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Yungblud guitar tech Ben Jackson opts for Radial JX42

Guitar technician Ben Jackson has worked in the industry for eighteen years. He cut his teeth first as a driver and then a backline technician with a wide range of touring bands, including stints on two Vans Warped Tours (the largest travelling music festival in North America), before extensive international work with the band Neck Deep. His other credits include Good Charlotte, Bullet For My Valentine, Deaf Havana, and Frank Turner & The Rattlesnakes.

Jackson first met Dom Harrison (Yungblud) when the latter was at the start of his career, developing a strong affinity with the then up-and-coming artist. Following Yungblud’s breakthrough, in 2019 Jackson became his guitar and backline technician, also taking care of stage-right guitarist Adam Warrington and bassist Silke Blansjaar.

At the beginning of Yungblud’s most recent album cycle during the spring, Jackson was given a budget to upgrade the rigs and also take on a second technician to spilt the workload for what is now a very intense and involved production. Radial equipment was top of his list: “The first thing I ordered was the Radial JX42 (4 input, 2 output guitar and amp switcher)”, he says. “Up until March this year I was using one line of RF each for Adam and Silke, and I always felt I was pushing my luck on such a high-profile show. Having four lines of RF interchangeable was essential not only for slick guitar changes but should any of my RF get stomped on mid-show, I’m able to switch to a backup guitar on a clean frequency.”

The JX42 is being used in combination with the Radial JR5 multi-switch remote control. “Having the JR5 in the wings means I can engage/disengage each input whilst twenty metres from my guitar world”, says Jackson. “This is a must, especially when handing off two guitars at once. Elliot Russell who takes care of stage-left also settled on the JX42 as an essential part of the build. We have countless Radial products over the whole Yungblud stage and in the wings. Playback and keyboard tech Luke Collins relies on Radial’s Backtrack stereo backing track switcher and ProD8 8-channel rack mount DI for keyboards.”

As well as the recently added JX42s, Jackson has also invested in three Radial SGI RX/TX instrument line drivers which take an unbalanced signal and allow it to be driven as far as 100 metres without noise. “With our stages expanding in what seems like a weekly basis, we have to allow for our tech world getting further away - with twenty-metre looms, our concern over running unbalanced cables had to be addressed”, he says. “Cue the SGI RX/TX for switching an unbalanced signal into a balanced signal and back again. With its ability to do this up to 100 metres it was a no-brainer to implement this product.”

(Photos: Alex Beamis/Polar)

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