Category: electric guitar

The Electric: How To Dial In Complicated Pedals

On By adamdolhanykIn electric guitar, worship5 Comments

ChaseBlissAudio

THINGS AIN’T LIKE THEY USED TO BE

Some pedals are easy as pie to dial in. The MXR Phase 90 and it’s one control knob come to mind. The Tube Screamer is pretty straightforward: volume, tone, gain… that’s it. (Note: I love both of these pedals)

But as technology has advanced, pedals and their controls have become more advanced and complicated. Some people stay away from pedals with too many knobs or complicated controls. Some people have them, but don’t know what to do with them.

My goal is to walk you through some steps that should help you conquer your fears and expand your guitar tone!

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The Electric: Boss Vs Boutique

On By adamdolhanykIn electric guitar, reviews, thoughts, worship6 Comments

Boss effects pedals is the Ford Motor Company of the musical world. The Ford Focus is a great car, the Escape is incredibly popular, and the F-150 is an American institution. Yet on Car magazine covers and wall posters it’s the Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s and Porches’ that get all the love. The same is true with Boss pedals. The RV-5 is a iconic reverb sound found on records from all across the musical spectrum, yet Strymon get’s all the love. What’s the difference between Boss vs boutique pedals and how should affect how I spend my gear money?

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Gear Review: JHS Twin Twelve

On By adamdolhanykIn church band, electric guitar, reviews, worship6 Comments

BRAND: JHS

MODEL: Twin Twelve Overdrive

COST: $199

WHAT IT IS: The JHS Twin Twelve is an “amp-in-a-box” style overdrive that emulated the sounds of the vintage Silvertone Twin Twelve 1484 tube amp produced for a few years in the 1960’s by Danelectro for the Sears catalog. It was a low-end budget amp that was over looked in favor of amps by Fender, Vox, and Marshall. Up until a few years ago, you could find them for dirt cheap on eBay. Then artists like Beck, Jack White, Death Cab for Cutie, and even Coldplay started recording with them. The lead riffs on Death Cab’s “Your a Tourist” and Coldplay’s “Always In My Head” are both from a 1484 amp. In part because of this, a Twin Twelve amp now goes for 4 to 5 times what you would have paid a few years back.

I tried the JHS Twin Twelve with just about every pedal I own, as well as straight in to my Fender Princeton Reverb from my Danocaster Jazzmaster and my Fender Telecaster.

The Twin Twelve includes an active EQ for treble and bass like you’d find on a real amp, and a drive knob that controls the amount of gain. While the original 1484 amp didn’t have a master volume, Josh and his crew have added a Volume knob that accomplishes that feature, which is where all the pedals flexibility comes in.

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Gear Review: The Mad Professor Silver Spring Reverb

On By adamdolhanykIn blog, electric guitar, reviews, worshipLeave a comment

BRAND: Mad Professor

MODEL: Silver Spring Reverb

COST: $195

WHAT IT IS: The SSR is a classic sounding “space” reverb. Space reverbs emulate the sound of reflections in a room, hall, church, cathedral or even bathroom tile. Spring reverb is essentially a “space” reverb but gets it’s own category because of the sonic quirks of mechanical spring tanks.

The short version is that the Silver Spring will emulate the sounds of an amp spring, a room/hall or studio (plate) reverb. The tone knob is really mislabeled. While it does affect tone, it really controls fidelity. Turned all the way to the left and you have a lofi “amp spring” sounding reverb. At noon, the tone knob makes a great room sound and all the way to the right you get a hifi plate/studio reverb.

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Fall Q&A. Effects Pedals. Acoustic Worship, and Three Headed Delays.

On By adamdolhanykIn church culture, electric guitar, thoughts, worship1 Comment

Once a season I look over the Google searches (and the 1 Bing search too) and see what brings people to this blog. I then take the themes or direct questions from those searches and form a sort of Q&A. While the Fall 2014 edition will be a little effects pedal heavy, I think there’s some take aways that non-pedal using worship leaders will find helpful.

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A Kinda Sorta Review of the New U2 Record

On By adamdolhanykIn church band, church culture, electric guitar, reviews, thoughts, worship1 Comment

THE RECORD

Almost every review of the newest U2 record Songs of Innocence has told me more about the the reviewer and their issues than the record itself. When a reviewer starts admitting that they “don’t really like U2 that much” or by saying that they haven’t liked a U2 record since Actung Baby, why should we care what they say? When a reviewer spends (as many of them did) the opening half of the review critiquing and complaining about the way or method the band released the record, what does that actually tell us about the music itself? The answer is of course: nothing.

I actually like the new U2 record. It’s not their best record, but it’s certainly not their worst. The songs themselves are far better than most of the critics have given credit for. The final result of Dangermouse’s production work is a debatable point but again, it’s an interesting take on the music of the most iconic band since the Beatles. So now that we’ve had a few weeks to come to terms with the music and implication of the records surprise marketing/distribution method maybe we can look for some takeaways?

Instead of debating the finer points of U2’s latest offering, I would like to look at the response it has drawn. I feel like looking at Songs Of Innocence’s reception will shed light on issues that affect us as worship leaders and church musicians.

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The Electric: Does Tone Matter?

On By adamdolhanykIn band practice, church band, electric guitar, thoughts, worshipLeave a comment

des tone matter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On forums, on blogs, on Facebook, on Instagram. Worship guitarist posts pic after pic of their pedalboards, or their amps, or their guitars. I’ve done it. You’ve done it. Then every so often a “really spiritual” person writes a blog post or a thread forum on how we need to remember that none of it matters… and then we go on posting our pics.

How much does “good tone” really matter? Does it make a difference to the bar band but not the worship band? Am I less Spiritual if I care about how my guitar sounds? Am I more spiritual if I don’t?

Let’s talk about it.

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The Electric: Fuzz In Worship

On By adamdolhanykIn band practice, church band, church culture, electric guitar, thoughts, worship2 Comments

In this series I try and address different aspects of the practical side of playing electric guitar in church music. This week we’ll talk about using Fuzz pedals in worship.

The question is asked often enough on internet forums and blogs: Can I use a Fuzz pedal in worship? The answer to this question is the answer to every gear related question the church guitarist may ask: Yes. Maybe. Depends.  So as we walk through the reasons why or why not to use Fuzz pedal at church, you can take the same principles and apply them to any other piece of gear.

So… can I use Fuzz in Worship?

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The Electric: Signal Chain

On By adamdolhanykIn church band, electric guitar, reviews, thoughts2 Comments

In this series I try and address different aspects of the practical side of playing electric guitar in church music. This week we’ll continue the conversation about finding the best amp for worship.

 

How have I never written a Signal Chain post? It’s almost criminal. Signal Chain posts are the Tube Screamer’s of guitar blogging! So after two and a half years, I think it’s finally time.

SIGNAL CHAIN

So you’ve got some pedals now, and you’re putting them together. Maybe they’re all Boss pedals (which is pretty much all we had back when I started) so you’ve just ordered them by color. That’s ok right? Well… not quite.

We order in pedals in a certain way (signal chain) because of the effects it has on the sound waves. For example a vibrato pedal affects the shape of the wave form while a delay pedal just repeats that shape. So the order you put the pedals affects the sound you get, and in some cases the way a pedal will act or respond.

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Gear Review: The JHS Colour Box

On By adamdolhanykIn electric guitar, reviews, thoughts, worship7 Comments

A while back I wrote a full review on The Church Collective for the JHS Colour Box. You can find it HERE.

In the time since I’ve made a few observations to add to what I’ve previously written.

GAIN

This thing is a really, really great gain pedal. Fuzz, Distortion, Overdrive. All great. Specifically the fuzz. I think it’s better or more valuable as an EQ/Tone shaper, but the fuzz sounds really, really great and it’s tempting switch roles.

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