Worship Gear - Vol. 4

Presenting the latest Crucible Guitar Works creation, the CSC (Collen / Sambora Custom) Koa.  The CSC was conceived to meld several characteristics of a couple of my favorite Artist Signature models from the past couple of decades, the Jackson Guitars PC-1 designed for Phil Collen of Def Leppard and the RS series from Kramer designed for Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, into one guitar.  These are the two players who have inspired me most over the years with their skill and artistry and had the biggest influence on my personal journey on the search for tone.

Being that I have great admiration for Jackson Guitars®, it wasn’t a big jump for me to start with a mahogany “soloist” style body topped with Hawaiian Koa that has a subtle figuring to it.  The CSC was originally intended to incorporate a quilt maple top in tribute to the PC-1, we were able to snag a smokin’ deal on a nearly identical body with a gorgeous Hawaiian Koa top.  The body has smooth clear to brown “burst” to the finish on the top and clear brown stain finish on the back with a nice high gloss clear coat over the entire body.  We specified for rear routing three humbucking pickups, a Floyd Rose tremolo and a standard Strat® style control layout using a five-way switch and three control pots. 

We mated that great body to a custom mahogany neck providing us with a 24.75” scale length.  The shorter scale length is somewhat of a signature for us here at Crucible Guitar Works.  We believe it brings an extra level of playability and tone to our guitars.  We specified the neck to include a Jackson® style headstock, a thin (but comfortable) back shape, an ebony fret board, 6105 stainless steel frets and a precut shelf to mount the Floyd Rose locking nut.  It is finished in a silky smooth clear satin finish that feels very fast.  The action on this guitar is low and fast, with at great feel.  A special round of thanks goes out to Mark Kaiser at Fret Repair by Mark (fretrepairbymark.com) for his normal brilliant work in the set up and wiring of this piece.  For those of you within driving distance to Centerville, OH, I highly recommend him for any type of work you may need on your guitars.  I would also like to thank him for the many hours that he has taken with all my instruments over the years.

For pickups and electronics, this time we wanted to make this a solid, but versatile, rock machine.  With this in mind, to me there was only one place to go to get some of the most revered humbuckers in rock and roll, DiMarzio.  DiMarzio was the first company to offer replacement pickups and created the first high output humbucker designed to push an amplifier into overdrive.  I have been a big fan of theirs for years and have had several guitars where DiMarzio pickups have either come standard or I have upgraded the guitar to include them.

For the position nearest the neck, we opted for the PAF Pro.  According to DiMarzio, the PAF Pro was born in the early to mid ‘80’s and was intended as a bridge position pickup with extra presence to cut through the highly technical and effects heavy styles that were beginning to develop around that time.  I find this pickup is excellent for the neck position when pairing it with a high output bridge pickup like the Super 3.  The lows seem tailored really well for this position giving a full sound while not being boom-y or muddy as can happen with a neck position humbucker on a shorter scale guitar.  This pickup imparts that nice, smoky jazz like tone to single note passages played through the clean channel of my Mesa Stiletto or through my Astroverb.  It is clean and clear enough to use for some open rhythm strumming, as well.  The extra boost in the mids and highs from this pickup speak well and help to balance the more bass heavy tone inherent to this position.

In the middle position, we decided on the Air Norton.  This is a kind of an oddball position.  It’s not normally in a sweet spot for a good, hot lead tone like the bridge or a singing, smoky blues or jazz tone like the neck position and it was hard to choose a pickup for this spot. It took a lot of research of the DiMarzio website, asking around forums and a little bit of an educated guess on what we wanted this to sound like when paired with the other two positions.  The Air Norton was chosen for its EQ which favors more of the bass and midrange frequencies to create a full, balanced sound when combined with the neck pickup.  This combination creates big round tone with a nice presence to the open strings when playing first position chords.  Alone, it sounds more like a traditional PAF style neck pickup with a more rich and complex tone and great harmonics.  When combined with the bridge pickup, it reminiscent of the middle switch position tone from Gibson’s Les Paul Custom® with that little bit of phase cancellation that give that position its trademark sound.  The tone is rich and complex but feels a little thinned out or phase-y sounding.

Finally, in the bridge position, we installed the Super 3.  This is just about as high output as it gets.  Based off the original Super Distortion, DiMarzio describes this one as “a Super Distortion with more midrange grind and chopped treble”.  It has become a very popular with players who play their amps with a scooped midrange.  We were almost scared away from using it because of this reputation, but since it is a central figure in the PC-1 specifications, we went for it to stay true to our inspiration for this guitar.  Hey, if didn’t work, we could always try something else.  I have to say that it couldn’t have worked out better.  This pickup does just as advertised through our British themed amplifier collection.  The midrange is strong, and the bass and treble are dialed back a bit.  Even though it is high output, it cleans up fairly well with a lighter touch of the guitar pick without getting muddy, just a touch unrefined sounding.  It produces a great crunch through the amp’s preamp or with a distortion / overdrive pedal like my recent favorites, the MXR C.B. ’78 Distortion or MXR C.B. Modified Overdrive.  This pickup, with the right player, will grind on chugged power chords, sing on single note passages or even soar on big string bends with a little hash of attitude through the whole spectrum.

As I previously mentioned, this guitar was routed for a standard Strat-style control layout.  I didn’t want to go overly fancy and complicate this guitar with all kinds of extra switches or push-pull knobs or anything like that.  I wanted to keep it simple, but as versatile as possible.  Most of the time in a three humbucker guitar only three choices are available from your pickup selector, these are normally; only the neck, only the bridge or some combination of the middle and the bridge.  However, with our five position switch, there are two extra choices; the combination of the neck and middle and the middle pickup on its own.  The volume and tone controls have been modified a bit; we included a combined volume control for the neck and middle pickups and separate volume for the bridge pickup.  There is a “master” tone control that is bypassed when using any combination of the bridge pickup.  All pots are 500k.

This guitar hits its mark.  It’s definitely a strong rock guitar, but it still has enough inherent versatility to move beyond a single genre and be a useful tool for almost any situation where a guitarist would want a guitar with a solid humbucker sound.  In a worship setting, while playing with a second guitar player using a Strat® or acoustic guitar, this guitar provides an excellent contrast in tone helping to fill out the overall sound.

1 Corinthians 13:1 – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and not have charity (love for my fellow man), I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.”

God gives us great gifts through His Holy Spirit.  Honor all of these gifts, but be discerning about their use.  If the gift does not edify Christ’s church as a whole, practice it in private.  This was a hard lesson for the Corinthians to learn (1 Corinthians), that we may benefit from its teaching.  Music is similar in this respect.  Music in service to the Lord should not be self-indulgent, but open and accessible to the congregation of believers and seekers alike.  Seek to practice this in your public worship.

God Bless,

D.K. Sears

Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark Baptist Worship (www.lbcohio.com)

Founder / Lead Designer / Tone Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works

(www.facebook.com/crucibleguitarworks) (Twitter:  @CrucibleGuitars)

Author - Worship Gear

Worship Gear - Vol. 3

Welcome back to Worship Gear.  From our last meeting, I talked about the prototype of the Crucible Guitars EB-1 which has become a staple in my collection for its versatility in a worship group setting.

Next in our series, I’m going to skip to the opposite end of my signal chain to one of my favorite amplifiers.

This would be my trusty Soldano® Astroverb.  Michael Soldano is best known for building such fire breathing, high gain masterpieces as the SLO-100 and other amplifiers for the likes of Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits fame), Lou Reed and even the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.  Soldano is always on the quest for the ultimate in guitar tone by using the best parts available and a near obsessive attention to detail.

I know most of you are saying to yourselves, why would this idiot use a high gain amp for church music?  Well, you could blame it on the fact that I grew up musically in the ‘80’s and everyone that I ever wanted to emulate as a guitar player used some kind of high gain amplifier and being the sinful, but forgiven, human that I am, that is what I chose.  Honestly, when I bought it, I never thought that God would bring me to a place as a guitar player that would put me in front of a congregation playing with a worship group.  As God’s providence would take over, my choice of a high gain amplifier for use around my home turns into a very flexible and useful amplifier for use in a worship group setting.

The Astroverb itself is a 20 watt, single channel amplifier powered by two EL84 power tubes with four 12AX7 preamp tubes and a fifth 12AX7 to power the spring reverb.  My example is the 1 X 12 Combo with the 12inch Eminence speaker and white snakeskin cabinet covering (it goes back to the ‘80’s rock child in me).  It is also available in a 2 X 12 combo and head version.  On the front panel following the input jack from the left hand side are black, chicken head knobs that control the preamp (gain), reverb, bass, middle, treble, volume (master) and presence; listed from left to right.  All controls are labeled clearly in black screen print on a white background and range from 0-11.  There is a single power on switch on the far right past the presence control.  This was one of the first of the newer generation of smaller, low wattage tube amps to come out, I believe, that bring versatility to the genre.  Before this would the mainly amps like the Fender Champ, Princeton, Deluxe Reverb, the Vox AC-15 / AC-30 or the early Marshall 18 watt, all great amps even in their reissued forms, but most have their limitations (all amps do) or their quirks in tone that don’t endear themselves to my ears.  Mostly is that their design requires you to crank the volume to force the amp to generate its trademark tone, this can be a drawback in a worship setting.

The preamp and volume controls are the meat of where this amp gets its versatility.  The key is combining the two controls in such a way to get the desired amount of distortion from the amp.  Setting the preamp gain high and the volume low, gives you a tone reminiscent of the mighty flagship SLO-100 with lots of gain and distortion that is harmonically rich an stands well with its hard rock breeding.  Setting the preamp gain low (around 2) and the master volume around 9 or higher presents a nice clean tone more along the lines of a Vox® or lower powered Marshall® amplifier.  Very smooth and almost glassy, but with a warmth and mild note of gain when pushed with a humbucker equipped guitar.  With a single channel amplifier there is a give and take when setting the gain on this little beast in that there is limited headroom in the amp’s circuit before the tubes generate distortion or overdrive (a common compromise in any small tube amplifier).  Some will say to set the amp toward the overdriven side and use your pick technique and the guitar’s volume to back off the input and clean up the amp tone.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to master these techniques well enough to use them effectively on the fly.  My alternative is to set the gain and volume as clean as I can given the situation and use a boost or overdrive simulate a second channel for the distorted tone.

My favorite tone from the Astroverb at this point is with the preamp set at 2 and the master volume at about 6 or 7.  This setting gives me a warm clean sound with humbucker equipped guitars and a sweet clean tone with single coil guitars that still has a note of gain to it and it responds well to the gain boost from the Visual Sound Route 66 overdrive on my pedal board.  Since most of my guitars seem to be a little heavy in the midrange frequencies, I tend to set the tone controls slightly scooped with the bass and treble set to around 6 and the middle to about 4.  Then I add a little brightness to the overall sound with the presence control set around 5 to 6, generally five for single coil guitars and six for humbuckers.

While this is a great amp, very versatile for many styles, there are a few things that I do feel could make this piece better for my tastes.  One would be the addition of an effects loop which would allow someone to run their effects post the preamp section of the amplifier and provide for a cleaner effected sound versus driving them through the preamp.  This is not to say that the Astroverb does not take well to pedals, but that I prefer the sound of some pedals (chorus, delay, phase etc) after the preamp gain.  Another change that I would like to see is a two channel version that would allow clean and distorted sounds to be preset and foot-switchable without the aid of an overdrive or distortion pedal.  The natural sounds from this amp are really sweet individually and being able to switch between them would really increase the overall flexibility of this amp for playing styles such as mine.  Lastly, I would like to see the addition of a standby switch to put the amp in idle mode between sets.

Overall, this is a fine amp for the worship setting.  It seems to live and thrive in the tones that are not completely clean and not raging thrash metal distorted.  The lower power rating keeps the stage volume down to a manageable level, it mates up well with most pedals that I have used with it, it works well with both single coil and humbucker equipped guitars and it puts out a great sound reminiscent of a small 18-watt Marshall or early Mark I Boogie.

Next time we will start the trail from the guitar to my amp through the pedal board, and explore the effects and settings I use for creating textures through sound.

At the end of the day, the one thing that really matters is that your daily worship points those around you, not to you, your wisdom, your glory or your greatness; but to the redemptive work of Christ on the cross.

·    Psalm 89:1 – “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever:  with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.”

God Bless,

D.K. Sears

Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark Baptist Worship (www.lbcohio.com)

Founder / Lead Designer / Tone Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works

(www.facebook.com/crucibleguitarworks) (Twitter:  @CrucibleGuitars)
Author - Worship Gear

Worship Gear - Vol. 2

Welcome back to Worship Gear.  Last time I gave a little of my history.  In this installment, I'll be starting through the various pieces of the rig I use in our worship services.

First item up is the prototype Crucible Guitars EB-1.  For those of you not familiar with Crucible Guitars, that is me.  Crucible Guitars is the name under which I design and build solid body electric guitars.  I also provide consultations on pickup choices for those who wish to ask.  The EB-1 is named for the man who inspired me to step out and design and build an instrument of my own, my father-in-law.  The man was a great woodworker and for anyone who has been to our home knows, he has built many of the furnishings, from an end table crafted of recycled barn siding to our coffee table that I dubbed the Les Paul table because it is built from mahogany and flame maple.

It is a T-style body made of swamp ash and finished with four light coats of Tru-oil®.  This is a nice thick slab of swamp ash in the style of the traditional Fender Telecaster® with a single cutaway in the body on the treble side of the neck for access to the upper frets.  The Tru-oil finish shows off the wood grain nicely and gives the appearance of a 1970’s era instrument.

The neck is a 24 3/4” scale conversion piece made of maple with a pao ferro fret board, a reverse T-style headstock, tall narrow (6105) frets and finished with a vintage tinted satin lacquer sealer.  The boat shape carve to the back of the neck replicates that of the Fender ’52 Telecaster® reissue and is a soft “V” shape near the nut and tapers to a more rounded feel near the body joint.  The “V” shape to the back of the neck gives the feel of something fairly meaty in your hand while still being comfortable to grip for traditional chord shapes and the v forcing your thumb on your fretting hand to the center of the v for leverage on barre chords.  I have come to prefer the sorter scale necks due to my preference for heavier gauge strings (10-46).  The shorter scale length reduces the string tension and makes the heavier strings feel more pliable and easier to play.

The pickups are Seymour Duncan® units.  Nearest the bridge is their Vintage for Broadcaster bridge pickup with a Vintage Mini-humbucker up toward the neck.  The pickups are wired to 300k volume and tone pots mounted to a reversed Tele-style control plate with the volume nearest the bridge and the three-way switch to the rear of the control plate.  A special round of thanks goes out to Mark Kaiser at Fret Repair by Mark (fretrepairbymark.com) for his normal brilliant work in the set up and wiring of this unit.

Acoustically, the combination of the balanced resonance of the swamp ash and the less traditional (shorter) scale length make for a guitar that appears very well balanced tonally.  The guitar has good sustain when strumming open chords with a little brightness to the acoustic sound.

Testing was done through my Soldano Astroverb® set with the preamp gain on 2, reverb off, bass set at 6, middle set on 4, treble set to 6, presence at 5 and the master volume at around 6.5.  The Seymour Duncan Vintage Mini-humbucker works well in the neck position creating a warm, smoky tone that is great for open chords as well as blues inflected fills.  Meanwhile, the Broadcaster style bridge pickup produces a punchy, bright tone that cuts through effects and sits well in a mix without becoming brittle or harsh sounding.  With a bump in gain from the overdrive section of a Visual Sound Route 66, the bridge pickup produces a nice ‘70’s style roots rock or country tone that provides a little twang on blues licks.

In the context of a worship band, this guitar is quite versatile and can used as a nice launching point for many textures to support most of today’s worship styles.

In closing, I would like to add that true worship is not about the songs that are sung, the music that is played or the gear that you use.  True worship of the one true God who came and died for our sins in the form of Christ is about living a life that honors Him in every aspect.  It is not leading a perfect as that is impossible, but living a life that points others to Christ and His redemptive grace.

- Isaiah 53:5 – “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed.”

God Bless,

D.K. Sears

Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark Baptist Worship (www.lbcohio.com)

Founder / Lead Designer / Tone Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works

(www.facebook.com/crucibleguitarworks) (Twitter:  @CrucibleGuitars)
Author - Worship Gear

 

Worship Gear - Vol. 1

Welcome to Worship Gear.

 

I would like to use this space a way to inform those who want to know about some of the guitar gear used in a weekly Christian corporate worship setting.  My personal focus will be on electric guitar gear, but I do hope to have guest columnists from time to time on other topics and I invite your feedback.

Why am I writing this?  What makes me qualified to tell anyone anything about guitars?

For a little background, I am not writing this because I am superstar, gifted musician, or anything other than an average guitar player.  I write this because I am a simple everyday person that God has gifted with a passion for music, a sense of what sounds good and a desire to worship and grow closer to Him.  I have been playing and collecting guitars as a hobby for the last 20 years (more collecting than playing at times).  I have played some really amazing instruments and some pretty poor instruments along the way.  I have also used some items that simply didn’t fit either my style or the situation.

Early on, I thought:  “Great!  This is my ticket to stardom.  I can pick up a guitar, learn a few chords and be on my way to rock royalty.”  After all, it looked so easy on that MTV thing in my college dorm room.  Little did I know then, that God would take me through the path that would lead me from that college dorm (and playing bass in a band at frat parties for free drinks and mostly to impress the girls), to this point of working for one of the largest insurance companies in the world and playing music for the glory of Christ.  That’s a long way from the bright lights and big stage of being a “rock star”.  Along the way, I learned little bits and pieces of playing the guitar, never really stringing them together well until a few years ago when I joined my current church and musicians here, who have become family to me, started helping me with more than just how and what to play, but also why.  God has had His hand on my life all along, even in times of impatience and frustration to the point of wanting to quit, bringing me to a place where I want to make music that honors Him and do so in such a way that He shines through, not me.

Moreover, I have been blessed with the opportunity and responsibility to serve on a regular basis with the worship team at our local church, Landmark Baptist Church in Batavia, Ohio (www.lbcohio.com).  It is here that I am in the trenches regularly, working to craft guitar tones to help deliver God’s message through our music.  We are an average congregation in a suburban setting southeast of Cincinnati, Ohio.  Like many others throughout the country, we have made many transitions in the styles of our worship music over the last few years.  We have gone from basic, classic piano based hymns lead by single individual; to an acoustic guitar player with a couple of singers taking lead roles; to incorporating a full five or six piece band including drums, bass and electric guitars in addition to keyboards and acoustic guitars.  Along the way, I have encountered many growing pains as I try to assimilate electric guitar into this role.  I know that electric guitar is not a new instrument to some worship groups, but I am willing to bet that it is or will be to a vast majority, especially many small congregations.  My hope is that my family of musicians and I can pass along some the wisdom we have learned and continue to learn in this process.

If you have been around either guitars or worship music for any amount of time, I am sure that you have read or heard a multitude of opinions about this item or style is so much better than this other one over here, or read glowing reviews of a particular items works so well only to try it out in your situation only to find that you didn’t like it, or it just didn’t live up to the hype.  Better yet, you have a commissioned sales person trying to convince you that this $200 thing over here will work better for you than the $100 one that is in your budget and does essentially the same function.  Others may tell you someone famous played a particular type of instrument or amplifier and you should, too.  That is great, if it fits your situation, but seldom will an average corporate worship service require the use of a massive 100 watt fire breathing (insert your favorite famous name brand here) tube amp.  I may not tell you anything new or earth-shattering, but I will tell you my honest opinion and do my best to guide you through the ins and outs of what I have experienced.

I have quite a few instruments in my collection ranging from a budget priced First Act guitar that was plucked out of a trash can by a close friend that I refinished and replaced the electronics in and made into a nice player through a Gibson Les Paul and nearly everything in between, including building my own instruments recently.  So, I know the value of a great guitar and the value of doing things on a budget.  I also have always been fascinated with the workings of the guitar and much of my knowledge runs closer to the technical side than the playing side, so forgive me if I get a little geeky; it’s just how I am wired.  (Remember, I am an analyst for an insurance company 40 hours / week)

My musical influences run the range through early Petra, Stryper, Casting Crowns, Kutless, Building 429, Lincoln Brewster, Jeremy Camp and Third Day to Bon Jovi, Journey, Def Leppard and other such ‘80’s rock bands.  Much of this you will find has influenced my decisions on gear and settings through the years.

My philosophy on electric guitar in worship is threefold.  First, be consistent and versatile and find gear that will give you consistency in its tone and or function.  Second, provide rhythm support to the bass and drums in most situations.  This seems like a very basic assumption, but it can make a difference between serving the song and the situation or going off on some tangent that hinders the worship experience of the congregation that you are there to serve.  Lastly, inflect points of interest through textures that serve the songs and help move songs along.  These textures can come through a playing style, like picking or strumming patterns; others come through the use of some effects that alter the sound of your guitar.

Lastly, if you are a manufacturer or retailer that has a piece of gear that you would like to submit for review, I invite you to do so.  We will provide an honest assessment from myself or a member of my family of musicians and add it to the blog.  This will give us new things to talk about.  Plus, we’ll eventually exhaust my collections.

Next time we’ll begin our series through the various parts of my personal rig, including some pieces of my personal collection.

Until then, whatever you play, play it unto the Lord in great praise for what He has done for you, for in His life, death and resurrection Christ has come to set you free of sin and lead you to His side.

- Psalm 115:1 – “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness!”

God Bless,

D.K. Sears

Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark Baptist Worship

Founder / Lead Guitar Designer / Tone Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works

Author – Worship Gear

Batavia, OH