Not too long ago, Scott White, an old
friend, reached out to me with some questions on programming his POD HD for
some upcoming worship sets that he was planning for his church services. He
wanted some help trying to nail the sounds he was hearing in the
recordings. Here’s the email exchange we
had:
Scott’s request:
“Hey bro,
I need some expert advice so I'm coming to the
expert.
We are finally integrating electric guitar
into our group. I'm using my Gibson Les Paul along with POD HD500.
I know how to set up the foot pedal, but I'm
not sure which amps, cabs, pedals and effects etc to use in these songs.
The songs I need set up advice are:
You are everything
Sing Sing Sing
Forever Reign
You are everything
Sing Sing Sing
Forever Reign
They sound very similar to me. I would like to
keep it simple to start as far as set up.
Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Here is the link containing the songs
My reply:
“Hey, Bro.
Hope your getting along well. Odds are they are
all using a similar “formula”
With the Les Paul and the POD, I would start with a
Fender Blackface Deluxe (or something similar), Vox AC 30 (Beatles-esque), or a
Marshall JTM (pre-Plexi, think Malcolm Young from AC/DC’s rhythm tone) style
amp set bright. Either should be set to just slightly overdrive, but will
clean up when you back off the guitar’s volume a little bit. This should
cover 75-80% of your base tones for Comtemporary Worship music.
Pedal-wise, I would put a little boost like a
TubeScreamer (sometimes Line 6 describes it as the favorite green box or
something like that) in front for more gain / overdrive / distortion when you
need it, and set it to taste. You can experiement a little with different
distortion / overdrive effects here to sculpt your desired sound, the
TubeScreamer is pretty much the standard and most commonly used.
Other effects that I hear in these songs are some
reverb, probably just a quick release plate reverb to add a little sheen over
top of the sound. I wouldn’t go overboard with effects, there’s not much
here, maybe a little slapback delay (single, short repeat very close to the original
in timing that sounds like a little extention of the same note), might take the
place of the reverb in a few places, but that’s the only real difference I
hear.
Have fun!
Let me know if you need my help.”
Scott’s response after the set:
“The tone advice worked great!!!”
My reasoning for this post and including the
above exchange is that my guitar rig, Scott’s guitar rig, your guitar rig or
any guitar rig does not exist in a vacuum.
That is to say that when you are chasing a sound, you need to think
about the overall rig holistically and that each part of the chain from strings
and picks to tubes and speakers work together to present your end product to
the audience. Some might call this an
obsession, but I know, personally, I am much more confident when playing that I
am getting a sound that I am expecting and it’s consistent. To build and maintain this consistency, I
tend to invest as much, or more, in time researching and auditioning components
(pickups, amps, pedals etc.) as I do in money to purchase them. Part of our goal for Crucible Guitar Works is
to keep developing this conversation and continually learning as well as
advising players along the way. I invite
all of you to become part of the conversation, here on the blog, on Twitter
@CrucibleGuitars and on the Crucible Guitar Works Facebook page.
There are many basic “formulas” out there from
which to start as you can see from the e-mail exchange, but sometimes you have
try a couple to see what’s best for you.
God Bless,
D.K. Sears
Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark
Baptist Worship
Founder / Lead Guitar Designer / Tone
Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works
Author – Worship Gear
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