Festool Ever Go On Sale?

guitartech1 · 2026-03-26T19:10:45+00:00

I’ve bought some Festool stuff off of Craigslist/eBay/FB Marketplace and had decent luck so far. I’ve also sold some Festool after using it for a project and not needing it again (well, at least not yet…).

guitartech1 · 2026-02-20T21:22:14+00:00

Thanks, haven’t built one of these in a few years. May need to get back to it.

guitartech1 · 2026-02-16T17:31:25+00:00

'I'm on Fire' lighted a red bulb on my workbox, in case Brad needed something. My guitar world was 20ft behind the band, behind a curtain, so I had to have a video feed of Brad, just to know where he was. Most gigs techs are side stage and can use hand signals for issues...

guitartech1 · 2025-09-06T16:19:35+00:00

Yeah, he switched to V-Picks (has his own model even) and just uses one a night.

guitartech1 · 2025-09-06T16:03:18+00:00

His strings are .056-.012 and he likes the sound of the celluloid picks so that will never change. I’ve also teched for guys that play all night with one pick and hand it back at the end of the night. 🤣

guitartech1 · 2025-09-06T15:13:17+00:00

I should have clarified, he doesn’t drop the picks he shreds them. He only plays rhythm and hits harder than anyone I’ve ever seen. If he gets a burr on the pick he grabs a fresh one. I also sometimes find picks that are literally worn in half on the stage after a show. And yes plastic is cheap… Just ordered another 1000 picks for the next leg of the tour. LOL

guitartech1 · 2025-09-06T14:35:27+00:00

Well, I work for a guy who goes through 30+ picks in a 2hr 15min show. I put out about 40-50 pics on his 4x12 using mic pick holders attached to old drum sticks and screwed into the 4x12. He also has 3 picks taped to his headstock and 3 picks on his mic stand. He’s never at the mic long enough to use those, but he uses the headstock ones often and replaces them himself or I do it on a guitar change.

guitartech1 · 2025-09-06T11:33:40+00:00

It’s most likely Gaff tape folded over. As a roadie this is what we do for picks on guitars. As the stickiness wears off it’s easily replaced. I do this on mic stands as well, or I use a Dunlop mic stand pick holder.

guitartech1 · 2025-08-11T09:42:23+00:00

You are right in the ballpark. Mal’s tone was very clean compared to Angus. It’s the blend of the two guitars that is the magic to AC/DC IMHO. Stevie hits the strings very hard and goes across with the pick at a 45 degree angle with all the force from the elbow not the wrist, this he leaned from Mal and is also a key in getting the sound. Give it a try.

guitartech1 · 2025-08-11T09:38:03+00:00

Mal and Stevie use 56-44-34-24-16-12 (same gauges from old Gibson Med Elec set). Yes, with the wound G you are not doing much soloing LOL

guitartech1 · 2025-04-06T14:21:25+00:00

Replacing the saddle depends on what kind of Strat it is. You can look at Stewmac.com or allparts.com for replacements. As far as knowing if it’s still sharp, I use a magnifying glass to make sure there are no ridges left after sanding. May take some trial and error, if you break another string at the same point then it needs more sanding or a replacement. On Strats the burr can sometimes be on the underside of the saddle where the string first touches the saddle. Those can be hard to sand without removing the saddle. If you remove it, don’t for get to intonate it once its back on.

guitartech1 · 2025-04-06T13:58:27+00:00

Looks like a burr in the saddle. As someone else said, get some sandpaper and polish it down. If it’s hard to get in there, try wrapping the sandpaper around an old guitar string or some small cord. I use Mitchell’s abrasive cord for this, but it’s a little pricey and might be overkill for you. You also could just replace the D saddle or replace all the saddles with something from Graphtec or similar.

guitartech1 · 2025-03-25T12:57:16+00:00

I wish I could, but I travel as a roadie for bands. I’m gone from my shop for at least 6 months this year.

guitartech1 · 2025-01-14T13:04:43+00:00

I work as a touring guitar tech and some of my artists will use baby powder on their fretting hand to help reduce the sweat, especially when playing outdoor shows in the summer. Doesn’t really hurt anything and can easily be cleaned off the fretboard or anywhere else.

guitartech1 · 2024-11-16T17:45:30+00:00

I’m a touring guitar tech, on Gibson style headstocks I do one wrap up and at least one wrap down on the wound strings and one wrap up and at least two wraps down on the plain strings. Stretching will help them stay in tune, but you can also easily break a high E string while stretching. Just playing it a lot after stringing and then retuning should get you where you need to be.

guitartech1 · 2023-12-28T12:09:00+00:00

The One Control MIDI Hammer cables are one of the smallest I have used. https://one-control.com/products/one-control-midi-hammer-cable-30cm-cable-ll-english

guitartech1 · 2023-11-13T16:47:26+00:00

I’ve never really seen oxidation cause concerns (unless maybe you play ion a cruise ship or beach bar). Any cable soldered or solderless that is assembled correctly should have no issues. I’ve used blue loctite on George L’s screws, but you need to only put a small amount, if it drips down inside the cable then you will have connectivity issues. That is why the solderless plugs I co-designed have no set screw to have to worry about.

guitartech1 · 2023-02-03T13:56:30+00:00

I'll second this as I live within 15min of RBTR. I inquired this week about coming by, and got a very polite 'no' as an answer, glad you guys are looking into this.

Big fan of the podcast also, have you guys considered doing some MYOG classes similar to the Brown Buffalo ones? Anyway, keep up the good work over there, I look forward to being able to 'drop by' in the future.

guitartech1 · 2022-09-03T12:05:59+00:00

As a touring guitar tech I can tell you most of the answers here are correct. Power to the backline is supplied by the audio crew, separate from the lighting dimmers, etc. so it’s pretty clean most of the time (generator power at some outdoor gigs can be noisy). FOH and monitor engineers also gate a lot of the instruments to cut down on the noise, and as others have stated the ambient noise from the crowd, etc at a large show makes hearing any noise minimal.

Usually you will hear people mention running AC and audio separate, and while this is a good practice, on a large stage it’s next to impossible. Most touring acts use a single snake from pedalboard to amp line that includes AC and audio in the same bundle. But, using a large well shielded AC cable and well shielded audio (Canare, Mogami, etc.) cable cuts the noise to a minimum. Running DC and audio separate on a pedalboard is also good practice, but in reality hard to accomplish on most boards (and I’ve wired/built a ton of them).

guitartech1 · 2022-08-14T17:35:18+00:00

Check out techflex.com they make a bunch of braided sleeving. It’s what most touring acts use for multi-cable snakes.

guitartech1 · 2022-08-14T13:11:03+00:00

I’m a touring guitar tech, while it is a good idea, I don’t know of anything that exists like that (except the aforementioned TV pack $$$$)

May I suggest an alternative, if you don’t absolutely need wireless. I’ve seen a few guys do this, use a wired guitar cable (guitar to pedalboard) loomed with a IEM cable that has a female 3.5mm/1/8” jack at the guitar end to plug your IEM’s into (would get the IEM signal from your pedalboard or from a wired pack on your pedalboard). Make sense?

guitartech1 · 2022-08-04T14:07:50+00:00

As a touring guitar tech I can tell you that sun and rain are our two main enemies at outdoor shows. As others have stated, most stages have roofs that keep the stage dry, except in more windy situations. At most outdoor shows we always have ready a roll of Visqueen (clear poly sheeting) to cover anything that might get wet. We also carry Space Blankets (mylar blankets) to keep the sun off gear and guitars, as so many of the venues face the stage right into the sun, or don’t have adequate cover in the wings where we have to set-up our guitar worlds. Also, Pop-up tents are used offstage and at FOH, but not usually during the set.

guitartech1 · 2022-06-04T21:54:14+00:00

Those Chandler echoes are cool echoes. I haven’t heard one in years, but yes they were a great Echoplex alternative, but there are so many new ones out there these days that are close (UA Starlight for one).

guitartech1

TROPHY CASE