A guide to getting a sound and trouble shooting
A good sound starts from the fingers, through the pick-up to the guitar and out. If you dont start there, youre spinning in circles and end up with a transparent (fuzzy) sound without body and response. Your fingers are your tone generators. Not the amps or pedals. Those are tools to augment your expression. Thats what guitar lessons teach you, not teaching you a song without teaching you, and guiding you in technique.
And, if you learn a thing or two about trouble shooting on the fly, youll go down the line to find the problem with your rig. The same goes for finding your sound. When establishing your sound you start with your technique, through the pick-up on down to the amp. With trouble shooting on stage, you should start with the amp and go down the line back to you, which makes sense. Since youve established your rig set up. As youre trying to fix what was working, you back track.
This saves time and controls moods, besides the over all situations under control. Then, if and when you need to use a stage tech, youll have a template in which to explain what it is you require from the person you hire....