Guitar Technician - Bass Guitar Technician

Bass Guitar Technician

Bass guitar 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.