming in
(hopefully). Anyway, after King's X I worked for Chris Whitley, Cry of
Love (again), DAG (again), Monster Magnet, The Verve Pipe, Machine
Head, Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes (working for Audley again),
BBMak, Sister Hazel, Linkin Park, Remy Zero, etc. then Aerosmith. Some
tours lasted a few weeks, some a few years.
I really enjoyed working for King's X as I was a big fan, they were
amazing night after night. I still try to see them whenever we cross
paths. Chris Whitley was fun, but challenging. He had a lot of weird
tunings, basically it was 15 different tunings a night in a 20 song set
on two Dobros, an ES125, and two Les Paul Jr's. So it was a guitar
change and tuning change on every song!! Cry of Love and DAG were great
because they were all friends and we always had a blast. Monster Magnet
was my first 'arena' tour and we opened from everyone from Manson to
Metallica to Rob Zombie. The Page/Crowes tour was amazing but lasted
less than a month as Jimmy had back problems and had to go home for bed
rest. What can I say, it was surreal looking across the stage while
tuning and seeing Jimmy playing 'Black Dog' 20 feet away. Some tours
were small, others huge. I was lucky to be able to make a lot of good
friends and travel the world on someone else's dime.
Tony:What does a typical night on Brads side of the stage entail? From
the begining of the night to the closing of the show.
Greg: My night starts with the set list, Brad and I go over it and
decide which guitars to use for each song. It doesn't vary too much,
but sometimes one of us will suggest a change. At set change I fire up
my amps, place my pedalboard downstage, put out a water and towel, tape
down the set list and away we go!! Brad has about 20 guitars on the
road, we use maybe 6 of them a night, sometimes fewer. Brad wears his
wireless pack in his back pocket, so we don't have to change
frequencies every time we do a guitar change. During the show I listen
to the same mix as Brad does on in ear monitors, helps to determine
when there's a problem. I basically tune all the guitars, do guitar
changes per the setlist, and take care of any monitor issues that he
might have. Brad's not too fussy and most shows go pretty smoothly. At
the end of the night I take the guitar and wireless pack from Brad,
stow them away and pack up and load out my gear. I also 'call' the
truck pack, so we pack it the same every night. We take up an entire
53' trailer with backline!!
Tony:Can you give us a rundown of Brads gear,pedals,cables and all? We
love details!
Greg: Sure. Let's start with amps. When I started in 2002 Brad was
using Bogner Ecstacy's and some newer Marshalls. Eventually we went to
using an older non-master Marshall with a Hot-Plate and an Ecstasy in
stereo for that tour. For the "Honkin' on Bobo" record, Brad used a
Fender Super Champ and a Joe Barden modded Deluxe Reverb for the
majority of the album. So, for this tour I wanted to give him more of a
'black face' tone to go with his 'Marshall' tone. After lurking and
eventually posting on the Les Paul Forum, I was steered toward Divided
by 13 amps. I contacted Fred and he sent an FTR-37 and 2x12 for us to
check out. After unboxing it, I plugged straight in and was blown away
by the tone, I didn't even touch a knob!! During the recording sessions
I also acquired a Germino Masonette (thanks Greg), and a Blockhead
'Firstborn' 18W 2x12 combo and a '63 Split front '45 (thanks Ossie). So
for the first part of the tour we were switching between the FTR-37,
the Blockhead '63, and the Masonette. We both dug the tones, but wanted
a more consistent sound. We were in California so Fredric came out and
brought one of his ERT-33's, we ran this in stereo with the FTR-37 and
immediately liked the results. Liking the 37 over the 33, we eventually
swapped it for another 37. Thus Brad's rig basically has been two /13
FTR-37's into /13 2x12's for over a year now. For my ear the 37 is the
sweetest tone out there. A few amps have come and gone over the last
tour, one being a Blockhead Custom 50 (for that BROWN sound) , a Badcat
Hot Cat, and a Gernino Classic 45. All great amps with various tones.
Whew...
Now for effects. Brad doesn't need a lot of color, 90% of his tone is
in his fingers. But, like me he is addicted to overdrives and delays.
The current setup runs like this: Samson VHF wireless to Zvex Wah Probe
to Klon Centaur to BJFE Little Green to Pedalworx Tour Pro Toggle to
Pedalworx McBoost to ProAnalog Dual Drive to TIM to /13 Joyride to
Pedalboard.com Quad Switchbox (4 loops containing: Line 6 Modulation,
Hiwatt Tape Echo, Chandler Digital Delay, and Way Huge Aqua-Puss
(serial #20)) to TRex Replica to DLS Echo-Tap to DLS Chorus~Vibe. The
last three effects are run in true stereo. All are powered by a
Juicebox and reside on a Pedalboard.com Modular Pedalboard. All wired
up with George L's cable. There is a rather long snake by CBI cable
that runs from the pedalboard to the amps.
Here's a picture from Japan:
note: The 'Pedal of the Week' sign is a joke as it has velcro on the
back and I move it around...
Other effects that we've seen over the last year include an Analogman
King of Tone, Zvex Super Hard On, /13 Lift, Mosferatu, The Force, a
number of BJFE pedals loaned to me by Donner (Thanks Don), to name a
few. i have an entire drawer of my workbox dedicated to effects, we'll
try anything...
For guitars a quick list:
1.1974 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop
2. 1972 Gibson Les Paul Custom '54 Reissue Black
3. 2003 Gibson Les Paul '59 Historic Sunburst
4. 1999 Gibson Les Paul '59 Historic Sunburst Tom Murphy Aged
w/Timbuckers
5. 1997 Gibson Les Paul '58 Historic Red with Bigsby w/Timbuckers
6. 1993 Gibson Les Paul '57 Custom Shop Goldtop w/Fillmore's
7. Gibson ES-335 Custom Shop Tangerine Burst
8. 2004 First Act Custom Shop Dave Perewitz Flamed Paintjob (matches
Brad's Perewitz Custom Harley-Davidson Motorcycle)
9. Terry C. McInturff Barn Custom (one of a kind)
10. Hamer Standard Korina
11. J. Triggs Telecaster Blonde
12. 2002 G&L ASAT Special Butterscotch
13. 2002 Melancon P90 Artist Flamed Mahogany
14. 2002 Melancon Cajun Gentleman Blonde
15. 2002 Melancon Pro Shoreline Gold
16. 2003 Floyd Rose Redmond Series Purple
17. 2003 Floyd Rose Redmond Series Duplicolor Blue/Green/Purple
18. 2003 Floyd Rose Redmond Series White
19. 2003 Lace California Twister Sunburst
20. 80's Fender Clapton 7up Green
All of the Les Paul's, except the first 3, have been gone through by me
and all pots replaced with like valued CTS pots, replica bumblebee
caps, replacement pickups and aluminum tailpieces.The Melancon Pro has
CR Coils SRV set of pickups and a 15db boost knob. This guitar sounds
amazing and is a favorite.
Tony: Can you first list YOUR favorites on Brads pedalboard and guitar
rack and then Brads favorites?
Greg: My favs:
Efx: Joyride, Dual Drive, Tour Pro Toggle, Hiwatt Delay, and Chandler
Delay.
Guitars: '74 Deluxe, Melancon Pro, Duplicolor Floyd, '58 Historic LP,
Triggs Tele
Brad's Favs:
Efx: Tour Pro Toggle, Klon, TIM, Hiwatt, Wah Probe, Dual Drive, hell
they better all be his fav...
Guitars: Purple Floyd, 2003 '59 Historic, Melancon Pro, Triggs Tele,
First Act Perewitz, Lace Cali Twister
Tony: I see you mentioned my all time favorite overdrive the
Mosfertau. I had the pleasure of just testing out and recording clips
for Alfonsos website<www.hermidaaudio.com> with his new Zendrive. A
lower gain, higher clarity OD It is really sweet i think you guys might
love it. The Mosferatu does very well on its own with no amp drive. The
Zen works MUCH better on top of an existing amp or pedal drive,and
still very sweet tone on its own IMHO
Greg: We didn't get to spend much time with the Mosferatu. But it did
seem pretty cool, just not what we were looking for at the time. It
will get revisited.
Tony: Any chance of getting a rundown of Tys gear and years you were
with him? Kings X is my favorite band. What soul and power those guys
have.
Greg: From what I can remember, it was a while ago. I did the Ear
Candy tour. He was using a Mark Snyder built switching system run by a
Mesa Abacus foot controller. It basically brought a delay and chorus in
and out of his sound. He was using a Marshall 30th Anniversary head
into a load resistor, through the effects and out in stereo through a
Mesa tube power amp into Mesa 4x12's. We had a Dual Rectifier left over
form the Dog Man tour as a backup. He also used a Dunlop Rack Mounted
Wah. Ty was playing his Zion Signature Model, we had a few, but he
mainly played just one all night. He was also using a Deja Vibe for a
few things. During the tour I met Bob Sweet and replaced the Deja with
an UltraVibe which to me is THE Vibe. Also an eBow was used on a few
songs.
Tony: So tell me Greg what do you like to do in your off time?
Hobbies? Family life?
Greg: In my off time, when I get it. I like to ride my Ducati as much
as I can. I try to do some woodworking, building furniture and whatnot.
There are always projects around the house. I play guitar when possible
and I spend a lot of time on my Powerbook. I just got married last year
and my wife and I like to spend time with our two dogs and we vacation
whenever possible. At the end of this tour I hope to take a few months
off and work on an amp prototype that has been running around in my
head for a few years.
Tony: I see Brad is not using a Univibe anymore, its a great effect
but pretty limited. Just no tunes this time out where he would use it?
I know he was using The Ultravibe. I think Ty was using one also wasnt
he? bob is a great guy and the king of vibes.
Greg: That's it, no tunes to use it for. We both love the Ultra and I
got him a FoxRox Captain Coconut (Thanks Dave) last year too. I like to
call it 'Insta Jimi'. See above for Ty.
Tony: I know you do but does Brad ever read the online forums? Is he
watching us?
Greg: Not that I know of. We got him a powerbook this year, so he is
learning... He does read the Aeroforce One forums. I tend to read and
sometimes post to the LP forum, Hamer forum, McInturff forum,
Musictoyz forum, PRS forum, Melancon forum, etc. I find there to be a
wealth of information and I have made quite a few good friends on the
internet.
Tony: Ok if you got to a town and realized the semi with your
workbench and ALL your tools wasnt going to make it for the show and
you had to go to Wal Mart with 100 bucks what would you get for the
night?
Greg : Well, I hope that I could at least get to a Guitar Center or
local music store over WalMart. I'd get a tuner, stringwinder, guitar
polish, polishing cloths, gtr cable, strings, picks, wire cutters,
alcohol wipes, gaff tape and batteries.
Tony: What is the single funniest or strangest or both, thing that has
happened on The Aerosmith tours?
Greg: Funny/Strange recently was Steven slipping off the front of the
stage in Osaka and no one in the band seeing it!! It was right before
the encore and everyone just walked back to their quick changes and
asked where Steven was? He was OK, but it was kinda funny.
Tony:Do the techs ever get to get up and jam? Do you have a tech band?
Or is it David Gilmour type serious business?
Greg: We have crew jam everyday to check the sound and monitors for the
band. They rarely come in for a soundcheck. Once in a while Joe will
come in early and play with us. We'll do "I'm Goin' Down" or
"Redhouse". And a few times we did the same with Rick Nielsen. Lots of
fun, but you try taking a solo after Joe nods at YOU!! Scary.
Tony: Any pedals out right now or something new you guys just got that
you think is really cool?
Greg: The BJFE stuff Donner loaned me has been great. Also the Dual
Drive and TIM have been outstanding. The DLS stuff is great and always
sounds good. I must take a minute to comment on the last guitar we
acquired this year the First Act Perewitz guitar. This guitar was a
year in the making and was unknown to Brad till Dave Perewitz and I
presented it to him in Boston. The guitar was made by First Act, a
company based in Boston that does mostly low end stuff for school aged
kids, but has a custom shop too. They built the guitar in their custom
shop, I gave them free reign on the design, I just said make it
Gibsonesque. The guitar was then sent to Dave Perewitz a famous custom
chopper maker in the Boston area. He was building a bike for Brad and
offered to paint a guitar to match the bike. It turned out better than
expected and plays and looks amazing. Thanks to Jimmy Archey at First
Act and Dave at Perewitz Cycle Fabrication for making this happen.
Tony: Do you guys get sent alot of free gear?
Greg: Some. We pay for most gear we get. I just ask we be allowed to
try stuff for a period of time, then decide if we want to purchase or
not. If the vendor wants to give us stuff, that's cool too. But, Brad
only plays what he likes, he doesn't use stuff just because it's free.
Tony: I saw Brad is playing one of the new Floyd Rose guitars. Is it a
big of hassle to deal with as it looks like?
Greg: Just the opposite. The double ball end strings can be changed in
under 2 minutes. They are pre-stretched, so tuning is minor once
re-strung. Floyd and JT really did their homework on those guitars,
they're nearly perfect.
Tony: Any guitars from the old days still in use?
Greg: In the studio yes. Brad had his REAL '59 Les Paul out on the
road when I first started, I got the Historics to sound just as good,
so now the '59 stays at home, thank god. A bunch of the really good
guitars were sold for various reasons over the years, I know Brad
regrets a few of those. All in all he has around 200 guitars and 100
amps in his collection. Favorites for the studio include a '59 3 pickup
Black Beauty LP, the '59 Flametop, a few SG Jr's, various 50's and 60's
Strats and Teles, and a recently acquired '50's ES-295.
Tony: What happens to pedals once they are taken off the board? Like
the Analogman KOT i just saw disappear? Is there a storage building or
do you need my address?
Greg: As mentioned earlier, some are in a giant drawer in my workbox,
others in few plastic tubs at our warehouse. I like to know where
everything is, in case we need to call something up for a particular
tone.
Tony: What did Brad get you for Christmas last year?
Greg: As we are both gearheads (guitars and motorcycles/cars), he got
me a Ducati Watch. We both ride Ducs and he got a watch for him and a
watch for me. I wear it everyday, just not at the gig. A wonderful
gift.
Tony:Any shout outs or special thanks youd like to convey to the gear
community?
Greg: You asked for it!! This may be my longest answer yet. Brad and I
would like to thank the following people and companies (in no
particular order): Fredric at /13, Ossie at Blockhead Amps, Greg at
Germino Amps, Bad Cat Amps, Floyd and JT at Floyd Rose Guitars, Terry
at McInturff Guitars, Gerard and Andre at Melancon Guitars, Don and
Jeff at Lace Sensor, Ernie, Steve, and Dwayne at the Gibson Custom
Shop, Steven and Lloyd at Hamer, G&L Guitars, Jim at Triggs, Jimmy at
First Act, Dave at DLS, Mike at Analogman, Dom at European Musical
(TRex, Lehle), Scotty at ProAnalog, Pete and Alfonso at
HiWatt/Fernandes, Zack and Amada at Zvex, Paul Cochrane for TIM, Tim
at Line 6, Ira at Samson, Tom and David at pedalboard.com, all the nice
ladies at George L's, Greg at Monster Cable, Jerry at CBI Cable, Jim at
Switchcraft, Tim White for Timbuckers, CR Coils, Scott at Dunlop, Ernie
Ball, Pete at Piloti Shoes, Dave Perewitz at Custom Fabrication, Donner
for the loan of pedals, Peter Stroud, Audley Freed, Lyle Workman, Alan
Rogan, Jim Survis, Jerry Sabatino, Cheap Trick, and everyone on the
forums who has answered questions or hipped me to gear. I'd personally
like to thank Brad for being the best boss in the world and the most
unpretentious rock star in the biz.
Tony: Last Question.....can i be your assistant? I work well with
others and love to travel. I could be on groupie detail or something.
Providing you give me a job do you think Brad would mind if when i saw
him i got on my knees and said Im not worthy! Im not worthy! Or is he
over that whole Waynes World thing?
Greg: I don't think I need an assistant, as I can set up my rig in
10mins. You might do it in 5 and put me out of a job <LOL>. I'm sure
he's get a kick out of the Waynes World joke...
