Church worship analog direct to PA pedalboard - youtube demo

Knocked up a quick demo up for an enquiring friend - I have quite the wacky setup. Quasi-stereo, neck and bridge PUs on separate sends.

Essentially does away from toe tapping and knob fiddling... the volume pedal does all the work. Pickup/pedal/signal chain details in the info panel on youtube.

C3fn6XVVmwo

Interesting setup. Not sure it would work for me, but certainly out of the box thinking.

Very interesting, I like it.

So you have the neck p/u going through a clean signal path and the bridge p/u through a dirty signal path. You mention there's no switch on the guitar. Does the middle p/u get used at all?

This is a bit reminiscent of how I use my Peavey hybrid guitars. The piezo circuit goes through its own multi-FX unit, while the magnetic p/u's go through a modeler/multi-FX unit with a built-in volume pedal. When I have the guitar set to the "both position, the "acoustic" sound is on and I can pedal in the electric side. I use this a lot. Since I'm the only guitarist in our worship team, I can have a nice clean acoustic sound on the verse and bring in an over-driven electric sound on top of it during the chorus.

BuckyB... that's pretty much the idea, except I don't need to double an acoustic sound. My setup is more like layering clean and dirty elec guitars. Fwiw, pedals with inbuilt blend knobs (ala Sparkledrive) didn't do it for me as I didn't want clean and dirt coming from the same pickup.

Extra tonal texture was the original intention of going this 'dual-mono' route, but I soon realised a bigger advantage it provided was the freedom to not toe tap, or reach for volume knobs and pickup selectors, so that I'm engaging with the congregation and band, not my rig (I do both worship lead and MD). I'll still hit another midboosted dirt pedal (bridge PU channel) for single-note lines that need to stand out, but again I can reign it all back instantly and just have the chimey neck PU coming through.

Right now, the middle position is just a cover, no pickup. Though I have used a switch and middle PU before, to place in parallel with either the neck (more clean options) or bridge (more dirt options), but I've found it less essential. I may still go back to one yet...

Hey tjalla,

I like your approach very much. I'm currently not involved in the worship "goings-on" where we're at, so I've been really thinkin' trying to figure out some of these "problems" we encounter while playing during worship.

I recently came across another fellow worshiper/player using an "ah-ha" setup that allows him to make quite alot of sound layers/textures etc plus sound-on-sound playing and such. Quite interesting albeit much more of a "gear heavy" approach. I'm not sure I'm ready to involve that much stuff to accomplish what I would need... but it has its merits.

I didn't see that you mentioned how you were getting your tones and/or how you were putting it into the system? Only that your title states "analog" and pedal board. Do you care to share your gear setup and amp simulation source... it does sound smooth and natural, very amplike?

Also, when you recorded this clip, how were you recording the sound? Just curious if you were standing there in your church sanctuary playing through the PA, where you captured the sound simply to a camcorder: video & sound or how ??? Lastly, what is that pup in your bridge position... a mini-HB?

Just an inquiring mind. Thanks for the clip and take care.

Jason G in Amarillo, TX

Hey Jason,

All setup/recording info here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3fn6XVVmwo

Gearwise, it doesn't need to be quite as involved as my setup, that's just extra toys for fun... essentially what you want is:

1. Something with speaker emulation - be it the pedals or the DI box, and
2. A pair of preamps and/or pedals (they don't have to be the same) with at least treble/bass controls to compensate for the fact that you have no amp to tweak EQ. If one pedal is especially dynamic/reactive to input levels, that is a bonus - for the bridge PU. This is why I use Menatones.
3. A stereo jack and cable

You could conceivably setup this rig with a pair of Bad Monkeys (using the mixer out) and a Behringer DI. All for under $100.

Or you can mic your amp if it has two inputs, and you don't need to go direct-to-PA.

Optional Add-ons:
4. Volume pedal - for manipulating bridge PU (if you don't want to use the guitar vol)
5. Tuner
6. Delay with stereo in and out (if you're after the contemporary gospel sound)
7. Anything else to add space/texture/dirt to taste...

That was recorded sitting at home at 2am in front of my Mac, direct to iMovie, with wife and baby asleep in the next room :cool:

tjalla,

Hey thanks! Well, that seems simple enough. I think only a worship player would really know and appreciate the ability to do all this and NOT be tap-dancing and fiddling around, bending over messing with gear. I'm really surprised at the tone you're getting out of the Menatone stuff... definitely real sounding and pleasant. I've looked at and listened to a bunch of clips of the Menatone King of the Britains and Working Man Blues, but not the TBiC. I'll definitely try one out. Thanks again! BTW, I dig your other video clip on youtube! What is that big hollow box you got there? Good sounds, AND the brief tele appearance!:grin:

take care, Jason G

Hey thanks Jas,

I dig the menatones because they aren't transparent. They definitely colour your sounds and get a convincing amp-vibe. And I've owned an AC15 with the Celestion Blue. The TBIAC is more than respectable. I also have a Workingman's Blue which is excellent for fat solo lines.

Yea, that's my '66 Gibson ES-330, through my Tone King Comet 40B... *greeeaat* blues combo.