Not many pro bassists would entrust volume-pedal and distortion-switching duties to their tech—but for Nickelback’s Mike Kroeger, the more freedom he has to roam the stage, the better. Besides, when you have a tech-to-the-stars like David “Shuu” Guidish working your pedals, you’re in good hands … er, feet. Before he joined the Nickelback crew two years ago, Shuu worked with such bands as Fear Factory, Biohazard, and Sevendust. “It’s no coincidence that every rock band under the sun has tried to hire him away from us,” says Kroeger. “But Nickelback operates very much as a family, and Shuu doesn’t want to leave his family.”

According to Kroeger, Shuu always enjoys taking on more tasks—a good thing, because Mike has placed more demands on his tech with each tour. “It used to be that I’d hand him a bass and say, ‘See you after the show,’” says Shuu. “But now he does eight or nine instrument changes per night.” If keeping all of the stage basses tuned and ready weren’t enough, Mike also sometimes asks for instrument-setup tweaks on the fly. “I’ll finish a song and I’ll say, ‘The action is too high on this bass, but I want it back for the next tune’—and he’ll give me an adjustment,” says Kroeger.

For Nickelback’s most recent tour, Mike has brought five Spector basses: two U.S. Series models (a bolt-on fretless and a neck-through fretted) and three Czech-made Europe Series models. Mike likes his Ernie Ball strings (.045–.130) to sound crisp, so Shuu usually changes them every show. Each bass is fitted with a transmitter for a Sennheiser EW300 wireless system. “The wireless packs have a pad switch for 0dB, –10dB, –20dB, or –30dB attenuation,” says Shuu. “Those Spectors have such a hot signal I have to take Mike’s signal down 30dB, or else it could blow everything up.” The packs run on different frequencies, so Shuu uses a Coleman Audio switcher to route the appropriate signal to Kroeger’s rig.

The signal chain’s first link is a Vox V850 volume pedal, which Shuu works from offstage. Next comes an Avalon U5 DI/preamp, followed by a Peavey VSX crossover. His low frequencies go to a Peavey Kosmos subharmonic generator, followed by one Peavey PRO 500 head; the head’s preamp-out jack feeds a Peavey GPS 2600 power amp, which pumps into two Peavey PRO 115 1x15 cabinets. The highs go from the crossover into a Morley switcher box, which Shuu uses to toggle between Mike’s clean and distorted sounds. In the clean position, his signal goes to a second Peavey PRO 500/GPS 2600 combination powering two Peavey 8x10 cabinets; one cabinet is ported and one is sealed. In the dirty position, the signal goes to the PRO 500/GPS 2600 as well as to a Peavey Triple XXX guitar head followed by a Triple XXX 4x12 guitar cabinet. As a result of this bi-amped configuration, Kroeger always gets clean low-end support through the 1x15s, whether he’s distorted or not. The house gets four signals: a mic signal from one of the 1x15s, a mic from one of the 8x10s, a mic from the 4x12, plus a direct line from the Avalon.

“Shuu’s job is to look and listen,” says Kroeger. “My rig is bloody huge, and when all the lights on the gear go out, it’s pretty scary. Shuu has to react and troubleshoot quickly, and he’s good at that.” Like most techs, Shuu has seen his share of mid-show disasters. “We once had some bad power that blew up my power conditioners and basically caused the whole rig to start smoking in the middle of the show. I had to skip some of the gear and plug in everything separately. Luckily nothing else in the rig was destroyed. Now I run everything through a Furman voltage regulator, so if the same thing ever happens again, it’ll shut down before anything gets fried.”

Kroeger admits he’s not at all savvy about his gear—but with Shuu behind him, it’s okay. “He’s the guy—he built this rig from nothing by himself. To be honest,” Mike laughs, “he’s kept his job secure by not telling me what I’m playing through.”