career

[markjohnson]

Hey I have always been interested in how the amps, heads, guitars, pedals, etc.
work and I want to go into a career as a guitar tech, but how do i do that? Is there a class, a site, do i teach it myself? if there is a site or major that you know of that has to do with repairs for amps, guitars, etc. please list it here. Thanks

[soundmasterg]

Most people seem to teach themselves about this stuff. You can go to luthiery school to learn how to make and repair guitars, but there aren't schools for working on tube amps or pedals. If you want to be a tech in a guitar shop, you usually have to know how to fix guitars, amps, and pedals. Its not a very well paying job though, so you may want to consider learning what you can about it but doing something else to make ends meet and doing the guitar/amp/effect work on the side.

Greg

[Steve A.]

Most people seem to teach themselves about this stuff. You can go to luthiery school to learn how to make and repair guitars, but there aren't schools for working on tube amps or pedals. If you want to be a tech in a guitar shop, you usually have to know how to fix guitars, amps, and pedals. Its not a very well paying job though, so you may want to consider learning what you can about it but doing something else to make ends meet and doing the guitar/amp/effect work on the side.

Greg

For a lot of guys in the local music stores, this is just their day job, to add to their gigs at night. At some music stores, the guitar tech is also one of the guitar salesmen so he gets commission on sales, too.

As for working on amps and pedals, there will be stuff that has to be sent out for repairs, but the guitar tech should be able to act as a "triage nurse", to determine what can be repaired in-house.

Steve Ahola

[ken]

I volunteered at a local music store for almost a year - I worked for free, tested the tubes, swept the floors, and kept my eyes open. I also went to the local tech college, and roamed their library's electronics textbook files until what I learned each day actually made sense. I didn't have the $$$ to go to the classes.

Ken

[mbira]

I started by building stuff for myself, and turns out I was pretty good at it. Then people just started to ask me to fix their stuff, and now I see I'm in a shop...