After asking some folks around the worship community what they would like to see in a (another) site dedicated to worship guitar playing, the response given most frequently went something like this: “I want to see demos of someone making the sounds I hear on the songs with a pedalboard that doesn’t cost $5,000”. Understandable.
While some of the sounds we hear can’t be made without certain pedals–e.g., tremolo, octave, vibrato, etc.–many of the sounds we hear can be achieved without Strymon/Eventide and [insert expensive, supposedly-holy-grail overdrive here] pedals. The bottom line is this: To achieve quality tones, you have to invest money into quality gear. But it can be done efficiently if you know what’s needed.
Note: Before you say something like, “What’s he talking about? He has all that expensive stuff on his board!” My response is: I chose the Strymon stuff for the presets. I have every single song we play–including our side project–loaded into that bugger, which saves me oodles of time during the week. The BigSky has become an invaluable part of my rig, primarily because we don’t have a dedicated keyboard player. I use the FREEZE function during our sets to lay warm pads and to create ambience, and I have three reverbs that can be called up on-the-fly–well worth the money. But again, not entirely needed!
With that said, I didn’t start there. I started with a setup similar to what I am offering below. Hopefully this helps you build the foundation without breaking the bank.
Before we jump in, understand that I am making three assumptions. First, I assume you own a pedalboard. Second, I assume you own cables. Third, I assume you have the resources to purchase most of these pedals used.
The Lineup
- Delay/Swells: Boss DD20, $150 + Tap Tempo (new), $40
- Reverb: Boss RV5, $100
- Overdrive: JHS Double Barrel, $250
- Power supply: Voodoo Labs PP2+ (new), $169
Total: $709
Game-time: Settings and Application
Effects order: Guitar→Tuner→JHS Morning Glory→Boss DD20→Boss RV5→Amp
Boss DD20
My recommendation is to set the DD20 for five presets: one in the ‘Manual’ bank, and four in banks one through four.
- Manual Bank: Quarter note tape
- Bank 1: Dotted eighth tape, low mix
- Bank 2: Sixteenth tape
- Bank 3: Fair game. Depending on the set, I might set a crazy-clear-repeat-digital-dotted-eighth or a big, washy sounding quarter.
- Bank 4: This is your swell tone. With a limitless board, I would normally delegate this to a reverb. But on the $700ish Pedalboard, the ‘Modulate’ (Reverse setting is cool, too) setting works wonders. Keep the tone dark, repeats long and mix to taste. Turn on your RV5 to wash it out even more. I made a quick video to illustrate the swell tones:
The alternative to the above setting methodology is this: Set each bank to correspond to the songs in the setlist. You will lose the flexibility to choose, say, a sixteenth note quarter on the fly, but you will have a very organized, predictable and systematic method for setting delays.
Boss RV5
Modulate setting with the time at noon/one o’clock, tone dark, level to taste.
JHS Double Barrel
This pedal combines the JHS Morning Glory (Bluesbreaker-ish) and 808 (Tubescreamer-ish). Why this pedal? Isn’t it expensive? Yep. But with this overdrive, we get both sounds that are crucial for our context: a Tubescreamer-style OD and a Bluesbreaker-style OD, both in discrete circuits. And at $250 used, and considering each pedal is actually a discrete circuit, we are getting two high-quality overdrives for $125 a whack; this is a phenomenal deal. Each has fine-tune-tweaking available via bright-cut switch (Morning Glory side) and clipping switch (808 side). This pedal also allows us the ability to change the order they are stacked in by flicking a switch–awesome! No matter how big your board grows, this pedal will likely stay with you always.
Settings: Set the MG for a little hair and volume, tone and bright-switch to taste. 808 at higher gain and a smooth tone (switch down). Set the MG to come after the 808, which will allow it to boost the volume for lead work.
Below is a video demonstrating the above:
Power Supply
Plug ’em in, power ’em up. Done and done.
Final Thoughts: What’s Next?
When you are ready to start adding more to your arsenal, I would consider a washy reverb; a warble effect, like a tremolo or vibrato pedal; or an octave style pedal, such as the NanoPog. Consider this: Adding another reverb allows you to take the swell responsibility away from the DD20, which frees up one more delay setting. Most churches play five songs per weekend. Five slots in the DD20 means presets for every song–yay!
I hope this helps you navigate the gajillion pedal possibilities out there. If you have questions, shoot me an email at guitarforhisglory@gmail.com. I’m always happy to help.
Blessings,
Troy