You get a negotiated show rate with a per diem, and that per diem could be every day you’re gone only on days off. In the country music genre, they pay typically per show. There are a handful of different ways to get paid. The salary range for Guitar Technicians runs from $35,000 to $79,000.īarnwell says, “It’s different in different genres. On average, Guitar Technicians can expect to earn approximately $52,200 annually. All the way up to Production and Stage Managers, you work alongside everybody.”

“You’ll sometimes have Systems Techs on these bigger tours who will make sure the room is tuned so the FOH Engineer can manually mix the actual show.

Sometimes extensive tours will have playback people, and Wireless RF Technicians who are just making sure all the wireless is coordinated.” “You’ll have lighting guys, staging guys taking care of the risers, Sound Techs. “You’ll always have a Monitor Engineer, somebody who controls the sound that the artist hears onstage, then typically you’ll have a backline person or two who can also double duty as a Stage Manager or Musical Instrument Builder, and I’ve done that plenty of times.” “Depending on the size of the organization, if it’s a one bus tour where you have the band and the few crew guys on the tour pulling a trailer, you’ll always have a FOH Audio Engineer, somebody who controls the sound the audience hears.” The biggest tours I’ve been on, with the most stuff, I’ve been done and in the truck in under forty-five minutes or half an hour sometimes. Load in, obviously, is a bit slower because you have to get everything set up right, and the loadout is super fast. If we don’t need instruments for future songs during the show, we try to pack them up.” “Immediately after the show is over, you start your strike or breakdown, so the last song hits-or usually a couple before-you start breaking down your stuff because backline has to get out of everyone’s way before the rest of the production can start breaking down. During the show, it’s a lot of thinking ahead and listening out.” They always say the best Techs are never seen because it’s a lot of running work. “You’re looking for string breakage or out-of-tune instruments so you can be at the ready to change those things out so the show can continue. At the same time, you have in-ear monitors, and you’re constantly listening out for things that could be happening outside of your vantage point.” You’re tuning the guitars for the next song, applying capos, getting them in tune and ready for sometimes multiple songs ahead. As a Guitar Tech, throughout the show, it’s really busy. “So it’s kind of a dance with all departments. You might have to wait on the staging guys, for example, to set up the risers or something like that before you can put your drums or your keys or your guitars into position.” “My day would consist of waiting for my stuff to get off the truck, and once it comes off the truck you usually figure out where the whole production is in regards to getting loaded in or set up so you know where you can insert your position for the day. “Fortunately, during backline, we’re some of the last to get set up and usually the first stuff to get taken down so we have a lot later starts than some of the other touring Music Tech positions like lighting, video, and audio.” Also during the show doing instrument changes to help the show go smoothly.” “The idea of having a Guitar Tech is to setup and maintain all those things through the variables of travel, what the instruments go through while you’re on the road, and make them play consistently for the artist or the musician show-by-show or venue-by-venue. That may not be limited to just guitars it may be bass guitars, mandolins, fiddles, cellos, depending on the artist.” “As a Guitar Tech specifically what you would do is set up and maintain all the stringed instruments. Drums, keys, bass, DJ: oftentimes now playback and tracks are also part of backline. Guitar Technician Kenny Barnwell explains the role of a Music Tech within the backline of a tour by saying, “ Backline is basically all of the instruments onstage that are used and so Guitar Teching is kind of a specific position within backline.

Guitar center onstage