Church Bassists - List your gear!

[broughton.22]

Worship music covers such a wide variety of styles, I would be interested to know what gear my fellow church bassists use to cover all the bases.

Here's my current setup:

Rickenbacker 4003 > Lots of effects > Yorkville XM200T + 115"

And here's a pic (sans the effects):



SUPER cold outside!

[mr sprocket]

At church pretty basic, a zoom b2.1u direct into the board and either Ibanez SRX705, fretless, or Washburn AB20 and a Behringer AB box.

Sometimes for a vintage groove I take the Galveston Beatle bass or a Dean Stylist.

If I need volume I use an Ashdown MAG210.

[Infernal Affair]

My current gear setup is:

G&L L-2000
Markbass Littlemark II
Avatar B410 NEO

Sometimes use a Sansamp Programmable Bass Driver and/or Zoom B2.1u pedals. I use Aguilar GS112 cabs whenever I need to be on the move.

I recently "donated" an SX P bass as well as a Jasmine acoustic electric to the church, mainly so that those who do not have instruments can use them and encourage the teens who want to play. I plan on making some adjustments/mods to the P.

[LowBSix]

WALTER WOODS 600 Watt 2 channel amp
SWR Goliath 4x10
MESA Powerhouse 2x10
Pedal Board
Mostly play a TOBIAS SIGNATURE 6 STRING or GUILD PILOT 5 STRING FRETLESS

[chris.gotfunk]

I play for a mega church here in the Washington D.C. area and my rig consist of a P-bass into my tuner into my MXR DI. That is it. We have the most amazing sound system, so basically whatever you plug in, it will sound great. We all use in-ear monitors and right behind the drum riser is a dual 18 EAW Subwoofer that uses a 10,000 watt poweramp for kick and bass only. It really shakes the booty. Here are some pics of the church during a service and the FOH with light on before service.

[LowBSix]

What Mega Church is that in DC? It looks a lot like where I worship in Westlake Village, CA; Calvary Community Church...
www.calvarycc.org


We have all EAW system, but upgrading the mixboards and FOH....

[chris.gotfunk]

Originally Posted by LowBSix

What Mega Church is that in DC? It looks a lot like where I worship in Westlake Village, CA; Calvary Community Church...
www.calvarycc.org


We have all EAW system, but upgrading the mixboards and FOH....

The church is Mclean Bible Church (www.mcleanbible.org). We have an all EAW system as well. There is nothing like them. They sound soo amazing. I would love to see some pics of your church.
Peace,
Chris

[LowBSix]

You can check out the website and surf for services, but they dont show any of the music for publishing reasons. I don't have any pix, but man it's almost identical and holds 2900 people.....
take care........

[macsim]

Those pics are awesome! I try to keep it simple. I play in the contemporary services at my church and I use a MIM Fender Jazz with Dimarzios for the most part. I built a Frankenbass out of my old Peavey T40 neck and a Chinese body with a Dimarzio P Bass pup. I put flatwounds on it recently in order to try something new. I built a small effects board which contains a really inexpensive Zoom B1 preamp, a volume pedal and I've started sticking a Bad Monkey in there for a bit of a boost. We use an in-ear system which sort of makes having an amp redundant and you can't hear it anyway. The sound men prefer direct and the worship leader likes this humongous Ampeg stack because it "moves air." However, with the drums in a booth, the amps in boxes offstage and in-ear monitors having an amp is really not necessary or wise. Even the most expensive in-ears leave a lot to be desired though and it's best if I know the songs well enough to play from memory because actually hearing the notes can be "hit or miss."

We have a school at our church and we have to come in every Sunday and build a "gymatorium" out of the gym, rehearse, do 2 services and then put it all back the way it was so the less equipment the better for me. I'd love a big "amps on 11" stage set-up but that won't happen. We just installed "rump shakers" on the drum throne and under the bass side of the stage but it seems pretty silly to spend so much time, effort and money trying to artificially recreate a sound that we could easily create naturally if we were allowed to play like a normal band. Go figure.

[Revvv]

No pics, but I have a 5 string Peavey Millenium AC BXP, a cheap Ibanez junker that I have reworked and use flats on, and everything at the moment is played through a Hartke B900 combo. It's simple, but it works. It really rocks when you put that little amp through a PA.

[rfclef]

I use my Ashdown Electric Blue 180-15" hooked into the house system. I usually play my Epiphone Viola cause I love the sound. Sometimes my ZZ Ryder Low Rider cheapo, and of course, when my Birdsong Corto gets here, that'll be in the rotation (probably at the top!)

[stratovani]

My setup is as simple and humble as it gets. Squier Affinity P-Bass, 20-foot Monster cable right into the board, then into one of those Bose tower systems (not sure of its proper name). No effects whatsoever. Instrument stand, music stand with sheet music, and I'm good to go. Just got to make sure I don't bop the singer standing next to me with my bass' headstock! It's a small and crowded stage!

[broughton.22]

Originally Posted by Revvv

No pics, but I have a 5 string Peavey Millenium AC BXP, a cheap Ibanez junker that I have reworked and use flats on, and everything at the moment is played through a Hartke B900 combo. It's simple, but it works. It really rocks when you put that little amp through a PA.

I recently played the Cirrus BXP 5 string, and now I have some SERIOUS GAS. It will definitely be my next (and hopefully last....yeah right) bass. It felt like a good church workhorse, and I've heard that a lot of gospel bassists use them.

[sceloporus]

I either play for my youth group or in church, I play with a Ibanez gsr200 through a GK bl 600 into an Avatar neo 212.
Cheap, but I don't have a job so I'm lucky to have what I do.

[the low one]

I just use my Fender Precision or Jazz fretless through an MXR M80 direct to the board. We have decent monitors so it works well.

I’d better not show the system from the “mega church” earlier in the thread to our guys, they’d go and spend the church budget straight away !

[bassman1185]

My setup is pretty simple: Frankenstein P-bass -> Boss ME-50B -> Aphex Bass Xciter DI -> house sound. Our worship is fairly low key, so I mostly use the ME-50B for EQ, tuning and compression, but occasionally I'll use a little chorus with delay or reverb, or a touch of sub-octave to add some depth.

[uhdum]

Pretty simple setup for me... Either my 4-string stingray or 5-string Dean Edge played through a little Digitech BP 200 for compression and EQ. We have a great house system, so I simply plug into it and use a Hartke B15 combo as a monitor amp.

[TheXym]

Yamaha RBXJM2 (usually) or TRBII -> GK 1001RBII -> pa via direct out during services, sometimes I'll add my Bass Pod XT if we're doing songs that call for an effect. Live into the mix. For concerts in other venues or outdoors I'll run through my 410RBX as well as the direct out to the PA.

[Mcrelly]

my setup, mostly for stage volume... gtr>boss tu-2>DI box>eden wt550>bergantino ht112+ex112. Like to add a couple more 112s, but haven't decided.

PA was 4 mackie powered two way 15" with two large mackie subs, but youth group blew out 2 of the PA speakers. we also use 4 mackie powered twoway 112 stage monitors....

[clmjlg]

I play for the college worship and also for sunday morning, The sound system is nothing special. I use my:
EBMM Sterling HS
Fulltone bass driver
Ampeg SVT-CL
Ampeg 6x10