Hello, this is Tanaka from TC-TUNE.
It’s been a while since our last installment of “How Does a Repair Technician Make a Living?”
This time’s topic is
“Does a Repair Technician Have to Be Able to Play Guitar (or Bass)?”
There’s a question I get asked from time to time.
“Don’t repair technicians really need to be able to play an instrument?”
It’s true that if you understand the structure and mechanics of an instrument and know how to use the right tools, you can do the job to a certain extent. However, if you’re aiming to be a “good repair technician”—the answer is clear.
“You have to be able to play.”
The reason is simple: we’re dealing with instruments meant for playing.
- Customers bring their instruments in “to play them”
The people our repair technicians work with are “people who play” guitars and Basses.
In other words, our job isn’t just to “fix instruments so they sound right,” but also to “get them into a condition where they’re comfortable to play.”
In fact, many customers come in with subjective concerns—such as “it’s hard to play” or “the sound is kind of off”—and the nature of these issues varies widely.
It’s difficult to truly understand these concerns without some experience playing the instrument yourself. Conversely, there are many “tips for improvement that can only be discovered by actually playing the instrument.”
- If you don’t know how to play it, you won’t know the right way to adjust it
Guitars and basses are instruments where the sound is determined by how they’re played.
The force used to fret the strings, the picking technique—there are countless factors that affect the sound, and to accurately judge the results of an adjustment, one must be able to replicate the player’s movements to some extent.
If you can’t produce the sound yourself to check it, you won’t be able to determine “what improved” or “why it didn’t work,” making it difficult to build and develop your skills.
- You Don’t Need Professional-Level Skill. What You Need Is “To Know How to Play”
Having read this far,
some of you might be feeling anxious, thinking, “So do I need professional-level skills…?”
But rest assured—that’s absolutely not necessary.
It’s okay if you can’t play fast or perform artistic solos.
What matters is whether you “know how to produce sounds the same way a skilled player does.”
Understanding the basic movements involved in playing and being able to reproduce them with your own hands—that alone will drastically improve the quality of your adjustments.
- On the Argument That “Leo Fender Couldn’t Play”
Every now and then, the argument that “Leo Fender couldn’t play the guitar, yet he created countless legendary instruments” comes up.
It’s true that Leo Fender apparently couldn’t play the guitar, but we’re talking about a historical genius here.
If you realize you’re not a genius on par with Leo Fender, you should at least make an effort to learn how to play so you can properly understand and set up the instruments he created.
There are also examples like Ken Smith, who “is a professional bassist and builds fantastic Basses,” but those aren’t cited very often.
Using only the story of “someone who couldn’t play creating a legendary instrument” as a justification to avoid making the effort to play yourself is, after all, a stretch.
- Adopting the Perspective of a Musician
What’s required of a repair technician isn’t just a knowledge of the instrument’s structure. Having a musician’s perspective is also a crucial factor.
If you can play to some extent yourself, it becomes easier to empathize with a customer’s concerns, and the direction of the adjustments becomes clearer.
Continuously making the effort to play ultimately leads to higher-quality repairs.
- Summary
For guitar and bass repair technicians, being able to “play” is a major advantage.
・You can empathize with a musician’s perspective
・You can judge the results of adjustments for yourself
・You can verify and develop your technical skills
You don’t need to play like a pro. However, you must understand and be able to reproduce the steps involved in producing sound—just as a musician does. Whether or not you can do this will definitely change the quality and depth of your repairs.