Luke 18: Let the little children come to me, and have their faces properly rocked off.

I've got a little bit of down-time, so I figured I'd show everyone what I'm working with for the upcoming retreat: Luke 18. For some background, this is the first time in about a year that I've gotten to lead a band, and it's also the first major time that I'm going to be leading from electric. It's going to be me, my friend Bob on bass, and one of the teens, Matt, on drums. I've actually been really impressed with both of them. They're not professionals by any stretch, but they've both got better-than-average skill, and their hearts are in the right place. Not that I'm the one to judge their hearts. Or anything for that matter.

You know what? I probably should have just said "takes direction well." But that sounds a whole lot less like a worship leader, and a whole lot more like a dictator. Either way, neither of them is playing for attention or to show off, which is all I ask!

Since I'm going to be the sole guitarist, I'll be switching between acoustic and electric. On acoustic, there's nothing too new. It's going to be my Breedlove AC-25 -> Fishman Aura Pedal -> soundboard, with or without my Countryman DI depending on if it's necessary or not. With a bass player and a drummer, I won't need to add in any effects to fill up the sonic space, but the Fishman really is something, and it adds a lot of quality to the sound chain. It makes things sound way better when I'm just doodling around, and it adds a little extra something when everyone's playing.

As for the electric side, we have:


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This is probably what I'd consider to be the essentials. I also have a volume pedal and a wah that could go in front of the pedal board, but I don't know if I'm going to be playing electric on Mighty to Save, which is currently the only conceivable use of a wah in a 3-piece worship band that I can think of, or at least the only use I've figured out yet. The volume pedal could work, but again, that's much more of a tool for cool electric additions to the songs, like swelling into delay to make a pad or just swelling in general. It might still make an appearance, but I like what I can do with this board.

And for those of you paying attention, you'll notice a few additions. My current chain is Parts-o-Caster -> Digitech Hardwire tuner -> Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (MOSFET), running at 12 volts -> Boss DS-1 -> Voodoo Labs Tremolo -> Boss DD-7 (with tap tempo) -> Fender Blues Jr. I got the tuner for Christmas, which is a life-saver, and I got the Fulldrive in a trade. If by trade, I mean that I traded $100 for a Fulldrive. Once again, in the battle of Craigslist vs. My Bank Account, Craigslist wins. But good Lord, does that Fulldrive sound incredible. I've been using it solely in the "Vintage" (a.k.a. "Mid-humped", a.k.a. "Tubescreamer") setting, and it's playing a vital tonal part in Our God is Greater (wait for that one to come out on the Passion CD - it's going to be huge!) and How He Loves, where I'm actually using the boost section to get the lead-line between chorus and verse. The DS-1 is being used constantly, too. Our "theme song" for the weekend is Let God Arise, and I'm sure you all know how much of a distortion-hog that song is. We're also doing You Are My Joy and Your Name High, both of which are using a lesser setting on the DS-1. The delay is, well, delay, and it makes the earth better. As for the tremolo, I keep trying to take it off my board because I've yet to use it, but I'm constantly thinking "I could use it someday...", and so it hasn't left. But also, there's not really anything else I'd put in that spot right now, so while it's taking up space and adding cable-length, it is true-bypass so at least it's not adding anything when I don't want it to add anything.

I've been really impressed with my Strat, too. Bear with me, because I'm still new to this whole "electric guitar" thing, but it's incredibly versatile. The middle pickup might actually be my favorite, but then I can go to the neck when I need a more hollow sound, or the bridge when I need more bite. In combination with my overdrive/distortion pedals, I can comp pretty much any sound I need. I do still want to own something with humbuckers, and a "real" Telecaster (I've heard incredibly, surprisingly good things about the Squier Classic Vibe, but haven't found one to play yet) since I'm enamored with the Tele's neck pickup, but I think my G&L may be on the way out, since I just don't play it very often anymore. My little Frankenstein's Monster of a guitar is making it happen. It desperately needs a full setup and fret-job (for instance, the high e string actually gets stuck on one of the high frets when I strum too hard) so maybe that will happen before the retreat.

And the Blues Jr. is tone in a box. It's small enough to drive to distortion without killing everyone in the room, but just the right loudness to keep up with my drummer. And, it's got a nice pleasant reverb so I don't have to keep the Verbzilla on my board, though reverb is probably going to be completely unnecessary during the weekend.

No time like the present...

Sorry for the severe lack of posts, it's been a ridiculously busy few weeks; we're getting ready for a retreat called Luke 18 and I've been having way too much fun building up a small band and playing electric guitar and in general rocking the crap out of things. My gear has changed (as it seems like it does weekly) and I've also started playing roller hockey for the first time since High School. I'm doing some photography to send to a coffee shop where I've got an upcoming gig, and some of it is actually looking pretty good. I've got about 100 posts to write but no time to write them! But I'll get back here soon...I hope...

Acoustic Board? You bet!

As I alluded to recently, I've been thinking about my acoustic rig. Since I play acoustic in public way more often than electric, I thought it was silly to have a pedal board for something that never leaves the house anyway, and so this board was born!


The signal chain is: Breedlove acoustic -> Fishman Aura pedal (concert model) -> Boss GE-7 -> Tiny Virgin Mary (with humility controls) -> Voodoo Labs Tremolo ->Boss DD-7 (with tap tempo) -> Countryman Type 85 DI. I've used it out twice already, and it's fulfilling everything I need so far, but there are already upgrades to be made.

I'm convinced that the Fishman pedal is made up of equal parts transistors and magic. It sounds fantastic. I had a real problem adding something so blatantly digital and "fake" into a guitar's signal chain, but I decided that, when it comes right down to it, even the best piezo pickup sounds just awful. You get a lot of pick-attack, and almost none of the warmth and depth that make an acoustic guitar sound amazing. When in a full-band setting, that's not an issue because all of the other instruments cover up a lot of the frequencies that an acoustic rhythm guitar normally occupies: drums holding down the rhythm, bass taking the low, piano taking the mid-high, electric guitar taking everything else. In fact, the only sound that ends up coming through in a proper mix is...the pick attack. Which is, I think, the only real reason why this sort of technology hasn't been greatly researched and why the market is rather small. But for a solo artist, GOLD! If you get the chance, demo one. Definitely magical.

The other questionable thing in the chain, and the thing that will likely not be on the board for much longer, is the EQ. Don't get me wrong, I love EQ. But I also think that EQ is used mainly to correct any sonic problems. And I also also think that proper microphone placement and selection in recording can eliminate the need for any EQ. Like, say, the kind of microphone choice and placement being employed in the magic Fishman pedal. My gut tells me that, once I find the right image (there are 16 to choose from on the Aura pedal), I won't need any EQ at all. As of right now, it's being used as a footswitchable boost.

...which will come to an end once I get this. I am a firm believer that a little compression does wonders to an acoustic guitar, making finger-picking a bit more even and keeping even intense strumming manageable for the sound system. From all of the demos I've seen and heard online, this one seems to be subtle, clear and, above all else, really transparent. I'd love to find one around to demo myself, but I doubt that that's going to happen since it's such a new pedal. And, as an added bonus, boost switch! Clean, mid and treble. It's like a friggin' Swiss army knife.

Which the DD-7 is. It's hold mode is just enough for my looping needs, and it's got all the delay an acoustic guitar could want. And that goes into my DI, and to a board. When I have the OB.1, the EQ may still have a place on my board, if I chose to use it in creative ways (like laying down a sweet bass-line when building a song through the DD-7's hold mode), but that remains to be seen. And the tremolo is there for when I think a tremolo would sound cool. I still need to get in some quality time in front of a PA or an acoustic amp and figure out which setting on the Fishman is the best, but it's been working out so far.

Do you play acoustic way more than electric? Make an acoustic board! It's going to be an invaluable tool for coffee-house gigs, and it's made me way more versatile in a band setting.

The meaning of life:

It is always a mistake to decide what you are going to do (job/relationships/whatever) before first deciding who you are going to be.

- Andy Stanley

Happy (almost) New Year!

I hope all two people reading have had a very merry Christmas (or whatever, but at this point I think that everyone who knows that this blog exists is some form of Christian guitarist) and is getting stoked for the New Year. I know for me, it's definitely time for 2009 to shove off and make some room for the the long-expected twenty-ten.

Did I mention that one thing I'm particularly excited about is that we can finally start referring to the year as twenty-_____? It's so futuristic!

How am I celebrating? Passion Conference in Hot-lanta. And I am ever so stoked. As much as I love the greats of Christian rock, I've never heard anyone (aside from Matt Maher, who is awesome) live. And boy, is this one going to be stacked. Along with perrinials Charlie Hall, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin and David Crowder*Band are going to be Fee, Kristin Stanfill and HILLSONG-FREAKING-UNITED! Which is a fact that I just learned, literally, three days ago. My face will be sufficiently rocked.

It's going to be a great way to kick off what may go down as being my most important year so far, as I'm going to be playing almost weekly with a guy who's been a great mentor to me, musically and spiritually, Adam Bitter. I've also been thinking more and more that the 9-5 just isn't for me, that music's where I'm called, rich or poor, and that I need to embrace it, get the fear, and just live God's calling for me. At the very least, a job in the music industry would be way more interesting than a job in the IT industry.

So I'm not big on resolutions, but sometimes you need to give yourself permission to dream. I'm a musician, first and foremost, and I'm going to start acting like it. Permission granted.