Joe Satriani has paid tribute to his long-time guitar tech, Mike Manning, with a new instrumental track.
Manning, born in 1956, recently passed away after spending much of his career as Satriani’s right-hand six-string man. Satch’s somber lead lines on Mike Manning (1956 - 2024) – which are delivered with a thick, warm, and fuzzy tone atop a sea of mournful, swathing keyboard textures – are a fitting way to immortalize his spirit.
Satriani says the tech, whose many nicknames included Zen Master, Captain of the Sea, and What the Hay Do I Pay You For, “was a good-natured, loveable guy with the biggest heart”.
“I met Mike in ’88,” he says in a brief but heartfelt eulogy accompanying the track. “He was a tall, good-looking, long blonde-haired roadie with a thick Boston accent and a sunny personality that always made me feel at ease.
“He was the perfect guitar tech for me, always dependable, [and] attentive, he never tweaked my gear unless I asked him to. And, if I did, his work was always flawless.”
Manning was Satch’s tech for more than three decades and came on board one year after Surfing With The Alien was released. He was the guitarist’s “number one” on and off the stage.
“We toured around the world and recorded in great studios,” Satriani’s eulogy continues. “And we had fun; because Mike made work fun. He was the kind of guy who put a smile on your face whenever you hung out with him. I depended on Mike, depended on how he maintained my guitars and amps show after show, and hour after hour in the studio.
“The last few tours Mike had to stay home to rehab his knees and he was missed by me and by all. And, now we will all miss him even more.”
Joe Satriani spent his summer this year channeling his hero, Eddie Van Halen, during the Best of All Worlds tour with Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Jason Bonham.
Hagar was astounded by the guitarist’s approach to the tour, which had seen him mod an EVH Frankenstein, tweak several of his Ibanez signatures, and build a brand-new amp with 3rd Power Amps among other painstaking steps.
Of his playing during the tour, Hagar said Satch had “taken the essence of Eddie's guitar solos, and put his heart and soul into it,” believing it to be “so much better than a guy just mimicking him exactly”.
