What pedals do I need for Worship - Part 4

OK so we've looked at this issue before, but here's my Spring 2015 updates and thoughts on pedals for worship. Fundamentally, as someone wrote in a post on a guitar forum, good tone is good tone in any context! And yes, strictly speaking you don't need any pedals!

Who am I anyway? Well, I'm grateful to God that he's opened the door for me to play lead guitar (and bass) at church on a regular basis; play at conferences; lead worship at churches and ministries and lead guitar at other events. I'm no superstar, just a regular guy called by God (just like you, the reader, or woman of God) - so hopefully my experience in playing in worship over 15 years or so can help you! And feel free to add your thoughts so you can help me!

My latest thoughts are these...

For worship I'd say that you want these things:

1. A tube amp.

2. An overdrive pedal and maybe another different one (e.g. a tubescreamer based one and a transparent based one - eg. I have Fulltone Fulldrive and Visual Sound Open Road). Or an overdrive pedal and a booster pedal.

3. A delay pedal, especially one with a tap tempo or the ability to add a tap tempo pedal.

4. A reverb pedal that does various levels of reverb

5. A volume pedal.

These are the basics and will enable you to play most songs. Yes, there are other pedals you can get. But these are the basics.

What else could I get that I may use?

1. A compressor.

2. A tremolo.

3. A POG.

4. A wah-wah pedal.

5. A chorus pedal.

6. Possibly even a whammy pedal.

So should I get separates or a multi-fx unit?

Aha! This is a well-asked question and I guess this depends on a few factors...

1. How do you personally feel about the tone? Do you find a multi-fx good enough or prefer separates? I have found that very often in life, it's how I feel (and not how others feel) that matters. If you feel good about what you're playing (as long as you're not totally deceived!) that really helps free you to play.

2. Does your church allow amps on stage or do they have a policy of no amps? If no amps, maybe a multi-fx with an XLR out is the way to go.

3. My pedalboard is fine but the case is a beast that needs lugging! A multi-fx is small, simple and light! How I often wish for something small and light. Strangely, I've also had the odd unhelpful comment about the size of the pedalboard from those who don't understand and this has sometimes made me a bit self conscious.

4. The overdrives and amp modelling, even in things like the latest Line6 series (currently the HD500X / Pro or Firehawk FX) still don't quite match the actual tone of separates / amps.

5. If you think about your church, 95% of people won't be able to tell between your separates and your (even dated) multi-FX!

6. Do you like playing around and being able to create / download new tones on the multi-fx unit or via software on your computer or device? Or do you prefer the simplicity of separates?

7. Do you need the ability to record quickly and directly? If so, maybe a multi-FX will help.

8. What do you already have? I spoke to some guys in a music shop and they listened to what pedals I had on my board and said - keep them - ahead of getting a Line6 HD500X.

So what's my next pedalboard move?!

I've found that I don't use one of my overdrive pedals at all. So that's going to be going. This is going to be replaced with a compressor which I will use for compression, sustain and boost depending on the situation and need. The compressor will sit after the overdrives.

I've also found that while I love my one delay pedal, the need to hold down the pedal for 2-3 seconds to engage or disengage is just a pain and actually impacts the ability to use it. So that's going, maybe to be replaced, maybe not.

I have two reverbs on my board and this is just excessive in my view. So at least one of them is going, probably both of them and coming on board will be a Strymon Bluesky. I may even consider getting a Zoom MS70 which does reverb, delay and other effects. It's not the greatest pedal but its ability to do more than one thing interests me.

Finally, the daisy chain is fine for what it is but not ideal and does add some kind of noise recently - so I'll be replacing this with a Voodoo Power Plus 2 which isolates each power supply (instead of daisy chaining them).

And I am also considering whether to keep say one of the overdrive pedals, sell everything else and buy an HD500X - it's compact, small, light and will do everything I need it to do - for electric, bass and acoustic. I do have the Zoom G3X but to me at least it's not enough or quite good enough. To be honest, I don't think the HD500X or the M9 quite cut it. Maybe I just need to downsize the pedalboard case!!

What Pedals Do I Need For Worship Lead Guitar, Part 3 - June 2014 Update

NB. Part 4 can be found here...

Not much has changed on the pedalboard but thought it may be worth a quick photo of the pedalboard actually updated and all wired in...

The pedalboard from bottom start to end of chain is...

1. Open Road Overdrive
2. Fulltone Full Drive 2
3. Smooth Blues Driver by Volt Co
4. Korg Tuner
5. Volume Pedal
6. Boss DD7 Digital Delay (with mini tap tempo pedal)
7. Hardwire DL8 Delay
8. Hardwire RV7 Reverb
9. TC Electronic Hall Of Fame Reverb

I had to change the power supply and johnnyshredfreak no longer makes power supplies as yet another pointless EU law has meant his perfectly safe power supplies are no longer allowed. Grrr...

So it was replaced by an equivalent -  the Visual Sound 1 Spot. It's not the equally good Diago Powerstation which many use but similar and cost around the £25 mark. It's been very reliable so would recommend a Diago or similar if you have only a few pedals and don't feel it's worth spending for the Dunlop Brick or Voodoo Pedal Power etc.

All of the pedals are attached with the 'stronger than velcro', er, velcro... The downside is that on pedals with rubber undersides (the Hardwire ones for example), the velcro loses its effectiveness as it doesn't hold to the underside of the pedal. Therefore I bought some cable ties, drilled through the board part and strapped the pedals on around where the light is.

I also adjusted the volume pedal so that the volume goes from fully off to fully on (this isn't the case by default and just requires a quick and easy adjustment).

So that's the latest lowdown if it helps anyone or anyone's interested !!

Oh and other pedals I've thought of adding... Well I do find the hold and tap 'tap tempo' on the Hardwire Delay a little frustrating although the actual sound is great. A DL4 would be amazing for this. And maybe a compressor, but fundamentally I'm more than happy with the sound.

Worship Guitar Pedal board update May 2012

Here's an update to my pedal board and setup, May 2012

(There is an update to this - here)

This is simply here just as I love to share any 'wisdom' (!!) or tips I have learned from many sources. Of course the main source for guitar, pedals and life is God - my main passion and aim in life!

The question is often asked which pedals to have on your pedalboard as part of your worship 'lead guitar' pedal setup. We have another post that looked at this in some detail, but this is an update post with some refinements as to what I'm currently using and why!

So the latest pedalboard setup... (apologies for grainy pic!)

First up is still the Visual Sound Open Road. This does what it says on the tin and is a transparent overdrive. I tend to use this for more 'beefy' sounds as it does that really well. So if I'm hitting power chords then this tends to be the go-to sound. It's set with a low overdrive sound but still has plenty bite, esp when using the guitar volume control which will boost the overdrive!

Second we run into the awesome Fulltone Fulldrive 2. This is my lead sound and one for playing the riffs that really need to stand out. For more bite, there's the boost switch. I tend to have this on the 'vintage' setting with more mids in it to get the sound to cut through. I'll also switch to the bridge pickup on the Fender Strat Blacktop to give even more bite.

Third we wiggle our way into the quite awesome Smooth Blues Driver by the Volt Amp Company based in the UK. This tasty beast does some incredibly creamy blues overdrive (so called 'dumble drive' sound), similar apparently to a Zendrive. I think it's amazing and I use it for bluesy type stuff (in my very limited capacity!!) as well as using it simply as a boost pedal.

Fourth into the trusty tuner. Essential kit. Get a tuner and use it often :)

Then it's in to the volume pedal for swells and muting! Very useful pedal and under-rated I reckon!

Next we find our way to the Boss DD7 delay which has a tap pedal separately to tap the song tempo in and keep it in. Great pedal as it does dotted eighths, triplets, plus has a pretty nice 'analogue' and even 'modulate' delay setting which are cool.

The next in line is the Hardwire DL8 delay. This to me has a far nicer sound than even the Boss delay. The analogue sound is incredible. However, Digitech in their ultimate (lack of) wisdom decided not to allow a separate tap tempo (at least on my model) which is an obscene oversight in my humble opinion. Without it, you spend ages (relatively, 2 secs on and 2 secs to turn off) holding down the pedal to turn the delay off and on. But it brings ambient heaven when it is on!

Then we keep the Hardwire theme going with the RV7 reverb which again is capable of incredible sounds. I mainly use the modulate setting for ambience and iHop style heavenly sounds (well, the pedal is heavenly, my playing is where the problems start...) But this is very nice. It doesn't do 100% wet (so that means just reverb without any dry signal) but will be more than enough for most.

Finally, we end the chain with the lovely TC Electronic Hall of Fame reverb (this has its own pic as won't fit onto my old board). This is an amazing pedal with a number of great reverbs on it. I use mainly the church setting. But the HOF has an amazing trick or two up its sleeve, namely the ability to download new 'reverb settings' via the Tone Print option (OK, only one Tone Print reverb at a time) via USB - or with the ridiculously creative new Android or iPhone app which can change the signal using your phone... I use Andy from Pro Guitar shop's huge reverb or the multimod one which has around 7 options within the one toneprint ! Awesome!


So what else have I considered, tried, removed??

Well the Wah pedal had to go. Basically I didn't use it. Is there a use for 'wah in worship'? Yes of course and many use it for 'filtering' overdrive sounds to create a different kind of sound. But for me it just wasn't worth it. Used it playing 'Shackles' a couple times but wasn't used enough.

Also tried the Boss TR-2 tremolo pedal from a friend who has it on his board. This is a more useful pedal and can be used for songs like 'We Never Change' from Coldplay (OK so I know it's not a worship track, despite Chris Martin's Christian heritage!) And it does have its uses in worship - many people like it. I am tempted by one more 'modulation' type effect, but with a Fender Strat Blacktop, I do have the option of adding the 'tremolo bar' so a trem doesn't make that much sense for me!

Finally, I am in the long and arduous procedure of moving over my pedalboard to one I got very cheaply online from Flightcase Warehouse. It is admittedly a huge pedalboard with industrial levels of both size and protection... However, my previous 'Kinsman' one exploded all my pedals out onto my drive around midnight one night and although I temporarily put them back (using gaffa tape to strengthen the hinges!) I don't want to go back there!

So it's been a case of getting some leads off Weardale Electronics off ebay, some cable bases and cable ties to hold down power cables, some right angled daisy chains from johnnyshredfreak and some insanely strong 'pedalboard tape' stronger than velcro stuff off ebay.

So that's the update and I have a feeling this is as far as I'd like to go for now!
As you can see from the pic, the pedal board setup is slightly incomplete at the moment! But these are the parts and bits and bobs needed. I did consider drilling through the plywood insert inside the case and then using cable ties around the pedals to hold them on, but went for the velcro option in the end!

Other pedals I have considered

Thought about the Strymon Bluesky. Utterly awesome sound but at £250 or so, it's just too much for me. The same goes for the Eventide Pitchfactor. Incredible in so many ways but just such a high price! Then I'd possibly consider a compressor - even the Behringer one has good reviews. Finally a BBE Sonic Maximiser is another good idea.

Power Supplies

Sadly, due to yet another ridiculous law passed by the 'delight' that is the EU, the awesome power supplies that Johnnyshredfreak were selling are no longer available.

Your alternate options are varied. You can pay out for things like Voodoo Labs Pedal Power or Pedal Power 2 which will silently power away varied pedals with isolated individual outputs. Or there's the similar Dunlop Brick DCB-10 to do same, acting as a 'power conditioner', presumably because you're worth it.. Cheaper option is the Diago Powerstation (which is exactly like the original johnnyshredfreak one...) and this is also a great power supply.

If you're looking to power fewer pedals (say around 5 ish, tho you can usually add more), there is the Diago Micropower 9 which can support up to 6 pedals, or the Visual Sound 1 Spot 9v Combo Pack which supports up to 5 pedals. Both these two are very similar and both come with various adaptors to help you (daisy chain / battery connector adaptors etc).

I actually use a Visual Sound one to power a couple of Behringer pedals I use when playing acoustic guitar (I actually have the Behringer pedals in a Boss BCB-30 pedal board thing that looks like you're carrying a tool kit!).

They just about fit but due to the Behringer power being on the right of the pedal next to the input jack (bizarrely!) they can be a bit of a fiddle. But that's another story...!

Amps

Get a good amp first before you spend out on pedals. I can't emphasise this enough. Your amp is essential, even above your guitar (to some extent!) Save your money and buy a good tube amp. I have the Fender Blues Junior with various modifications to the tubes and the speaker. Or get a Vox AC15 which would be my number one choice of amp personally.

What about modeller type all-in-one pedalboards?

My personal preference has been to use individual stomp box type pedals. However, you may be someone who prefers the flexibility and portability of an individual all-in-one unit. The company to look to for this in my view is Line 6. The POD range has become a classic, with the top of the range model the HD modelling POD HD300, HD400 and HD500.

These are excellent and if you haven't bought a load of pedals and want something with upgradability via USB, flexibility and the ability to combine several sounds / create your own patches, I'd strongly advise considering this. Have a listen in a decent music shop and see what you think.

One thing it does provide is an easy to carry option! Its down side is that if it goes wrong, you'll lose all your pedals (on a board of separates, you can carry spare leads etc). But increasingly, some players prefer these. You'll probably have heard of the incredible Lincoln Brewster. He uses a modeller, or two for his sounds. I've also seen at least one guitarist at iHop (don't know his name but he's probably the best lead guitarist there) use a modeller (or at least a midi trigger board) hooked up to a Macbook Pro with some virtual amps.

Finally...

Keep practising guitar! Said it before and I'll say it again... And remember that God and his presence comes first, everything else follows!

What Guitar Pedals do I need in a Worship Band / setting?

OK so this is a question that is covered on t'internet quite a lot, but here's my 2 cents, pence etc for the mix.

But first up, your instrument is your main tool, so learn to play the guitar properly / as well as you can and keep learning! Really understand your guitar. Some resources include: Hal Leonard Guitar Method 1,2 &3 Complete Version, Fretboard Workout and similar books.

Ok so the best way to put this is to put what I have and then comment on it. So here's the (Sept 2011) order of the order of pedals on my pedalboard:

Note that there are 2 updates since this post.... Update 1 and Update 2

1. Wah Pedal. This can be a noisy beast, so I have a separate A/B pedal to switch off the wah out of the loop when not in use. This is clearly not essential in a worship band situation, but has some uses if you're playing a funky mix (we do 'Shackles' by Mary Mary etc). It is also used in some lead guitar parts, by setting a slight wah over the top of overdrive. But this is not essential at all !

2. Overdrives (and boosts if you choose. If you get a boost, decide if you want a volume boost or a boost to add gain / character. Your pedal placement will depend on this. Eg for more drive put just before or after your other overdrives).

Overdrive pedals (or distortion if you intend to play heavier stuff). I won't go into huge details about pedals (look around this site or the many others on the web or youtube etc). But basically it's good to have 2 overdrive pedals. You can set one to a fairly low amount of overdrive and the other to a higher overdrive - if you want! Some pedals have a 'boost' switch on them to naturally boost the overdrive (Fulldrive, Ice 9 etc).

I have the Visual Sound Open Road --> Fulltone Fulldrive 2. Some overdrives work better depending on which one is first / second etc so experiment. Other times, so pedals are more picky what they work with well - eg Fulltone OCD and Fulltone Fulldrive work great together. I use the Visual Sound first as it has a buffer (helps push the signal through if you have lots of pedals). I am looking to get either a boost or another overdrive. Reason is the fulltone is more of a tubescreamer pedal (admittedly with more options!!) The VS Open Road is a transparent pedal that keeps more of the 'bass' sound but I'd like to be able to drive this harder when using in a song. You can play harder (strum harder) or turn up the volume knob on the guitar to get more gain instead of a boost however.

3. Next is an Behringer EQ700 pedal (the only Behringer pedal I use, as they suck tone from your amp trust me!) This EQ pedal has many uses. Set your amp up first to get a good sound, but if you need to tweak, use the EQ pedal. Or maybe you need to 'compete' with a keyboard player, so you can use the EQ to boost your mid-range (the middle bit of the EQ pedal). Or you can use the EQ like a 'boost' pedal to cut through the mix on a solo, or when you need a bit extra gain. Not too high as EQ pedals do produce a bit of hiss at times.

4. A tuner. I have a strangely now discontinued Korg DT-10. Please get a tuner and replace your strings well, fairly regularly! Even some youtube demos are quite painful where one string is slightly out of tune. A tuner is often overlooked in people's rush to get some sweet sounding pedals. But a tuner is essential. When playing I push down the volume pedal (or you can set up your tuner so it acts to switch off your board if you have a tuner capable of that) and tune fairly often!

4. I then go into the volume pedal. Just to note, the pedals down the line in my pedalboard like delay / reverb have their 'tails on' (!) It just means that when the volume pedal is turned down (volume down) the delays / reverb keep on sustaining until they decay (you can no longer hear them). This is very useful for volume swells on guitar.

4. Next up are my delays - a Hardwire DL8 delay and then a Boss DD7 delay. My Boss has a separate tap tempo so I can manually tap the tempo in - useful when the band changes timing as bands always will unless playing to a click track! Very useful to have a separate tap tempo. My Hardwire pedal is a pain in that you have to manually hold it down for 3 seconds to engage the delay. But when it does, the delay is absolutely amazing and better than the Boss. But the Boss does dotted eight delay and triplets, so you can even use delay in 6/8 time signature songs etc.

5. Finally I have another amazing Hardwire pedal, the RV7 which is a reverb pedal (with its tail set to 'on' so it gradually fades and doesn't stop dead if you turn your volume off or hold the guitar strings etc). This has a nice swirling reverb for those ambient sounds.

And that's it folks. I think that's all you really need, although I am quite tempted to get a cheap 'boost' pedal to beef up my guitar at times!

Oh and I've got an E-Bow which is very useful for sustain if, like me, you don't have a specific compressor pedal. A compressor can give you more sustain or simply give you a tighter, punchier sound if that's what you want. I may even look to get a Strymon OB-1 or Visual Soun Route 66 which combine overdrive and compression. Get pedals that either have their own power supply, or preferably ones that can run off 9v (volts) with negative polarity.

Oh, and you'll need a power source and daisy chain - or a power block. Something like the Visual Sound 1 Spot can be daisy chained and is a cheap option. Otherwise go for a Dunlop Brick Power Supply or Voodoo Labs Pedal Power / Pedal Power 2. Check the spec to see what you need and is compatible etc. Some pedals need more power and power blocks can isolate power so it reduces hum.

Any comments / questions, feel free to post below. But what I'd consider absolutely essential are 2 overdrives, a tuner and a delay. After that it's up to you!

UPDATE - As of May 2014, my setup has changed a bit, so feel free to check out the links on the right for updates. Basically I have two overdrives (well 3, but one can be used as a boost); a tuner, a volume pedal, two delays (one with independent tap tempo pedal) and two reverbs (one of which can produce chorus-y, flange-y type effects).