Tones for Praise & Worship

I'm trying to get that modern tone for church. So far I'm realizing it's almost a British, U2-sounding, Vox AC30 type tone. The main effects are a slight distortion, delay, and sometimes volume swells. It seems that for most sounds a pickup switch set to middle is appropriate. Any of tips for getting that modern, trendy tone? I'm specifically wondering what EQ settings everyone uses.

This isn't necessarily what I use, but here is the "typical" modern worship lead guitar setup.

Tele, middle position

Into a tube screamer of sorts

Into something more gritty, like a ToneBone or OCD

Into a chorus or vibrato

Into a tremolo

Into a volume pedal

Into a dotted-eighth delay

(insert another delay here if desired)

Into a deep reverb of some sort

Into an AC style amp (Vox, Morgan, etc...)

-Feel free to substitute a POD for everything but the guitar

My setup:

Tele fmt hh, bridge

Fulltone Fulldrive 2 fm

Radial Tonebone British

Line 6 m13

Blues junior

My amp settings I use are (from 1-12):
Volume: 3
Channel: Fat
Treble: 8
Bass: 5
Middle: 9
Master: 2
Reverb: 3

I am in the middle of worship tone quest also. My Korg AX1500 multi-effects pedal is not winning approval straight into the PA. I guess I will run the pedal into a tube amp and mic that into the PA. Any other suggestions?

My rig....PRS Custom 24 into an Area 51 Wah->Keeley Compressor->Keeley Overdrive->Sparkle Drive(TS Tone)->Boss Chorus->Boss Trem->Echo Park(dotted 1/8)-> DL4 (dalay and swells)-> Verbzilla->

All into a POD XT( Dbl Verb/ 4-12 greenback cab sim) then to the board
or
All into Marshall Haze Combo for arena type stuff

For me, nothing says Praise Christ like a ring-modulator through a dimed solid-state Randall set to Hallelujah! Volume pedal set to minimal sweep for consideration.

I'm trying to get that modern tone for church. So far I'm realizing it's almost a British, U2-sounding, Vox AC30 type tone. The main effects are a slight distortion, delay, and sometimes volume swells. It seems that for most sounds a pickup switch set to middle is appropriate. Any of tips for getting that modern, trendy tone? I'm specifically wondering what EQ settings everyone uses.

You've pretty much got it there. I see so many guys using an Ac30 with a Tele or a Gretsch (usually on bridge pup) - then 1 or 2 OD flavors - buckets of delay (minimum of 2 delays, have even seen as many as 4 on a single board for different things) - Reverb pedal with a "modulate" mode, and you've got your Hillsong/Chris Tomlin/Paul Bolche/Fee/many many more tone.

For me, nothing says Praise Christ like a ring-modulator through a dimed solid-state Randall set to Hallelujah! Volume pedal set to minimal sweep for consideration.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might!

I think worshipkid and jammerman pretty much summed it up! With a setup like that, you can sound like 98% of the Christian artists out there today.

I've been doing this for a few years, and don't like re-creating the sounds of others so I find something I like and make it the best I can. Right now I use an SG with a Nobles ODR1, TS5, DM2 into a small modded Champ with a V30. (Actually it is a HELLatone V30 that someone told me I should cover up so no one sees it.) Make it your own and just go with it.

Lots of advice about rigs, which look about right. But what about the hands? Watch youtube videos, and see what they are doing. Lots of tone comes from both hands, not even to mention the 6 inches between the ears.

Interesting side note: my co-guitarist in our P&W band has a rig that pretty much allows him to get that "modern worship" tone. But his playing style is more SRV, so guess what he *always* sounds like? I play a tele into a BJr, middle pickup mostly, amp and guitar EQed for that more British tone (the BJr EL34's certainly help with that). And I grew up listening to the Edge. So guess what I sound like, even without all those delays? When we are messing around and trade rigs, guess what? We still both pretty much sound like ourselves....

I've been doing this for a few years, and don't like re-creating the sounds of others so I find something I like and make it the best I can..

Spot on mate!
I like the sound of your setup too, something "fresh"

Here's a subtle twist on that modern tone, compressor cranked into a chorus, neck pickup, and roll back your guitar's tone. Every hair band used that on their clean settings... it's kinda retro 80's but run this into your rig drenched with delay and verb and you got a sound that's recognizable but not the same as everyone else. Unless we all start using it...

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might!

Hey, that's my signature.

FWIW, I used the Mesa clean & Fender Twin clean models in my Boss GT-Pro today, along with piezos straight to the PA.

My rig: '69 Thinline RI (Dimarzio AreaT neck and ToneZone T Bridge, 1M pots) >CTO1>Hardwire DL8>Digitech Main Squeeze compressor>Egnater Rebel 30 combo, set on EL84s. I used a Vox ToneLab LE for years. The trick to MFX units is tweaking, tweaking, tweaking.

Went for a spell with just the CTO1 and Rebel 30 with pretty happy results.

The bottom line is, no matter what you play, if it's not an extension of the worship in your heart it would be better left unplayed.

Listen to any CCLI top 100 and you would swear that every guitarist went to the Edge school of guitar playing. The delay is always nice to cover up mistakes. :) Lots of guitarists just set up something Edge sounding and they're done. I personally change my setup for every single song. From a brash British Invation bridge driving sound (used this morning for Sing Sing Sing), to heavy distortion to....well, yah, I use 3 different versions of The Edge on my FX pedal. I tend to put in what's needed to add to the song and to stay away from whatever the acoustic guy is playing. I also tend to use different guitars everytime I play at a service. Each set is different and the overall tone determines what I play. If we come back for a closing song, I may switch guitars during the down time (unless I am lazy and just don't want to lug in 2 guitars).

The delay is always nice to cover up mistakes.

Actually, delay is very unforgiving. Try arpeggiating with a trailing rhythmic delay, then just play an odd note in the middle of it. Keeps you on your toes...

my guitar partner in our p&w band plays a les paul and likes "the edge" sort of stuff but with a very dark, heavier distortion. so i play a tone that will "layer" on his, paying little attention to the sounds of the recordings. play what's in the room fellas !

my set-up: vox pathfinder volume 3/4, gain 3/4,treble 3/4, bass 1/2, no reverb or trem. tele bridge pickup. volume at 7/10, tone at 1/2 for straight rhthym (shifting from fingers to pick depending on the song), rockier sound: tele controls go as near max as necessary to achieve tonal/volume balance with the other instruments, but always leaning to the "cutting" side. think don rich with a extra scoop of bite. pretty "ice picky" for most guys but it fits our room.

delay is always nice to cover up mistakes

I always thought dirt covers up mistakes. Delay just gives you what you give it. It allows you to play less but I've never heard about them effectively covering up mistakes. If you make a mistake with a delay on your going to head it more than once.

i forgot my pedals: dano fab echo used maybe 2/3 of the time. early '80s ibanez chorus that sat there for about two months until i finally used it for one song yesterday, which fit quite well.

i have borrowed many pedals from a good chum who has bags of them, including various reverb/delay pedals (the pathfinder reverb is only ok, and that at lower volumes). but i was never able to really get what i wanted from any of them ( reverb/echo effect, but tone remains exactly the same) until i tried the dano, which i then bought new, amazingly, for like $15.00. maybe the cheapie circuit design just doesn't impede your signal or something, i don't know, but when i get that "one step into dirty" bite this thing just adds depth without subtracting anything. of course, it could be that all those more expensive (my chum is single, no kids,well off,and only buys the best) pedals were simply smarter than me and i couldn't figure out how to get what i wanted.

More than anything recently my sound engineer, a paid professional who spent time on the tour circuits out of Nashville, has helped me better define my sound to sit properly in the mix and stand out when needed. He's also a guitar player, so he gets it. Some of the the amp settings he recommends I would not get to myself, but sound great in our rehearsal recordings.

Spot on mate!
I like the sound of your setup too, something "fresh"

I'll second that! There's enough Christian music that all sounds the same. No point adding to it. Finding something fresh sounds like a good plan. Finding something that sounds like you would be even better.

For me, I play to the song: there's no 'one' position. Different pickup selection, OD or not, chorus or not, reverb or not. Whatever suits the song. It's amazing what you can do just with your hands.

More than anything recently my sound engineer, a paid professional who spent time on the tour circuits out of Nashville, has helped me better define my sound to sit properly in the mix and stand out when needed. He's also a guitar player, so he gets it. Some of the the amp settings he recommends I would not get to myself, but sound great in our rehearsal recordings.

That's great. Can you share some of his techniques for dialing in your sound?

The Chris Tomlin/Hillsong United vibe is ALL about british amps, OD and delay. A lot of dotted eighths, lots of volume swells. Here's an overlooked one though: a lot of times for leads, this style uses an pedal to add an octave down (I believe usually BEFORE it hits the OD). You hear that on some Tomlin tones, the instrumental before the bridge on United's Hosanna, etc. As for pickup selection, it's gonna vary from part to part. Everyone adds their own unique style to this overall "genre", if you will.

Now, interesting enough, I think the new worship bands we're gonna be seeing in the next couple of years aren't necessarily going to be following these trends. I think we'll be seeing a post-modern, less polished, hipster-folk, worship trend infused with this like Needtobreathe and Future of Forestry style. We're already seeing some of it with Gungor....

I'll second that! There's enough Christian music that all sounds the same. No point adding to it. Finding something fresh sounds like a good plan. Finding something that sounds like you would be even better.

For me, I play to the song: there's no 'one' position. Different pickup selection, OD or not, chorus or not, reverb or not. Whatever suits the song. It's amazing what you can do just with your hands.

+3 on this one..theres so many guitars and pedals in the market. What you do and what sound/tone is good for you matters the most. Copying christian guitarists tone will not make you a better guitar player. Since some have different tone values they use on their own playing. Do you think lincoln brewster sounds the same like nigel hendroff. Lincoln is just using a line 6 HD500(i think) and hendroff is to a large pedalboard. Different gear, different sound. But they still manage to pull it off every worship session. Worship and pray first, next is (your own tone), then have fun. Dont frustrate your self with tone. Be yourself. :)

Getting the "U2" tone is easy. I just hit the switch on my "pedal board" that says "U2.":cool:

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j323/christhee68/DSCN4001.jpg

When working with new preachers there is often a time that they come across a commentary or someone else's sermon, or theme and they copy it or use it verbatim with or without attribution. I don't consider this wrong or right but a chance to remind them that they are called with a voice of their own and messages of their own. I would say the same to musicians. You have a unique style, that is your gift and your burden. Use it. Be different, its ok. Look at all the different colors that exist in the forest. Look at all the different stars in the night sky. He loves diversity. Be diverse and give what you have received.

My tone is pretty much tele middle position tone rolled back into the amp of the day (cyber deluxe set on 19 no reverb, Dean Markley CD20 clean channel, Music Man RD50 Dirty channel reverb at 3, Bassman RI LTD) with maybe a wah pedal. And in the smaller church I went to it was often a Digitech RP250 into the board, using the bassman sim, with a tiny amount of delay and reverb.

When working with new preachers there is often a time that they come across a commentary or someone else's sermon, or theme and they copy it or use it verbatim with or without attribution. I don't consider this wrong or right but a chance to remind them that they are called with a voice of their own and messages of their own. I would say the same to musicians. You have a unique style, that is your gift and your burden. Use it. Be different, its ok. Look at all the different colors that exist in the forest. Look at all the different stars in the night sky. He loves diversity. Be diverse and give what you have received.


AMEN!!!! but I would say when 70% of the preacher's sermons are rip offs of others' sermons or books, in lieu of originality, or because it proved successful for someone else, its not right. says the man who quoted a previous post :\

I've been doing this for a few years, and don't like re-creating the sounds of others so I find something I like and make it the best I can. Make it your own and just go with it.

+3 on this one.. What you do and what sound/tone is good for you matters the most.

+++ Now, can I get an AMEN?

IMO its a balancing act between authentically being yourself with your gift onstage vs serving the team, congregation and of course God. The ideal place is the juncture where this happens without compromise.

Sometimes I feel the whole "my tone" in a P&W team context can be made to be a bigger thing than it is.

I've learned alot from actually trying to cop CD tones as closely as possible - just like we oft do in non-religious contexts. This gives me a better understanding why things work in different arrangements, song styles etc.

I think its presumptuous to merely superimpose an existing outlook on music/style/tone onto another, without at least checking out the what/why/how of the original artists. Get that down, play it in a service and in context, and from there adapt and contribute with what you have that adds to the music.

The problem is when we don't strive to take things beyond re-creating sounds of others.

Our band has gone from trying to play it "just like the record" to "lets do our own version" mainly because we don't have the same voices, instrumentation, etc.

Copying the actual tones of a song shouldn't be that important. The sermon this week began with the priest talking about how the music is supposed to be the "word of God, not the horn section of God." The music is a means to deliver the words (Word).

I've got a pretty monster pedalboard that allows me to get similar tones to alot of my favorite players - it's kind of "Eric Johnson-meets-Pink Floyd-meets-Van Halen-meets-Rush."
Most leads are in the EJ "Violin Tone" range.
Rhythms I use a Wampler Ecstasy with a Durham Zia Drive to boost it on choruses, which has a nice, flat EQ that stays out of the way of the vocals.
In a bypass loop I have a Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe and an EVH Phase 90 when we want to go high gain.
I've got a Nova Delay to handle dotted eight songs, though we try not to overdo that sound. My primary delays are a Strymon El Capistan (with a favorite switch so I can get two different sounds) and I have a Deluxe Memory Man in a bypass loop that I use for ethereal stuff.
Also got a Fulltone '70 Fuzz, which is great to hit on the last chord of songs - sounds HUGE.
Clean leads I have an Xotic EP Booster - if I need a little more gain and compression I hit an Andy Timmons BB Preamp.
My amp is a Line6 Flextone III, set to a Fender Twin sound with a touch of compression - it's got all these other amp models, but none sound as good as the Twin setting and my pedals.

I kind of try and find a balance between capturing some of the originals sound, but putting my own spin as well.

Right now I'm playing a single, just me and a Gibson acoustic into the church sound system. That's when you find out whether you've got tone or not. :mrgreen:

With a worship band I go with my normal ol' rock and blues settings. I know they sound good, so I don't mess with success. So, what do you use to rock? :?:

Currently I'm using a 75 watt line 6 amp with onboard effects. This week or next I will bring my pedal board in to compare. My boards consists of a boss tu3, danelectro daddy-o over drive, rouge analog delay, ehx small clone, and rouge tremelo. I will be putting a flanger in there soon. I have a phaser but it isn't grabbing me to well.

I mostly play a Squier Bullet hardtail Strat into a Dano drive pedal (the plastic-box one) into a Roland Cube 30. The pickups are an SSH set of ultra-low-output VintageVibes. I usually leave the Roland on the Brit Combo setting with a fair deal of reverb or a little delay, volume about half and drive about two-thirds. Guitar volume a bit below halfway to about three-quarters. The Squier is wired funny (a HUGE thanks to our own Deaf-Eddie for wiring it up to work the way I wanted!), and I get a tone sort of like SRV playing his Strats into Santana's setup. I've been swapping around with dual-bucker guitars, too, and that's more like Carlos' sound with early EC in it. BTW, I have much "better" guitars and amps (Hamer, Lindert, Industrial, Washburn, all USA) (Custom Coupe 36), and they're great, but this does the job right now. I don't care what anybody sounds like or how they do their songs; I'm just trying to find my own voice and use it. A lot of the stuff we play I've never heard before. The leader likes what I do and sometimes people compliment my playing. I guess it's good enough, and I'm satisfied I'm doing something clean that honors my Creator.

I play one of a few MIM teles (all with different pickups) straight into a Vox VT30, I only use three settings: clean, clean with tremolo, and warm. There's a decent amount of reverb, but not so much that individual notes get muddy. The rest of the coloring I do with the knobs on the guitar, the attack of the pick (or my fingers), and good ol' dynamics. I try to keep my tone fiddlin' to what's strapped around my shoulder, I like the idea of taking a simple guitar and putting it to use as elegantly and honestly as I can in a P&W setting.

modern trendy tone is the tones that come from the fingers you were given

WHAT? Am I the only guy going after that AC/DC meets Zeppelin with a bit of Rush's Alex lifeson thrown in? from what i've seen: YES.

As long as the congregation can sing on top of it and be inspired at the same time - all is well.

Tele or telemaster ,Orange Squeezer,Red LLama,TC Elect Dig Delay Pro Jr.
that's it sometimes i split into two with a TC Chorus

Hi guys....I only have one pedalboard, and I use it for everything from church to jamming with friends to my other band practice. But for church, our worship band is very much piano driven, and the guitars are there to just add some color. I don't typically listen to CCM, so I have no idea if I am getting their sound or not. But I play my Gretsch 5120 through my board into a SS fender amp that goes into the soundboard. My pedalboard is a boss tu3 tuner and 3 clone pedals that I built myself. A ts808, an 80's proco rat, and a boss ce2 chorus. Occasionally I'll add my modded crybaby.

Our old team leader was from the jazz/gospel school and BIG into improv. He was a blast to play with. Our new leader is more of a play it how its written guy. One isn't better than the other, they are just different (although I miss the improv sometimes)

Matt



117518

WHAT? Am I the only guy going after that AC/DC meets Zeppelin with a bit of Rush's Alex lifeson thrown in? from what i've seen: YES.

As long as the congregation can sing on top of it and be inspired at the same time - all is well.

Sorry, my favorite worship sound is the "Keith Richards '73 meets Early Pete Townshend combined with just a hint of Carlos Santana and Muddy Waters". NOT that there's anything wrong with your Young-Page-Lifeson recipe.

Oh, and I never did find a church around here that thought that sounded interesting!

I'm going for Eddie-inspired muted arpeggios on a song tomorrow. It cracks me up sometimes when I think about how many of the kids on our teams weren't born yet when I saw EVH in '79.

It depends upon the song.

The only effects I use are tremolo and boost. I use the trem for (This is the Air I) Breathe, Come to Jesus - very much a Delta swamp sound, Long Way Home, and Better is One Day.

For lead tones I use the Tele bridge pup with the tone control rolled way back and engage the tube boost. It's the lead tone used by Steve Cropper on many of those old R&B hits or by Jimmy Page on Stairway to Heaven. The exception to this is Lord We Need Your Touch, in which I do pedal steel bends.

For clean rhythm I use either the middle (Strat) pup or the bridge/neck combo. No boost.

For dirty or chunky rhythm or dark lead tones I use boost and the neck or neck/bridge combo. I use this lead tone sometimes for the 12-bar songs.

I think worshipkid and jammerman pretty much summed it up! With a setup like that, you can sound like 98% of the Christian artists out there today.
I don't want to sound like 98% of the Christian artists out there.
I don't even know what they sound like anyway, since I don't listen to any of them.


BTW, here's our set list for Sunday March 9, 2012:

Liftin'
Invitation Fountain
Lord, We Need Your Touch
Breathe
Long Way Home
Better Than a Hallelujah
I Will Lift My Hands
Mystery of Love
Jesus is a Rock
Come to Jesus
Revelation Song

Syncopated trem on Better Is One Day is a wonderful thing.

Anyone using a Line6 POD X3 Live to achieve these tones?

Mine depends on the service I'm playing at, 9:00 service has mostly older members so I try to keep it mostly clean and give it a nice chicken pickin' twang since most don't like overdrive/rock. the Saturday night and 10:30 services I use a fair amount of overdrive mostly and go for a more modern rock sound, given that my tele sounds muddy with overdrive, I generally switch to my PRS for those.