Guitar technician
Encyclopedia
A guitar technician is a member of a music ensemble's road crew
who maintains and sets up the musical equipment for one or more guitarist
s during a concert tour. Depending on the type and size of band, the guitar tech may be responsible for stringing, tuning, and adjusting electric guitar
s and acoustic guitar
s, and maintaining and setting up guitar amplifier
s and other related electronic equipment such as effect pedals.
Once the guitar equipment has been set up onstage, the guitar tech does a soundcheck to ensure that the equipment is working well. If there are any problems, the guitar tech will replace or repair the faulty components or equipment. Since guitar techs need to soundcheck the instruments and amplifiers, they must have basic guitar-playing skills, a musical "ear" for tuning, and a familiarity with the way guitars, amplifiers, and effect pedals are supposed to sound in the style of music of their band.
Guitar techs learn their craft either "on the job", by working in a range of music, sound engineering, and instrument repair jobs; by completing a guitar repair program at a college or lutherie school; or from a combination of these two routes. The salaries and conditions of work for guitar techs vary widely, depending on whether a guitar tech is working for a minor or regional touring bar band or a major international touring act.
The duties of a guitar technician depend on the type of band they are working for, and on a range of other factors such as the size and nature of the stage show and the length of the show. Guitar technicians who work for an acoustic band, such as a folk group or bluegrass
ensemble may be responsible for setting up and stringing, and tuning a range of stringed, fretted instruments including acoustic guitars, dobro
s, and mandolins. A guitar tech for a heavy metal
band, on the other hand, may focus mainly on electric guitars, guitar amplifiers, and effects pedals. A guitar tech may change the sequence of effects pedals or alter the settings on effects pedals during the show, to assist the guitarist in creating different tone colours or sounds. For example, a guitarist may ask the guitar tech to connect a chorus effect
and reverb during a guitar solo
. In an acid rock band, a guitar tech might have to manipulate the controls on a ring modulator or a rotating Leslie speaker
cabinet to create unusual sounds while the guitarist is performing.
Once the guitars have been tuned with an electronic tuner
and strummed to ensure that they are in tune, the guitar tech usually sets up the different guitars on guitar racks, ensures that the leather or nylon straps are properly connected, and that the patch cords are plugged in properly. During the show, the guitar tech hands instruments to the guitarist or guitarists according to the types of guitar that are required in the songs that they are playing. For example, a hard rock guitarist may use a "flying-V" guitar for a fast song, and then switch to an acoustic 12-string guitar for a soft ballad. The guitar tech retunes all of the instruments before they are used, because even if an instrument was perfectly in tune during the soundcheck, the heat from stage lights and the humidity from the stage conditions may render the instrument slightly out of tune.
After each guitar is used, the guitar tech cleans the strings with a cloth and replaces the instrument on a rack. During the show, the tech stands ready to replace any guitars in case a string breaks or if there is an equipment malfunction. The guitar tech may hand fresh towels to the guitarist so that the guitarist can remove sweat from the hands and ensure that the guitarist has ready access to bottles of cool water or other cold beverages
. If a guitar technician is working for a guitarist who uses pick
s, the guitar tech may lay out a variety of picks on a guitar amplifier or tape the picks to the guitars with double-sided tape, so that they are within easy reach. At the end of the show, the guitar tech disconnects all of the patch cords; cleans the instruments; and packs them back into their cases.
The guitar tech also does a variety of regular maintenance. This includes checking that the string height of the guitars is set properly, modifying ("dressing") the height and arc of the frets, verifying the intonation of the instruments (which is adjusted by modifying the bridge), checking that tubes (valves) on tube amplifiers are working properly, and that cables are in good condition and free from crackles and hum caused by nicks and abrasions in the shielding or cable insulation. They also check the batteries on effects devices, tuners, and pre-amps, and change them if necessary. Depending on the size of a band's road crew, the guitar tech may either do this maintenance him or herself, or, in a large touring act, delegate the repair task to more junior personnel.
The guitar tech does a basic soundcheck with the different guitars, amplifiers, and effects, to ensure that the equipment is functioning properly and that all of the connections between the equipment (which are made with patch cords) are plugged in correctly. For a stripped-down roots rock
band guitarist, this may be as simple as plugging an electric guitar into an amplifier and plugging an acoustic guitar into a preamp/equalizer box. On the other hand, a guitar tech for a heavy metal guitarist may have to set up ten or more electric guitars, a variety of amplifiers, and connect them to an intricate sequence of effects pedals, all of which is controlled by A-B routing boxes.
When all of the instruments and equipment are set up and soundchecked, in some cases, if there are crackles, hums, or no sound coming from the instrument or amplifier the guitar tech has to do troubleshooting and determine what the cause of the problem is. Problems can be caused by patch cords which have been damaged or nicked; ground loop
s in the connection between the instrument and the amplifier; weak or dead batteries in effects pedals or on-board pre-amps; blown vacuum tubes in tube amplifiers or overdrive effects; connections which have desoldered during transportation; speaker voice coils may have been damaged from the previous concert; or equipment may have been damaged during the flight or loading-into the venue. Tuning problems may come from old or dirty strings, damaged or worn machine heads or frets, or misadjusted bridges.
A guitar tech is often a "jack of all trades" when it comes to making simple repairs. As such, a guitar tech can often resolder a loose wiring connection inside a guitar volume potentiometer, replace an amplifier tube, swap out a damaged speaker for a new one, glue a loose wooden part on an acoustic guitar, or adjust a misaligned neck with an allen key. In cases where there is either not enough time to make the repair, or if the equipment is damaged beyond repair, the guitar tech is often responsible for finding a replacement instrument or part, either by purchasing or renting it from a local music store or by borrowing it from another band. While another member of the road crew may be dispatched to pick up the item or items, the guitar tech usually writes down which models or brands are acceptable replacements.
The salary, benefits, and accommodations of guitar techs vary widely. The first jobs that a guitar tech does may be on a volunteer basis in a garage band or amateur group, to gain experience, or alternatively the guitar tech might work in return for a small cash payment that is more of a symbolic honorarium
than a real salary. In regional-level bar bands or minor touring acts, the guitar techs may be paid on a contractual basis during the weeks or months that the group is on tour, and there may not be health or dental benefits. A guitar tech working for this type of band will have to find other temporary work to fill in the months when the band is not on tour. On the other hand, a major touring act may hire a guitar technician as a permanent employee and provide him or her with a range of benefits.
The accommodations depend on the conditions set out in the contract and the level and status of the group. A guitar tech travelling with a regional-level band may stay in inexpensive motels and receive a modest per diem for restaurant meals. A guitar tech travelling with a major touring band, though, may stay at the same first-class hotels as the star performers, and eat catered buffet or restaurant meals. Some bands with substantial road crews may have their own catering crew which provides meals during the tour. The guitar techs for the most famous international guitarists such as Jimmy Page
or Tony Iommi
can become a sort of minor celebrity of sorts within the guitar fan community, because of their close contact with musicians who are considered to be "rock legends", and for their insider knowledge of how a certain guitarist's unique tone is created.
, signal phase (for speakers and microphone wiring), and input voltage for pre-amps and effects. To do simple repairs on electronic gear, a guitar tech may have to know how to use a soldering iron and a multitester and do basic electronics troubleshooting.
As well, since guitar techs need to soundcheck the instruments and amplifiers, they must have a knowledge of the way guitars and amplifiers are supposed to sound in the style of music of the band. This means that the guitar tech must have an ear for music, and for musical tones and sounds. The guitar tech for a heavy metal band must be able to tell, by listening, whether the distortion from a heavily overdriven tube amp is the tube clipping which is desired by the guitarist they work for, or whether the distortion is coming from a blown speaker or damaged power amp. The distinctions that a guitar tech has to make can be quite subtle; for example, a guitar tech who is replacing a blown tube with a new one may have to ensure that the tube amplifier still has the same "color" or "warmth" when chords are played through it.
To check the tuning of guitars, the guitar tech needs to be able to play major, minor, and other chords in a variety of keys. Even if the guitar has been tuned with an electronic tuner, the tuning still needs to be checked "by ear", because tuning a guitar is an art of compromise. The tuning of guitars can be affected by the placement and wearing of the frets, the angle of the bridge, the age of the strings, and a range of other factors. Thus even if an electronic tuner indicates that a guitar is 100% "in tune", it may still need a few minor adjustments by ear.
The training of guitar technicians varies widely. Some guitar technicians have studied music, guitar repair, amplifier maintenance, and/or electronics repair in college or university. On the other hand, some techs learned these skills informally, "on the job", or by working their way up through the ranks in a range of musical jobs, from a roadie and sound engineer to a sideman
in a bar band. Guitar techs who are going the "on the job" training route may learn their skills by playing in amateur or semi-professional bands as a guitarist or bassist; working for music stores as a guitar repairperson; for clubs or bars as a sound engineer; or for PA system rental companies as a speaker and amplifier maintenance person.
A typical career path for a guitar technician who is going the "on the job" training route is to begin by volunteering in a bar band and then working for low wages in a regional touring act or a minor touring act. Then, as they gain experience and add skills to their resume, they may be able to seek out better-paying jobs with higher-status touring bands. Once a guitar technician has joined the road crew of a major touring act, they may be able to seek out promotions within this organization, to jobs with greater responsibilities and higher pay. For example, a guitar tech who is working as an assistant technician could try to get promoted to a guitar technician for the lead guitarist. A guitar tech who has completed a guitar repair program at a college or lutherie school may be able to enter midway up the guitar tech career ladder.
In the early part of a guitar tech's career, there might be a great deal of mobility between different types of bands and technician roles. While working for minor or regional acts, a guitar tech may be able to work for a country rock bar band and then immediately switch to being the bass tech for a hard rock "tribute band", because the tasks are fairly uniform. The career mobility of guitar technicians tends to become more constrained, though, when guitar techs begin to get jobs with high-status professional touring acts from specific genres. When a regional bar band is looking for a guitar tech for a summer nightclub tour, there may be thousands of guitar techs who could meet the skill requirements of the position. However, if an internationally-known 1960s-style acid rock touring act with a celebrity lead guitarist goes on a major tour, there may be only a handful of guitar techs who have the unique combination of skills that are required to fill this position.
technicians (or "bass techs") perform the same functions for a bass guitar player. The bass guitar is a type of electric guitar which is pitched one octave below a regular electric guitar. Many of the basic elements of the two types of instruments are similar enough—both instruments use magnetic pickups and then route the signal to an electronic amplifier—that a guitar technician is usually able to work as a bass guitar technician if they become familiar with the unique aspects of the electric bass. The electric bass differs from the electric guitar in several respects. To become a bass tech, a person must learn how to set up the string action (height) and adjust the height of the pickups so that the bassist is able to create the tones associated with different bass styles. Depending on the band, these styles might include such as slap and pop, tapping
, or upright bass-style playing with the thumb.
As with guitar techs, a bass tech will also set up the amplification equipment and effects pedals. Due to the lower pitch of the bass guitar, this instrument is amplified with specialized bass instrument amplifiers. While bass guitarists do not usually use as many effects pedals as most guitarists (e.g., reverb, chorus, flanger, etc) , most professional bassists may use a few "sound conditioner" effects such as a compressor
, limiter
, or equalizer
. Some bassists also use octave pedals to generate extremely low pitches or bass overdrive pedals which produce a fuzzy, distorted sound. Although these effects function in the same way as regular electric guitar effects, a bass tech must be familiar with the settings and the resulting sounds and tones that are most often used by bass guitarists. A guitar tech who is in the first stages of learning to become a bass tech may know how to set up the bass effects from a technical point of view, but it may take a little longer for them to learn which compressor settings, for example, are associated with different funk or metal styles.
In some country, rockabilly
, or jazz bands, the bass tech might also be responsible for setting up, tuning, and maintaining an upright bass or electric upright bass
. In some folk or acoustic bands, the bass technician may also be responsible for maintaining an acoustic bass guitar
, which is a larger, bass version of a standard acoustic guitar
. More rarely, some bass techs might have to set up a bass synth (e.g., as used by the bassists in some alternative bands) or bass pedal keyboard such as a Moog Taurus
pedal, as used by Sting or Led Zeppelin
. Both upright basses and acoustic bass guitars usually use piezoelectric pickups rather than magnetic pickups, and in some cases, the instruments may use condenser mics to pick up the higher range sounds. To amplify instruments with piezo transducers and condenser mics, specialized impedance-matching preamplifiers are often required. As well, since both piezoelectric transducers and mics are more prone to unwanted feedback than magnetic pickups, the bass tech may be required to set up a notch filter with a parametric equalizer, in order to reduce the frequency that is feeding back.
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...
who maintains and sets up the musical equipment for one or more guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
s during a concert tour. Depending on the type and size of band, the guitar tech may be responsible for stringing, tuning, and adjusting electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
s and acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
s, and maintaining and setting up guitar amplifier
Guitar amplifier
A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric or acoustic guitar louder so that it will produce sound through a loudspeaker...
s and other related electronic equipment such as effect pedals.
Once the guitar equipment has been set up onstage, the guitar tech does a soundcheck to ensure that the equipment is working well. If there are any problems, the guitar tech will replace or repair the faulty components or equipment. Since guitar techs need to soundcheck the instruments and amplifiers, they must have basic guitar-playing skills, a musical "ear" for tuning, and a familiarity with the way guitars, amplifiers, and effect pedals are supposed to sound in the style of music of their band.
Guitar techs learn their craft either "on the job", by working in a range of music, sound engineering, and instrument repair jobs; by completing a guitar repair program at a college or lutherie school; or from a combination of these two routes. The salaries and conditions of work for guitar techs vary widely, depending on whether a guitar tech is working for a minor or regional touring bar band or a major international touring act.
Setting up and soundchecking
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
ensemble may be responsible for setting up and stringing, and tuning a range of stringed, fretted instruments including acoustic guitars, dobro
Dobro
Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...
s, and mandolins. A guitar tech for a heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band, on the other hand, may focus mainly on electric guitars, guitar amplifiers, and effects pedals. A guitar tech may change the sequence of effects pedals or alter the settings on effects pedals during the show, to assist the guitarist in creating different tone colours or sounds. For example, a guitarist may ask the guitar tech to connect a chorus effect
Chorus effect
In music, a chorus effect occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly the same pitch converge and are perceived as one...
and reverb during a guitar solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...
. In an acid rock band, a guitar tech might have to manipulate the controls on a ring modulator or a rotating Leslie speaker
Leslie speaker
The Leslie speaker is a specially constructed amplifier/loudspeaker used to create special audio effects using the Doppler effect. Named after its inventor, Donald Leslie, it is particularly associated with the Hammond organ but is used with a variety of instruments as well as vocals. The...
cabinet to create unusual sounds while the guitarist is performing.
Electronic tuner
The term electronic tuner can refer to a number of different things, depending which discipline you wish to study.In the Discipline of radio frequency electronics an electronic tuner is a device which tunes across a part of the radio frequency spectrum by the application of a voltage or appropriate...
and strummed to ensure that they are in tune, the guitar tech usually sets up the different guitars on guitar racks, ensures that the leather or nylon straps are properly connected, and that the patch cords are plugged in properly. During the show, the guitar tech hands instruments to the guitarist or guitarists according to the types of guitar that are required in the songs that they are playing. For example, a hard rock guitarist may use a "flying-V" guitar for a fast song, and then switch to an acoustic 12-string guitar for a soft ballad. The guitar tech retunes all of the instruments before they are used, because even if an instrument was perfectly in tune during the soundcheck, the heat from stage lights and the humidity from the stage conditions may render the instrument slightly out of tune.
After each guitar is used, the guitar tech cleans the strings with a cloth and replaces the instrument on a rack. During the show, the tech stands ready to replace any guitars in case a string breaks or if there is an equipment malfunction. The guitar tech may hand fresh towels to the guitarist so that the guitarist can remove sweat from the hands and ensure that the guitarist has ready access to bottles of cool water or other cold beverages
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
. If a guitar technician is working for a guitarist who uses pick
Plectrum
A plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick, and is a separate tool held in the player's hand...
s, the guitar tech may lay out a variety of picks on a guitar amplifier or tape the picks to the guitars with double-sided tape, so that they are within easy reach. At the end of the show, the guitar tech disconnects all of the patch cords; cleans the instruments; and packs them back into their cases.
Maintenance and repair
The guitar tech does a basic soundcheck with the different guitars, amplifiers, and effects, to ensure that the equipment is functioning properly and that all of the connections between the equipment (which are made with patch cords) are plugged in correctly. For a stripped-down roots rock
Roots rock
Roots rock is a term now used to describe rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid sub-genres from the later 1960s including country rock and Southern rock, which have been seen as responses to the...
band guitarist, this may be as simple as plugging an electric guitar into an amplifier and plugging an acoustic guitar into a preamp/equalizer box. On the other hand, a guitar tech for a heavy metal guitarist may have to set up ten or more electric guitars, a variety of amplifiers, and connect them to an intricate sequence of effects pedals, all of which is controlled by A-B routing boxes.
When all of the instruments and equipment are set up and soundchecked, in some cases, if there are crackles, hums, or no sound coming from the instrument or amplifier the guitar tech has to do troubleshooting and determine what the cause of the problem is. Problems can be caused by patch cords which have been damaged or nicked; ground loop
Ground loop
Ground loop may refer to:* Ground loop , an unwanted electrical current that flows in a conductor connecting two points inadvertently having different potentials...
s in the connection between the instrument and the amplifier; weak or dead batteries in effects pedals or on-board pre-amps; blown vacuum tubes in tube amplifiers or overdrive effects; connections which have desoldered during transportation; speaker voice coils may have been damaged from the previous concert; or equipment may have been damaged during the flight or loading-into the venue. Tuning problems may come from old or dirty strings, damaged or worn machine heads or frets, or misadjusted bridges.
A guitar tech is often a "jack of all trades" when it comes to making simple repairs. As such, a guitar tech can often resolder a loose wiring connection inside a guitar volume potentiometer, replace an amplifier tube, swap out a damaged speaker for a new one, glue a loose wooden part on an acoustic guitar, or adjust a misaligned neck with an allen key. In cases where there is either not enough time to make the repair, or if the equipment is damaged beyond repair, the guitar tech is often responsible for finding a replacement instrument or part, either by purchasing or renting it from a local music store or by borrowing it from another band. While another member of the road crew may be dispatched to pick up the item or items, the guitar tech usually writes down which models or brands are acceptable replacements.
Conditions of work
The conditions of work for guitar techs vary widely. Some guitar techs for small touring acts may set up guitars for all of the stringed-instrument performers—rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass, and so on; they may even take on a large variety of tasks beyond guitar tech work, such as helping to set up sound equipment or soundcheck the microphones. On the other hand, guitar techs for major touring bands may be part of a large road crew team which includes amplifier technicians, guitar technicians for each guitarist (rhythm guitarist and lead guitarist), and a variety of people who set up the stage equipment. In a major touring band, a guitar tech's duties might be more narrowly circumscribed. They might only have to set up the guitars for a single performer, and there might be other staff who set up and maintain the amplifiers, effects, and guitar stands, and electronics technicians who solder and repair connections and wiring.The salary, benefits, and accommodations of guitar techs vary widely. The first jobs that a guitar tech does may be on a volunteer basis in a garage band or amateur group, to gain experience, or alternatively the guitar tech might work in return for a small cash payment that is more of a symbolic honorarium
Honorarium
An honorarium is an ex gratia payment made to a person for their services in a volunteer capacity or for services for which fees are not traditionally required. This is used by groups such as schools or sporting clubs to pay coaches for their costs...
than a real salary. In regional-level bar bands or minor touring acts, the guitar techs may be paid on a contractual basis during the weeks or months that the group is on tour, and there may not be health or dental benefits. A guitar tech working for this type of band will have to find other temporary work to fill in the months when the band is not on tour. On the other hand, a major touring act may hire a guitar technician as a permanent employee and provide him or her with a range of benefits.
The accommodations depend on the conditions set out in the contract and the level and status of the group. A guitar tech travelling with a regional-level band may stay in inexpensive motels and receive a modest per diem for restaurant meals. A guitar tech travelling with a major touring band, though, may stay at the same first-class hotels as the star performers, and eat catered buffet or restaurant meals. Some bands with substantial road crews may have their own catering crew which provides meals during the tour. The guitar techs for the most famous international guitarists such as Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
or Tony Iommi
Tony Iommi
Anthony Frank "Tony" Iommi is an English guitarist and songwriter best known as the founding member of pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and its sole continual member through multiple personnel changes.Iommi is widely recognised as one of the most important and influential guitarists in...
can become a sort of minor celebrity of sorts within the guitar fan community, because of their close contact with musicians who are considered to be "rock legends", and for their insider knowledge of how a certain guitarist's unique tone is created.
Training and career path
Guitar technicians must have a broad knowledge of the musical equipment used in the types of bands with which they work. At a minimum, this must consist of familiarity with setting up and tuning guitars and making simple adjustments and repairs. As well, guitar techs are often expected to be able to set up, repair, and adjust electronic effects, tuners, pre-amplifiers, amplifiers, and pedalboards. To do these tasks, guitar techs must know about a range of audio engineering and electronics concepts such as impedanceElectrical impedance
Electrical impedance, or simply impedance, is the measure of the opposition that an electrical circuit presents to the passage of a current when a voltage is applied. In quantitative terms, it is the complex ratio of the voltage to the current in an alternating current circuit...
, signal phase (for speakers and microphone wiring), and input voltage for pre-amps and effects. To do simple repairs on electronic gear, a guitar tech may have to know how to use a soldering iron and a multitester and do basic electronics troubleshooting.
As well, since guitar techs need to soundcheck the instruments and amplifiers, they must have a knowledge of the way guitars and amplifiers are supposed to sound in the style of music of the band. This means that the guitar tech must have an ear for music, and for musical tones and sounds. The guitar tech for a heavy metal band must be able to tell, by listening, whether the distortion from a heavily overdriven tube amp is the tube clipping which is desired by the guitarist they work for, or whether the distortion is coming from a blown speaker or damaged power amp. The distinctions that a guitar tech has to make can be quite subtle; for example, a guitar tech who is replacing a blown tube with a new one may have to ensure that the tube amplifier still has the same "color" or "warmth" when chords are played through it.
To check the tuning of guitars, the guitar tech needs to be able to play major, minor, and other chords in a variety of keys. Even if the guitar has been tuned with an electronic tuner, the tuning still needs to be checked "by ear", because tuning a guitar is an art of compromise. The tuning of guitars can be affected by the placement and wearing of the frets, the angle of the bridge, the age of the strings, and a range of other factors. Thus even if an electronic tuner indicates that a guitar is 100% "in tune", it may still need a few minor adjustments by ear.
The training of guitar technicians varies widely. Some guitar technicians have studied music, guitar repair, amplifier maintenance, and/or electronics repair in college or university. On the other hand, some techs learned these skills informally, "on the job", or by working their way up through the ranks in a range of musical jobs, from a roadie and sound engineer to a sideman
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...
in a bar band. Guitar techs who are going the "on the job" training route may learn their skills by playing in amateur or semi-professional bands as a guitarist or bassist; working for music stores as a guitar repairperson; for clubs or bars as a sound engineer; or for PA system rental companies as a speaker and amplifier maintenance person.
A typical career path for a guitar technician who is going the "on the job" training route is to begin by volunteering in a bar band and then working for low wages in a regional touring act or a minor touring act. Then, as they gain experience and add skills to their resume, they may be able to seek out better-paying jobs with higher-status touring bands. Once a guitar technician has joined the road crew of a major touring act, they may be able to seek out promotions within this organization, to jobs with greater responsibilities and higher pay. For example, a guitar tech who is working as an assistant technician could try to get promoted to a guitar technician for the lead guitarist. A guitar tech who has completed a guitar repair program at a college or lutherie school may be able to enter midway up the guitar tech career ladder.
In the early part of a guitar tech's career, there might be a great deal of mobility between different types of bands and technician roles. While working for minor or regional acts, a guitar tech may be able to work for a country rock bar band and then immediately switch to being the bass tech for a hard rock "tribute band", because the tasks are fairly uniform. The career mobility of guitar technicians tends to become more constrained, though, when guitar techs begin to get jobs with high-status professional touring acts from specific genres. When a regional bar band is looking for a guitar tech for a summer nightclub tour, there may be thousands of guitar techs who could meet the skill requirements of the position. However, if an internationally-known 1960s-style acid rock touring act with a celebrity lead guitarist goes on a major tour, there may be only a handful of guitar techs who have the unique combination of skills that are required to fill this position.
Bass guitar technician
Bass guitarBass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
technicians (or "bass techs") perform the same functions for a bass guitar player. The bass guitar is a type of electric guitar which is pitched one octave below a regular electric guitar. Many of the basic elements of the two types of instruments are similar enough—both instruments use magnetic pickups and then route the signal to an electronic amplifier—that a guitar technician is usually able to work as a bass guitar technician if they become familiar with the unique aspects of the electric bass. The electric bass differs from the electric guitar in several respects. To become a bass tech, a person must learn how to set up the string action (height) and adjust the height of the pickups so that the bassist is able to create the tones associated with different bass styles. Depending on the band, these styles might include such as slap and pop, tapping
Tapping
Tapping is a guitar playing technique, where a string is fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion of being pushed onto the fretboard, as opposed to the standard technique being fretted with one hand and picked with the other...
, or upright bass-style playing with the thumb.
As with guitar techs, a bass tech will also set up the amplification equipment and effects pedals. Due to the lower pitch of the bass guitar, this instrument is amplified with specialized bass instrument amplifiers. While bass guitarists do not usually use as many effects pedals as most guitarists (e.g., reverb, chorus, flanger, etc) , most professional bassists may use a few "sound conditioner" effects such as a compressor
Compressor
Compressor may refer to:* Gas compressor, a mechanical device that compresses a gas * A device used to apply video compression to a video signal* A device used to apply audio data compression to an audio signal...
, limiter
Limiter
In electronics, a limiter is a circuit that allows signals below a specified input power to pass unaffected while attenuating the peaks of stronger signals that exceed this input power....
, or equalizer
Equalizer
Equalizer or equaliser may refer to:*Equalization, the process of adjusting the strength of certain frequencies within a signal*An equalization filter for used audio and similar signals...
. Some bassists also use octave pedals to generate extremely low pitches or bass overdrive pedals which produce a fuzzy, distorted sound. Although these effects function in the same way as regular electric guitar effects, a bass tech must be familiar with the settings and the resulting sounds and tones that are most often used by bass guitarists. A guitar tech who is in the first stages of learning to become a bass tech may know how to set up the bass effects from a technical point of view, but it may take a little longer for them to learn which compressor settings, for example, are associated with different funk or metal styles.
In some country, rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
, or jazz bands, the bass tech might also be responsible for setting up, tuning, and maintaining an upright bass or electric upright bass
Electric upright bass
The electric upright bass is an electronically amplified version of the double bass that has a minimal or 'skeleton' body, which greatly reduces the size and weight of the instrument. The EUB retains enough of the features of the double bass so that double bass players are comfortable performing...
. In some folk or acoustic bands, the bass technician may also be responsible for maintaining an acoustic bass guitar
Acoustic bass guitar
The acoustic bass guitar is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually somewhat larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar...
, which is a larger, bass version of a standard acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
. More rarely, some bass techs might have to set up a bass synth (e.g., as used by the bassists in some alternative bands) or bass pedal keyboard such as a Moog Taurus
Moog Taurus
The Moog Taurus is a foot-operated analog synthesizer designed and manufactured by Moog Music from 1974 or 1975 to 1981. Commonly called the Taurus I, it has a 13-note organ-style pedal board similar to the pedal keyboard of a spinet organ.-History:...
pedal, as used by Sting or Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
. Both upright basses and acoustic bass guitars usually use piezoelectric pickups rather than magnetic pickups, and in some cases, the instruments may use condenser mics to pick up the higher range sounds. To amplify instruments with piezo transducers and condenser mics, specialized impedance-matching preamplifiers are often required. As well, since both piezoelectric transducers and mics are more prone to unwanted feedback than magnetic pickups, the bass tech may be required to set up a notch filter with a parametric equalizer, in order to reduce the frequency that is feeding back.