Doug Redler has the enviable task of guitar tech’ing for some of the world’s top guitarists and bands, including The Black Crowes, Goo Goo Dolls, and Paul Simon, to name a mere few.
Among his Rolodex of high-profile collaborators is the inimitable Slash – and Redler has now spilled the beans on what it takes to tech and be the Guns N' Roses legend’s right-hand man.
“Slash, I had to change his strings every day,” he reveals in an interview on Shane Theriot's Guitar Channel. “He would play one song and destroy [them], because of the sweat and just how hard he plays.
“I was stringing his guitars every day – six, seven, eight, at least, stretching the strings, too, making sure the nut’s all set. Man, I was wrecking my hands. I was changing so many guitars of his a day that on days off, I [would] just rest my hands.”
As for one of his top nerve-wracking stories, Redler recalls the time he once had to take four pickup covers off one of Slash's double-neck guitars right before showtime, and how one lost spring nearly ruined the whole show.
“I did the World on Fire tour [with Slash]. It was in 2015, so we did a whole year, went around the world,” he reminisces. “It was nuts. I can't remember how many flights.
“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 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.’”
However, Redler was working with the information and tools he had 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.
“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.”
Redler was scrambling right up until crunch time: “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!”
As part of his tech’ing role with Slash, Redler was also responsible for hitting certain pedals at different parts of the setlist. “If he's playing a lead, [I had to] hit a boost or a chorus,” Redler explains.
“But 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.’”
In more recent Slash-related news, Hollywood star Ryan Gosling revealed that he insisted Slash be flown in from Thailand to play a guitar solo at the Oscars.
