The Worship Leading Pedal Pusher

The question often arises about what I use for electric guitar gear while leading worship. The reality is, I find it too daunting to be an arduous pedal-stomper when I am leading, even as I carry the full brunt of electric duties in most situations. If a gig should call for me to simply play guitar and do backup vocals, and not lead worship, I am more free to tip-toe through tones and take chances with my playing. For me, leading worship takes the main focus away from pedal pushing and more toward the spiritual direction of the service. When I lead worship, however, I do like to have a light-weight, simple pedal board with all the basic tone options at my feet.

I really love a tremolo because it sounds great with both distortion and clean tones. The purple pedal in the photo is the Danelectro Cool Cat Tremolo, and it is true bypass. Best of all, I bought it for under $40! It sounds great, regardless of the price. The Cochrane Timmy is such a warm overdrive and it cleans up well when I roll back the volume on my guitar. The Memory Man with Hazarai is an easy-to-use digital delay. It has a bit of reverb in one of it's settings that helps create the atmospheric tones I strive for sometimes. The wireless system at far right on the board is a Line6 XDS Plus. Line6 has upgraded their wireless line with newer models, but I still love the tone and the price--plus it has great long-distance range for big stages. This is obviously a no-fuss combination of pedals. They are all sitting atop of a Pedaltrain Mini pedal board frame and are powered by a Visual Sound- 1 Spot power supply (wires and plugs are all George L). My studio board, and another live board I have, is much more extensive. Again, when I am free to stomp, I like more stuff!

The amps I use at church are hand made by my buddy, Kevin, at Shaw Audio (I have a Shaw Full Tilt 18 in my studio). This particular head in the photo is a Shaw Tone Rod 40. The head is riding atop what I call "The Coffin," which tremendously helps cut down the stage volume. It houses the Blackheart cab shown in the next photo. Kevin replaced the stock speaker in the Blackheart with a WGS Reaper 30. Kevin and I experimented with closed-back and open-back options for the speaker cabinet. The Shaw sounded tons fuller with an open back, even as the cab is mic'd within the closed domain of the "Coffin."

The Shaw head is not only for my use, but also for the other guitar players when it's their turn to play electric. We have another Shaw in the other sanctuary utilizing a Blackheart cab, re-loaded with a WGS Reaper 30. We run a Radial SGI™ Studio Guitar Interface system, via a mic cable, from the guitar riser onstage to the backstage coffin, 100' away.

I guess there are some who feel that more pedals are better. As a player in a multi-venue church, I hate lugging around a big pedal board from one sanctuary to the next. I am also on a quest to find the cheapest, great sounding pedals available. After having owned a ridiculous number of expensive pedals, I like to search and recommend affordable stuff to the younger guitar players. I must say that there's some great sounding stuff out there that won't break the bank.

Write me with pictures of your "worship gear." I'd love to post them at some point.

jamie@jamieharvill.com

Blessings on your tonal pursuits!