They are vastly different skill sets (with some overlap) (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Wednesday, February 08, 2017, 22:06 (2890 days ago) @ Cody Miller

That being said, I've never known a truly skilled and trustworthy guitar tech who didn't also play at least passably well, because it informs your work as a technician. Guitar players often struggle to describe the problems they are having with their instruments, but because I can play myself, I can interpret what they are trying to describe and make the necessary adjustments.

I think you're undermining your argument. The really good players can tell you what is wrong, no matter now minute. Like this is off, it should sound / respond this way.

Not true. They can usually get half way there, but are often clueless when it comes to determining what is causing the problem.

I'll give you a common example: Almost every day, I'll have a customer come in the door and say to me "Hey I need to buy a new set of machine heads for my guitar". I'll say "sure... out of curiosity, why do you want new machine heads?" And almost every single time, they'll respond "well my guitar isn't staying in tune very well".

And almost every time, they're dead wrong. Not about the guitar going out of tune faster than it should, but about the cause and solution. 99 times out of 100, it is not the machine heads that cause tuning problems with a guitar. But players make that assumption all the time, because it is the most obvious line to trace for someone who hasn't learned about the technical side of the instrument.

That's a very basic example, but it holds true for more nuanced issues as well. Sometimes even more so. The more subtle the problem, the more convoluted the actual solution can be. It involves the kind of technical knowledge about the instrument that most players never learn.

Some players do learn those skill, though. Just as some technicians are also fantastic players. But that is the exception, not the rule.

If they were a beginner, they would not even know something is wrong. They are the most in tune with the instrument, so when they have a problem it's a real problem. They don't necessarily need to know how to fix it.

So this is something that I mostly agree with. But we're not just talking about "being able to tell that something is wrong". That's not where a game designer's job ends. They need to be able to identify what works and what doesn't, AND know how to fix or create it. While I do think it is beneficial for somebody who works as a PvP designer to be at least decently skilled as a player, they don't need to be top tier or anything like that.

I have customers who run into problems with their guitars while playing certain riffs or using techniques that are way beyond my ability to play... so I just put the guitar in their hands, watch them play it, and spot the problem myself when it happens. In most cases, the problem ends up being something different than what the player thinks it is. They might say "hey I'm getting fret buzz on this one string on this one fret". So I check the frets, but they're all level. So I hand them the guitar and say "show me". I watch them play and discover that there is a rattle, but it's happening because they're moving their pickup selector switch to a different position at a certain point in a solo, and the switch itself is rattling in that position. Or maybe I discover that they are getting fret buzz because they are playing an electric guitar unplugged, so they're hitting the strings way harder than they should be just so they can hear themselves. Those are all the kinds of issues that I can trace and nail down in part because I'm a player and my knowledge as a player informs me, but mostly because I'm trained as a technician.