It Might Get Loud, So Watch Your Tone

[TheWorshipCommunity]

As I write this, my wife Leslie Brooke is driving us down the most boring stretch of highway east of the Mississippi, I-16 between Savannah and Macon, with Pearl Jam's new album Backslider cranked up. Two things ... (continue reading full article ...)

[musicianinthestates]

An interesting article for guitarists, I wonder if there are some parable-esque undertones to this that could speak to a wider audience?

We guitarists, some almost addictively, substitute gadgets on place of skill, just as others substitute objects or behavior for the love they crave yet run from.

just a thought...

[dtpuga]

Great read Jay, and not b/c you mentioned my name.

So many people put their all their musical hope in their gear and not in their ability. This is a great thing for all musicians to read and process. I can think of a few youth that would benefit from the plugging straight into and amp and seeing what was left. Haha.

I think about these same concepts with other design/production work. I spend equal parts of my time editing video and things like that as I do with live sound. I can spend a ridiculous amount of money on plugins and tweaks for things like After Effects, if I am still terrible at After Effects, the plugins will only get me so far.

Great transferrable concept.

[Omegafall]

Certainly a thought-provoking article. I find that I still tend to listen to secular music as well; since that's where my roots were for music, I still tend to lean on them to help with a creative style. Much like the writer of this article, my earlier guitaring was based mostly on my Boss Metal Zone pedal with the distortion cranked as high as I could get it and whaling away at the strings. Now that I've picked up an acoustic and my church doesn't have any kind of effects pedals, I've found that it takes a much more precise (and deliberate) approach to playing music.

Great article!

[MattB]

...great article! There is so much truth in what you wrote there.

I have been creating, playing, and performing music (guitar) for over 15 years. And, up until just recently most of that time my tone included effects. These last few years, I have been using a Digitech RP modeling guitar processor pedal. Meaning, that I could create any number of settings built from any combination of various effects. I have to admit that, for the most, part I really didn't create what you would call outlandish effects. The primary effects that I used involved varying amounts of reverb and delay.

A few months ago, the cord to the Digitech's power adapter broke. So, I had no choice but to plug direct into my amp. I was scared at first, because I knew that my tone (and my playing) was going to be absolutely naked. Aside from the amp's reverb, gain, and EQ's there was nothing else added to my tone.

Playing "naked" this way has helped shape and further refine my tone. A task that I have always taken very seriously. At this point, I really do not miss my pedal. I have come along just fine without it. The only thing that I really do miss (that the pedal provided) was delay. I have used both reverb and delay for many years in helping to develop my own unique tone and a little delay would provide just the right touch to complete my sound.

As far as listening and enjoying "secular" music. All I have to say is when more Christian musicians (and the "Christian" music business) start writing and playing better music - music that is unique, well-crafted, inspiring, intriguing - then I'll start listening. That being said, there are a lot of bands and individuals out there who are Christian and are making some great music:

mewithoutYou
Sufjan Stevens
Phil Keaggy
Red Mountain Music
Mike Crawford
Enter the Worship Circle
Derek Webb
Prayer Chain (this band no longer exists, but check out thier album, "Mercury" it is amazing)
etc.

We live in a great age where music is so easy to make and so accessible. The Church needs to embrace and to encourage her artists and musicians to keep creating, growing, and sharing their work with the world and to the glory of God.

[twc_admin]

Love the article, Jay ... and the ongoing conversations!

[authen]

Love the article. So much of what was said relates to my own guitar journey. When I was 18 I had a 100w Marshall head driving a Sunn 4X12 cabinet and played an Ibanez Les Paul 59 reissue (man I wish I still had that guitar!). No master volume on the Marshall so to overdrive it you had to turn it waaaaaaay up. I didn't know anything about tone and didn't care. I was the total wannabe rock star and played in cover bands for many years; which actually served me well when God finally got a hold of me!

Now 30 years later I'm the worship arts pastor at my church - I play an old Strat into a little 15w Fender Blues Junior amp. I run the amp totally clean and get my crunch and such from a board full of "boutiquey" pedals; now I'm a little too obsessed with tone. I love the pocket POD idea for a backup -I think I have to investigate that.

All that being said - this made me realize that my spiritual journey kinda looks like my guitar-playing journey...starts out really rough around the edges, mellows a bit with age, but still got a long way to go.

Thanks for the post.

[Stephen Nettles]

nice article. its a good challenge any young guitar player like me. I learned on acoustic (a must in my opinion) but live I've always played electric... mostly because my acoustic does have a plug in. I never really thought about it but I'm honestly really happy with the way that I've learned to use effects. I started my live "career" on my youth pastor's old squire tele and his fender deville tube amp. Starting there was so valuable. I learned my electric basics with a cheap guitar that I could not rely on for tone... i had to play well myself... and a really nice tube amp... just tube.. no fancy effects. I played on the clean channel almost exclusively and only used the drive occasionally, because I didn't really no how too. After he left I was left with just the tele (he gave it too me) and no amp. I started playing through a bass amp I got my hands on (almost killed that poor thing with the tele's twangyness) and once again... no effects. I was playing with the bare minimum possible for an electric and had to get all the tone out of my fingers. After I saved up enough money I was able to by a boss super overdrive pedal at a used guitar shop nearby. that pedal was my first taste of real distortion and i still use it today. because of the band i was playing in at the time. i was forced to use the overdrive at a minimum. we played too much slow music to use it. (i later learned how to used distortion as a lead player in slow songs... but at this time it was very good for me to learn to not too). After a few months of that I got my hands on a DOD flanger and i must say.... I use the heck out of that thing. It took me a few months to learn to use it appropriately. Once again... learning on one new effect/tone option at a time made it possible to actually learn to fully understand that pedal instead of just trying everything i possible could. the summer after i graduated (almost a year ago) I finally got a proper guitar amp. A fender frontman 212R. The amp opened up a whole new range of possibilities. I now had an amazing clean channel that i could actually be proud of playing (prompting me to use more clean) as well as 2 distortion channels with a mid contour option effectively making it 4 and built in reverb. The next summer and fall was a lesson in learning how to experiment and mix distortion effects (working in the overdrive with the other channels as a boost or new mix etc) and how to fully use and enjoy a highly reverberated clean channel... i must admit... i am still very reverb happy . once fall hit i was introduced to delay pedals by a new worship leader that was replacing me (i was leaving to attend a DTS with youth with a mission). I fell in love with the delay effect immediately and once again... since i was not being introduced to more than one effect at a time... i had time to learn how to use it right in my lead mixes and rhythm mixes (i'm still not a big fan of using it for rhythm but i'm learning anyways just so i know how to when asked). After I left for DTS I was without my electric for 5 months... this time was also important because it got me back in touch with my acoustic roots after an electric happy summer. Once I got back from that I started my School Of Worship (also with ywam) and was reunited with my electric guitar rig. I recently purchased (yea craigslist!) my own delay pedal and have been able to learn even more about it. I'm greatful for the way I've learned and I think that is the proper way to learn how to use effects, make them your own, and learn to use your one signiture tones. I've only been playing three years... but I honestly think I know how to use my pedal board like most 5 year players because of that... the board has grown with me... i've not had to catch up to it... whenever i've been ready for a new layer... God has opened it up for me to gain that new layer. i think thats how we should deal with guitarist my age that likes effects (i'm an ambient rock lover (angels and airwaves, explosions in the sky, mae, ian mcintosh, etc.) so of course i love my effects.) Introduce them to effects one at a time until they learn them well. all of this is why i strongly oppose using multi effects pedals (line 6 pods etc).... they have so many effects that 1. the guitarist never really masters them and 2. the effects aren't as quality as individual pedals.