Thoughts From a [Semi] Retired Worship Leader, Part I

'Just some thoughts, observations & effect settings from a semi – retired worship leader/worship guitarist… 

I was involved in worship ministry for close to 30 years & retired from it almost 2 years ago; as of right now I have no plans to ever return to it on a regular basis; however, I do play occasionally when I'm asked to but I've taken on more of a mentor role as of late & I'm also busy w/ several recording projects.

I've been on a songwriting binge lately; my weapon of choice is always my Takamine 12 string acoustic guitar. I believe that any song, worship or otherwise, should have a prominent acoustic undercurrent so that it can be played equally well in a service or at the beach, 'just my personal thoughts & preferences on the matter… once I get a song pretty much nailed on the 12 string, I'll then go to my six string acoustic or my electric & see how it plays from there, adding parts, arranging, etc.

Because of my sudden burst of creativity, I've revisited my old electric guitar worship pedal board & all the various effects I used to use. Now I've seen some pedal boards that appeared to be jumbled messes of redundant pedals but to each his own; I used to be that way but decided to simplify my life & streamline everything. For me, I hate having to keep track of what pedal does what & when to engage or dis-engage it for each song. I started this philosophy w/ my overdrive pedal after I saw other worship guitarists frantically switching overdrives between songs & sometimes forgetting which overdrive to use. I determined then & there to use only one overdrive & switch it on or off, 'very much simplified my life when leading worship!

Back to my pedal board: I went through all my effects to not only see see what I used to use but also to see what was relevant to the songs I was currently writing; some were, some weren't. I saw the overused dotted 8th note delay on one of my banks & said to myself, “at the time that was pretty cool” & it was. I love U2 & their sound, but when the Church got a hold of that sound & ran it into the ground I backed away from it. It still has it's place though, like for a fellowship that hasn't heard it before, this sound could inject new life into the praise & worship setting. The other banks on my board were pretty standard stuff but it had nothing like what I was hearing in my head, so I headed online to see if there were any settings I could confiscate for my delay pedals. I found a few & a few combinations that rocked me so I spent the last week programming them in & tweaking them to my tastes. After that, the creativity just exploded.  

So the next few blogs will be on my observations & reflections as a former worship leader/guitarist & a run down on the effects I use.

Acoustic:

As I've said before, my favorite songwriting & solo worship leading instrument is my 12 string Takamine EAN40 acoustic. It has a beautiful tone, sounds great unplugged around a campfire & when I'm live in a worship setting at a fellowship I use zero effects, 'just plug it into a direct box  & unleash the power of it. To me, it's perfection. 

I rarely see a 12 string acoustic in a praise & worship setting; if you look at Hillsongs, Bethel, Gateway or Vineyard worship videos, a 12 string is nowhere to be found. Even in a local church gathering, most everything is 6 string & I've always wondered why? Now for some, they can simply add a chorus pedal to their favorite 6 string & get close to a 12 string sound... for others those 6 extra strings are just too much to handle… for still others, they just don't want to buy another acoustic & that's understandable, to each his own.

My 6 string is a completely different story: I own a Washburn Festival EA20 series; it's a thin body acoustic w/ a built-in EQ & I created a pedal board for it. It's great for intricate finger picking but since I was usually called on to play lead, it was the perfect acoustic for me. I ran it through these effects in this order: 

Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor: I usually run the noise suppressor first in my chain to get rid of any noise in my line from the get go. I also have it set where it creates a slight swell when I pick a note a certain way :)

Boss CS-3 Compression: I recommend playing an acoustic guitar through a sound system w/ a compression pedal (my 12 string being the exception); it just keeps the sound levels in check & your sound team will love you for having one & using it.

Boss Ad-3 Acoustic Pedal: this is a must-have for any serious acoustic player and/or worship guitarist. It has body shaping, chorus, reverb & feedback control. You can dial in anything from a hint of chorus or reverb to heavy doses of each, 'just depends on your taste. I've done coffee house/open mic stuff w/ it & people are always coming up afterward asking what gear I'm using for my acoustic, well… this is it!

Boss DD-20 Giga Delay: I own three of these pedals as I love them & one is in my acoustic rig. There's four banks to store your settings & a manual bank which can be used for programming, as a fifth bank or as a mini-looper.

The delays/settings in my Acoustic DD-20 are as follows:

• Manual Bank = SOS (sound on sound looper)
• Bank 1 = 485 ms, 8th note modulated delay (r/16, d/70)
• Bank 2 = 270 ms, 8th note modulated delay (r/60, d/100)
• Bank 3 = 365 ms, dotted 8th note delay, smooth setting
• Bank 4 = 560 ms, 8th note delay, smooth setting

Note: r = rate, d = depth, “smooth” adds a very subtle/warm reverb.

The 485 ms delay is for soloing over a loop, another acoustic guitar or a piano. 

The 270 ms delay is more of a modern chorus/delay sound & is great for arpeggios.

The 365 ms delay I usually use for a pseudo U2 sound, sometimes I'll dial it to 375 ms for a slightly slower groove.

Lastly, the 560 ms delay is for fingerpicking w/ a very cool delay trail.

The noise suppressor does it's job as well & the compression pedal keeps the levels in check.   

The acoustic guitar is pretty much standard/critical for modern worship. I've seen worship teams that were either keyboard driven or guitar driven & in the latter, it's usually the acoustic carrying the load but more & more I'm seeing people lead w/ the electric guitar. I have yet to see an acoustic used as a lead guitar/soloing instrument in worship, for the most part it's a strictly rhythm instrument.

Some fellowships have a full team: drummer, bass player, keyboardist, acoustic guitarist, rhythm electric guitarist, lead electric guitarist (sometimes these latter two can seamlessly switch between rhythm & lead but that's not often the norm) & that's great if that's what you're blessed with.

As you know, too many instruments can muddy the sound, especially if they're all playing the same thing at the same time (an all too common problem) so I often recommend that the acoustic guitarist double as a lead guitarist. Instead of the rhythm electric guitarist carrying the dotted 8th notes w/ an overdrive, simply have the acoustic guitarist do it clean or w/ a slight overdrive like Tweed; it cleans things up & many people are not expecting dotted 8th notes (or any kind of delays) from the acoustic guitar.

Now, I'm a rocker at heart but I also love an acoustic, candlelight worship setting & I have these delays at my disposal to enhance the worship experience.

One last thing about the acoustic category I want to mention is I like to encourage worship teams to practice & arrange their songs for both electric & acoustic. What I mean by this is every rocking song should have an acoustic counterpart. Songs like One Way Jesus, Great In Power, In Jesus Name, etc should be played equally well on acoustic (or piano) as they are on the electric. Sometimes that's playing it at the same intensity/tempo or much slower in a different style. This kind of approach really stretches the team & helps them grow musically. 

Also, what happens if the power goes out during a service? Is your team flexible enough to grab some acoustics & carry on?

Part II will focus on my electric rig & all things concerning that ~