Guitar Technician

A Guitar Technician (Guitar Tech) is part of a musician's or band's road crew who looks after and sets up guitars for one or more guitarists. A guitar tech may also be responsible for amplifiers and effects pedals as well as electric or acoustic guitars. They must have basic guitar playing skills, an ear for tuning and a good idea of how the equipment is supposed to sound in the style of music the band is playing. [1]

Becoming a guitar tech might start from being interested in guitars and wanting to help out a friends band. Many guitar techs may have taken courses in guitar repair at a college or lutherie school. The salaries and working conditions vary depending on whether the band is unsigned and doing a small regional tour or if they're a major international touring act. [1]

A guitar tech has two main jobs to perform: Setup & Soundcheck and Maintenance & Repair

Setup & Soundcheck

Before a show, guitars need to be strung and tuned with an accurate electronic tuner. A guitar tech needs basic guitar playing skills and an ear for tuning to strum some chords on the guitar to ensure it's in tune. Guitars need to be carefully placed on racks, straps need to be securely on and cables securely connected.

During a show, a guitar tech needs to be ready to hand any instruments to their guitarist(s) that they may require. This may be due to an unfortunate technical failure or string snap or may be preference for a different sound for a different song. Every guitar needs to be re-tuned again before the guitarist needs them because strings tend to slacken due to hot stage lights or humidity. A guitar tech may hand towels to the guitarist to clean sweat from their hands which corrodes strings and other things like bottles of water. Guitar picks may also need to be set up in easy to access places such as double-sided taped to amps or mic stands.

After a show, cables are unplugged, all instruments are cleaned and packed back into their cases.

Maintenance & Repair

On a guitar there are plenty of important variables that need to be maintained: string action, fret dressing, intonation etc. Valves on valve amps need to be checked along with cables and batteries on effects pedals, tuners and pre-amps. Any crackles or buzzing (or silence) to do with any equipment is checked and repaired by a guitar tech after troubleshooting. A guitar tech often has to be a jack of all trades. They need to be good at electrical repairs (e.g. re-soldering loose connections inside guitars), swapping out damaged speakers, repairing damaged guitars and other similar tasks. If a guitar is beyond repair, it is a guitar tech's duty to find a replacement guitar or part. Of course there is regular restringing of guitars which on a tour is often before every show.

The conditions of work for guitar techs vary a lot. Some guitar techs for much smaller acts may set up guitars for all of the performers. They may also have to take on tasks beyond guitar tech work such as helping to set up sound equipment or soundcheck the mics. On the other hand, guitar techs for huge international touring bands may be part of a large road crew team which includes amp techs and guitar techs for each guitarist. In short, they may have less to do as there will be more members of staff to carry out specific jobs.[1]
The salary can vary hugely depending on who a guitar tech is working for. If you start out working for a small local band that you know to gain experience then you might just work for a cash payment rather than having a proper salary. In small touring acts the guitar techs may be paid through a simple contract during the tour. and there may not be health or dental benefits. They might even have to have another more permanent job and tech on the side when their band is on tour. A guitar tech for a band on a short regional tour may stay in cheap motels whereas a guitar tech travelling with Green Day, for instance, may stay at the same 5* hotels as them and eat catered buffet meals or have their own catering crew. The guitar techs for the most famous international guitarists such as Jimmy Page can become a minor celebrity within the guitar enthusiast community because of their close contact with musicians who are considered to be 'rock legends' and for their in depth knowledge of how a certain guitarist's unique tone is created.

Artist/Performer

An Artist/Performer is someone who performs music solo or in an ensemble (and often composes too).

Being a successful musician is arguably the most glamorous job in the music industry. Take The Rolling Stones for example, their band name has become synonymous with living the high life, fame, wealth, drugs and partying. The success usually doesn't come easily and being in a very small time band can be extremely hard work with very little pay. Early on in his career, Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong lived in a slum. Lower Than Atlantis front man Mike Duce worked at Morrisons full time while playing in his band in the evenings.

How To Make It In The Music Business by Siân Pattenden states that being a "Pop Star" is a 24/7 job that has enormous health risk, pressure, constant travel but is extremely glamorous. "It's a rotten job, but lots of people want to do it."

There are vary clearly defined pros and cons with being an artist and I'll try and bullet point as many as I can think of. Often some things like fame can fall under both categories depending on who you are. It's often nice to be in the spotlight but if you make mistakes or do something embarrassing, it can be a curse as well as a blessing. Not to mention the paparazzi.

Pros:

• Fame
• Wealth (Paul McCartney is worth an estimated $800 million)
• Sense of achievement
• Having a loving, loyal fan-base
• The satisfaction that comes from giving enjoyment to others
• Job satisfaction (Ultimately making music is what a successful artist loves the most)
• Being in a band (Spending most your time with a group of your best friends)
• Making music, on your own or as a band
• Feedback from the audience (This little section from Bring Me The Horizon's set at Reading is the most recent thing I've seen showing what I mean)

Cons:

• Loss of freedom
• Loss of privacy
• Pressure (and similarly the pressure that deadlines create)
• The stress of performing
• Constant travelling
• Extreme tiredness
• Being tempted into a life style of drugs and alcohol (and dying when you're 27)
• Being away from family and friends for long periods of time

Artist/Performer is a very broad job role and there are many different settings that the artist will find themselves in. Performing at the O2 arena will perhaps require a tighter schedule and the artist may feel more pressured than if they recording at a studio. The artist will need to perform at rehearsals too and if they are a songwriter as well then that's another part of the job. At each setting, the artist is essentially just playing their instrument/singing, however, depending on what they're doing and where they are, the job can vary immensely. Performing a one off massive show is also very different to a long tour. Playing two sets at Reading and Leeds on two consecutive days is going to be very different to playing much smaller venues on a tour for two months. The stage at a festival is going to be much bigger and more elaborate, there will be more members of stage crew, more lights, a more complicated sound rig for instance. It will be louder and there will be a much bigger audience. Often, depending on whether you're headlining or not, you might be filmed live for a television channel. You will probably have a smaller setlist too (again depending on whether you're a headliner) which means giving a performance your all for say 45 minutes, rather than playing a 90 minute set where you can take short breaks or play slower, calmer songs.

After your wonderful performance at Reading, magazines, television channels, radio stations and newspapers are probably going to want to interview you. Public relations are very important and if you want people to buy your songs and listen to your music, you have to show the public what you're like. Having a fan base is incredibly important. Lots of artists have social media platforms such as twitter and reach out to the fans while they're on tour. It's really quite beneficial for fans to feel like the bands they listen to consist of real people just like them that they can connect with.

Other public appearances that an artist might have to make include live television performances and (if you're lucky) award ceremonies.

Not every part of the job is public though. After all, the music business is a business and there will definitely be meetings with record labels, publishing companies, lawyers, accountants and managers etc that the artist will have to attend.

Compared to other jobs involving live performance, being the performing artist that's the center of attention comes with increased rewards but the pressure might be too much for some. A session musician on that very same stage with the aforementioned artist may feel much less pressure. I'm probably correct in assuming that at least 75% of the audience don't know the names of the session musicians sharing the stage with the famous band they've gone to see. Session musicians will be paid less than the main act unfortunately but there are interesting differences between the two. A session musician might only be contracted short term (for say a tour) before going to work with a different band or artist. The change in scenery so to speak is probably very refreshing as sharing a tour bus with the same people for months on end can be pretty purgatorial. On the complete opposite end of the scale, there are guitarists like Jason White worked with Green Day as a session musician for 13 years before they actually made him a member of the band. A session musician might only perform live, or might only work in a studio. It could be said that they have more freedom over exactly what they want to do as musicians without gigantic record labels on their back steering them towards doing what will make the most money.

An important aspect of any job in the music business is contracts and artists will have to sign lots of different contracts throughout their career, including but not limited to:

Publishing Contracts (Anything from a single to a whole album)
Recording Contracts (Again, anything from a single to a whole album)
Record Label Deals (Signing to a label)

Artist Management Contracts

Artist Venue Agreement

The length of these contracts can vary from between one page for a simple agreement to perform at a venue to around 50 or more pages for a long-term Artist/Record Label deal.

The following contracts are scans from How To Succeed In The Music Business by Allan Dann and John Underwood:

This contract is an example of a short agreement given to an artist or his manager to sign for a specific booking or a series of bookings like a tour.

Clause 1 is very straightforward. It's just an agreement of where, when and for how much the artist will be playing.

Clause 2 goes into detail about timing. It outlines when the artist has to arrive, how long their setlist is and when it ends.

Clause 3 should really be watched out for. The normal radius in an agreement like this is about 15 miles and if you are a little known band playing lots of small local venues nearby, this is unreasonable for the venue to make you agree to this. As a small band or artist, you should definitely try and get this deleted before you agree to play. This normally only exists for gigs where a good turnout would be noticeably affected by you being billed to play another local venue around the same date.

Clause 4 lacks some detail that is worth asking about; ultimately you want the salary paid in cash on the night.

Clause 5 is also very straightforward.

This is an example of an incredibly unfair contract you should never ever sign. It is extremely exploitative and unfair. Technically you couldn't be held to it because it is so unfair and ambiguous but it's a good example.

Clause 1 metaphorically sells your soul to this company. It says that you are never allowed to "render your services to another party for any purpose whatsoever".

Clause 2 says the company can rename your band to anything they want at will and the artist is entirely responsible for any lawsuits that may ensue.

Clause 3 forces the artist to go anywhere the company wants within 30 minutes "reasonable" notice. If they don't attend the times and places the company decides the artist loses all their rights under this or any other agreement.

Clause 4 gives the artist a really low royalty rate for their songs. 1% or less because the company has the full decision to make any deductions they want.

The artist could be fooled by Clause 5 if it was glossed over. If the artist is a duo the entire royalty rate is halved first before being paid to the artist.

Clause 6 is obviously a way of denying the artist any access to their money.

Clause 7 says that the artist has to pay all of the expenses involved in production, manufacture, distribution and advertising of their records. If they are unable to pay due to bankruptcy then relatives and friends must pay.

Clause 8 is straightforward but extremely unfair as the artist has to go abroad to get money for the company.

Clause 9 makes the artist agree that they have had no legal advice on this contract and they are not allowed to discuss any terms of the contract with any other party.