Ben! Noooo!!
I was making jokes! No sarcasm intended at all :) I'm so sorry, I thought you would join in with some jokes too.
Its not a dumb question, its actually a really good one. its one of the fundamental concepts of mixing - being able to pick and choose many elements of your mix and treat them as one element.
The fact that you asked the question in the first place means (in my opinion) you're thinking about exactly the right things in terms of mixing.
Setting up multiple submixes (eg one for drums, one for bass, one for all guitars etc) gives you really great control over your mix.
As for dumb questions, there are no dumb questions (becasue i already asked them all!)
Oh man, I gotta work on my sense of humour.
Sorry Ben :)