Why are alot of people in the music business poopoo heads

[bleedthru]

Im not one to complain it just seems that wherever i go, like clubs, guitar stores, and like talk to guitar techs they are all a bunch of jerks, why is this. I do nothing to piss them off or say anything, they just act like jerks. Do they think that they kick ass at what they do so they need to be jerks. I know not everyone is, but what is up with those who are?

[Lordathestrings]

I'd say the ratio of dickheads to sane human beings is about 2:1... when you find a good tech, you appreciate them.

The rest are convinced that you need them more than they need you... its a common ailment. The 'service' industries are almost crippled by it.

[PonyOne]

A lot of guitar techs I've met are like that. I can understand the frustration of having a 17-year-old kid coming into your shop with this gorgeous, $2000 Les Paul mommy & daddy got him for christmas to learn to strum on, who comes in and is like "hey, i wanter to know if I ould get some humbuckers installed on this?"

In their defense, there are a lot of guitarists who know so absolutely little about their guitars it's enough to make you wince. There was one kid who used to post here only when he needed help on something (which was often enough) who loved to blab about knowing all the Blink 182 and Sum 41 songs (really hard), and that he was this awesome guitarist, etc etc. Then he needed help, because he REALLY wanted the Mark Hoppus signature Strat but was concerned that, since it didn't have a Tune knob, he couldn't tune it.

There are a lot of guitarists who think that they're really hot sh!t, an as a reasult, there are a lot of guitar techs who also think they're really hot sh!t, and unfortunately, it's a symbiotic relationship. The solution? Learn how to do all your own tech, then fix all your friends' guitars for them.

I'm actually starting a column on this in an upcoming guitartricks.com newsletter.

[MikeP.]

I feel your pain bleedthru. I live in Northern Ca. I hardly go to the music store unless I absolutely have to (To buy strings, or picks, and the occasional repair) just because of the attitudes. They only treat you nice when you make a big purchase and a couple of visits after that untill they realize your not made of money)

[lalimacefolle]

A guitar tech, IMHO, is a wannabe guitarist that didn't have what it takes to become a working pro. (Or maybe he just wasn't lucky enough). He maybe does a work that he doesn't like, and that's a good start to become a dickhead.

[Christoph]

Originally posted by PonyOne
. . . there are a lot of guitarists who know so absolutely little about their guitars it's enough to make you wince.

Heh . . . I just play. I don't really know anything about the inner workings. When I want the neck adjusted, or anything like that, I just take it down to ProSound.

[PonyOne]

I don't mean that so much as, for instance, my guitarist who, for all the cool stuff he did and the great guy he is/was, couldn't understand how to tell the difference between single coils and humbuckers.

"Yeah, I need to get some humbuckers put in this ES335. It hums all bad."

"Dude, it has humbuckers. It's just that you're using gobs of distortion and playing your amp at 10 with a semihollow (that you paid over a grand for)."

"...No, like, I need to get humbuckers installed..."

[iiholly]

I don't think I could handle playing electric, to many technical words. Acoustic dominates!

[Incidents Happen]

You probably havent ever played electric, so just wondering how you could make that statement?

[iiholly]

Which statement would that be. Acoustic dominates or I think I couldn't handle playinig electic?
Acoustic dominates is just me being odd, and my natural er defenses going at work.
I think I couldn't handle playing electric, well It's just an oppinion. And I do plan to try it.

[Lordathestrings]

Originally posted by lalimacefolle
A guitar tech, IMHO, is a wannabe guitarist that didn't have what it takes to become a working pro. (Or maybe he just wasn't lucky enough). He maybe does a work that he doesn't like, and that's a good start to become a dickhead. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! :mad: I've dealt with a lot of techs over the last 34 years (and still going), and you're dead wrong! Some of the best techs are former pro players who found that life was much simpler if they weren't subject to the capricious vagaries of 'The Biz'. Others are people who found they got more satisfaction from helping others, than being in the spotlight. I think you owe an apology to several thousand dedicated craftsmen who make life much better for players everywhere!

[PonyOne]

Whoa, let's not fight, that's reserved between me and Incidents on arguments about the Grateful Dead! j/k

I like to play guitar, and think that I'm pretty much as good a tech as I am a player. getting into the technical side of guitar is actually a very, very small step from being a dedicated player. It's like being really into baseball, and then getting into what type of bat and ball works better, and then figuring out why, rather than just taking whatever the other guys use.

To me, a guitarist not knowing about their instrument is half a musician. Not necessarily someone who doesn't know how to resolder and wire and ground an entire guitar, but things like, what a humbucker is, what the tone knob does, how to tell if your neck is warped. And, just like a bodybuilder who eats right and drinks lotsa Gatorade, I think every guitarist is well served by going out and figuring out how to intone their guitar, adjust truss rods, etc.

Even the big guys, who have dedicated guitar techs who follow them around the globe, know enough about their guitar to tell the tech "dude, one of my pots is crackling, i think it needs a new ground." It's just a good thing to know.

And holly, electric dominates acoustic. Electrics are king. YEEEEEEAH. Or at least, for me. I don't really get into the whole acoustic scene.

[MikeP.]

but it's sure nice to have a tech refret your guitar for you, custom paint jobs, install switches, pots, tuners (Well normally easy depending on the hole size in your headstock), knowing the different wiring scematics for your pickups and pickup types (there are many right/wrong ways), or installing a floyd or kahler into a guitar not ready for one, bridgework, intonation/action work, making a bolton into a neckthrough (Yes it can be done), custom inlays, scalloping, etc, etc.


I don't know about you guys but I would rather have a guy repair my guitar for me who does it for a living then have me do it myself.

And that crap about techs not being great musicians is bulls**t as well. I know many out here in Ca. who can play circles around most of us here. And the talk about them just being frusterated musicians. Who of us have not made the big time (Although I'm quite sure there are famouse ones out there among us who visit this site and we'll never know). I'm just happy playing clubs :-)

[^Chacron^]

A guitar tech for me would be a useful person to have around, as I'm not at all good at pratical work like wood-repairs or electronics. Plus if I were to be a pro I expect I would find trying to do everything myself would leave me no time to have a life as well. Not that I don't want to learn about the tech side of guitars, but still, a team working together is stronger than an individual acting alone.

And as for the people who work in guitar stores, I've met some great people by simply wandering in to stores and asking a few questions. A good music-store salesmen has to have a good sense of what his customer is looking for and how to sell them their products. Yes, there are some who will sell a guitarist expensive gear they dont really want and think 'who cares as long as I make money and stay in business.' That's the bad kind.

When I went out to buy that les Paul I'd been dreaming about I went to my local store who were kinda used to me going in for strings and stuff...after playing the LP the sales assistant says to me 'you like to play the blues, have you thought about a strat?' ..'well, no not really...' He had me try all sorts of gear before I decided to settle for the LP, and the prices certainly varied. He didnt just want me to empty my wallet, he wanted to send me away satisfied. Those are the kind of people with business sense and respect for the musician.

[lalimacefolle]

As I have said before, and IMHO means In My Humble Opinion, which unless you live in Afghanistan I'm free to have and share.
I still think that the guys that the first post mentioned are pretty much what I have said. I didn't talk about the pro techs/guitar salesmen that have choosen to work like this, but the ones that are Dickheads, the post was about this.
Never have I mentioned that they weren't great musicians (read my post again, you'll see that I said they didn't have what it takes. Dany Gatton hated to travel, that a big No No in the biz, and I have also mentioned lack of luck.)

I won't apologize for my opinion. I'm not the president of some country, and my opinion only implicates me.

[David C]

A guitarist should know the inner workings of the guitar for the same reason a motorcyclist should know the inner workings of his machine. Otherwise, it's not Zen at all. You are separating yourself from the very mechanisms of your life. You see, our downward spiral into modern material culture started a long time ago when Plato and Aristotle began separating appearances from reality, "ideals" from the real world. Well, something had to replace the fleet of gods who were by then just a myth, so "philosophy" had to do. To make a long story short, the whole western world followed suit. . . .

Read Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig. It will explain why, if you play electric guitar, maybe you should understand how it works.

As for me, I play acoustic, so I have no worries. I always feel Zen, especially playing outside. I can feel it in the little critters too, the ones I see "do, do, do, looking out my back door."

[Christoph]

That's totally deep, man. Whooooooooaaaaaaaaaa . . .

[lalimacefolle]

http://www.zenguitar.com

and for french speakers

http://zenguitar.free.fr

[iiholly]

Originally posted by PonyOne
Whoa, let's not fight, that's reserved between me and Incidents on arguments about the Grateful Dead! j/k


And holly, electric dominates acoustic. Electrics are king. YEEEEEEAH. Or at least, for me. I don't really get into the whole acoustic scene.

I beg to differ. In fact I don't beg. I don't think that made any sense, but acoustic dominates!

[PonyOne]

Holly, you're typing electric wrong, you keep spelling it like acoustic... remember, it's E L E C T R I C... j/k

[iiholly]

It took me about 5 minutes to process that (forgive me I spent a little over 12 hours at school). Acoustic dominates... you know it, I know it, we all know. And if you don't think you know then you don't know what you think. Because I am a pretty pink butterfly.

[PonyOne]

But I don't think I know what I know, I am quite firm in knowing what I know I truly do know.

You think you know what you know but in fact you do not know for a fact what you think you know for a fact, in a purely factual sense. You've never played electric.

[iiholly]

dfakljdflkjdsflkajdsf;lkjs. What? How do you know? Maybe I have, but I haven't. I'm going to try it, but I don't I'm not a very hardcore rock type person so i don't think i'll be able to handle it.

[Lordathestrings]

Originally posted by iiholly
...I'm not a very hardcore rock type person so i don't think i'll be able to handle it. uuuhh... since when is electric guitar a purely hardcore rock thing???

[iiholly]

since when must every1 patronize me. I'm tired. *curls up in corner and dies*

[Lordathestrings]

patronizing? I started on acoustics, and two of my current set of five are acoustic. And I use fairly heavy strings (.011-.046 & .012-.052) on my electrics because I tend to play them like acoustics.

Acoustics don't dominate. Neither do electrics. They're different voices in the same choir.

[iiholly]

Acoustic dominates.

[u10ajf]

Originally posted by iiholly
Maybe I have, but I haven't played electric. I'm going to try it, but I don't I'm not a very hardcore rock type person so i don't think i'll be able to handle it.

It's not that hard, in fact it's much easier than acoustic, the strings are thinner, the strings closer together and generally nearer the fretboard. Going back to acoustic can feel like playing a bass guitar to me!
You don't have to play balls to the walls distortion stuff, electric lets you do fingerstyle stuff but with the added bonus of (when you've practised it a while) adding tapping to your runs. A bit of chorus and reverb sounds beautiful with an electric.

[Dr_simon]

I think there are many reasons why so many people in the music industry are poopooheads is to do with the fact that there are a lot of poopooheads on the planet (I can sympathize with Hobbs’s take on human nature)!

Several observations:

Often it is the lowest common denominator prevails, look at popular music.

As we are dealing with opinion there is no correct answer or even a testable hypothesis there for opinion is paramount.

The self opinionated (who shout loudest) often refuse to see any one else’s point regardless of how intelligent or relevant it is.

Many people believe they will appear cool of the appear to be indifferent to potentially exciting things and or hurt / dominate people smaller than they are.

Where there is money to be made, there will allways be sharks !

Im not bitter honest !!!