Yeah, some type of sound barrier is almost a must for drums in a church. It allows everyone else to turn down.I feel the mojo! It is just the opposite for me on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I wish we had the IEM's. I have to wear ear plugs on stage, I am nestled between a heavy handed drummer and our guitarist's Marshall half-stack. I try to setup farther away from the drummer and our worship leader asks me to move back closer. I know the stage volume is over 100+db. I forgot my ear plugs one morning and I thought my head was going to explode. I was using a 350 Watt SWR Super Redhead along with a 15" cab, so I was pushing about 425 watts. I was having to jack the gain halfway and run the master at 3/4. I was working my amp very hard. I went out Friday and got a great deal on an almost new Genz Benz GBE-600 and GB 410T-XB2 cabinet, both for under $1000 out the door. I am digging the sound of this setup.
This is a relatively new Vineyard church plant, I remember a year ago when it was just the worship leader on acoustic, a keyboardist and me. I was using my studio amp, a Fender 60 watt rumble that I never turned up more the halfway. I am lobbying real hard for a drum shield.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Another Church players topic-Post: amplification
- Thread starter dunamis
- Start date
CrashClint
I Play Bass therefore I Am
I agree with you on this. I am 44 years old, I grew up Southern Baptist and I am not bashing them. It was pretty much anything but a organ or piano was sacrilegious. My stand has always been, "Why should Satan have all the fun"? We were designed and gifted by God to worship Him. When I attended an Assembly of God church, the youth worship team did not have a bass player, since my wife was co-youth director I became the bass player for about a year until I was able teach one of the youth to play bass. It totally rocked. During that time, I saw about 20 youth come to give their heart to the Lord. It was one of the funnest times I had, It was hard to turn it over.
Unfortunatly you will always have some complaints.
So true. Through the Bible God commanded the righteous to dance, sing, play music in priase to him. He never commanded the 'wicked' to do anything. So yeah--the devil shouldn't have all the fun.
I grew up in a pentecostal church that embraced all kinds of music and instruments. Even there we'd have those who would complain.
Our church tries hard to run two identical services, and it's a mix of contemporary Christian and straight-out-of-the-hymnal. Every Christmas and easter we do a fully scored CC show that pumps up the standard lineup to about 21 players. Normally we have bass, guitar (one or two), drums, acoustic piano, organ/electronic strings, electric piano, two violins, two or three trumpets, euphonium, flute & clarinet. We did have a banjo player, but he moved away. Guitar, bass and drums are solid -- two of us came out of the school of rock and the drummer is excellent, a school teacher who plays all styles well. We have been playing together for about six years, and we are locked tight. Having come out of rock, we can adapt if someone skips a verse or drops a few measures, but the other folks are totally dependent on reading and, somewhat ironically, are the ones who get lost most often. Even the music minister, who has a PhD in music, quite often comes in singing too soon or too late ... and refuses to go with the flow, so we have to turn the beat around to follow him.
They used to run a straight contemporary service on Saturday nights (I dodn't play that one) before we went to all-direct, and it was LOUD. Bear in mind that I played 30 years in clubs doing Yes, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, and I know what loud is. This band was TOO loud for church. Finally, the Saturday night pastor approached the band and asked then to tone it down. They refused, and the band was gone the next week. The service also shut down, which is a shame. I don't recall the words "excrutiatingly loud" in that passage about "joyful noise." However, I'm reminded of the line in "This is Spinal Tap," when Nigel, after being told that Mozart (or was it Beethoven?) didn't play loud, says "Well, he played as loud as he could!" I'm sure that if King David had had an amp for his harp, he'd have cranked it.
They used to run a straight contemporary service on Saturday nights (I dodn't play that one) before we went to all-direct, and it was LOUD. Bear in mind that I played 30 years in clubs doing Yes, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, and I know what loud is. This band was TOO loud for church. Finally, the Saturday night pastor approached the band and asked then to tone it down. They refused, and the band was gone the next week. The service also shut down, which is a shame. I don't recall the words "excrutiatingly loud" in that passage about "joyful noise." However, I'm reminded of the line in "This is Spinal Tap," when Nigel, after being told that Mozart (or was it Beethoven?) didn't play loud, says "Well, he played as loud as he could!" I'm sure that if King David had had an amp for his harp, he'd have cranked it.
Our church tries hard to run two identical services, and it's a mix of contemporary Christian and straight-out-of-the-hymnal. Every Christmas and easter we do a fully scored CC show that pumps up the standard lineup to about 21 players. Normally we have bass, guitar (one or two), drums, acoustic piano, organ/electronic strings, electric piano, two violins, two or three trumpets, euphonium, flute & clarinet. We did have a banjo player, but he moved away. Guitar, bass and drums are solid -- two of us came out of the school of rock and the drummer is excellent, a school teacher who plays all styles well. We have been playing together for about six years, and we are locked tight. Having come out of rock, we can adapt if someone skips a verse or drops a few measures, but the other folks are totally dependent on reading and, somewhat ironically, are the ones who get lost most often. Even the music minister, who has a PhD in music, quite often comes in singing too soon or too late ... and refuses to go with the flow, so we have to turn the beat around to follow him.
They used to run a straight contemporary service on Saturday nights (I dodn't play that one) before we went to all-direct, and it was LOUD. Bear in mind that I played 30 years in clubs doing Yes, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, and I know what loud is. This band was TOO loud for church. Finally, the Saturday night pastor approached the band and asked then to tone it down. They refused, and the band was gone the next week. The service also shut down, which is a shame. I don't recall the words "excrutiatingly loud" in that passage about "joyful noise." However, I'm reminded of the line in "This is Spinal Tap," when Nigel, after being told that Mozart (or was it Beethoven?) didn't play loud, says "Well, he played as loud as he could!" I'm sure that if King David had had an amp for his harp, he'd have cranked it.
Ha ha, maybe so. Personally, I don't have any use for volume levels in the house that cause hearing damage or physical pain. There's one large church in my area that I had to leave service because the volume in the house was so high it hurt. They had a new sound system, and I don't know...maybe they felt obliged to use that much of its capacity. I already have hearing damage from too many rock concerts, shooting guns, and working on jets, so when the level gets above a certain threshold, I'm in pain.
The worst playing situation I was in was a singer, a keyboard and me, where the keys followed the singer, the singer constantly changed the time up and disregarded the instruments, and I played interpolation between the two. That was tough.
Right now my church meets in a courtroom of all things, we cart everything in and out every week. I have an Asdown combo, an EA iAmp 500 & VL210B. I could get away with the Ashdown because I don't need more volume, but the difference in tone with the heavier EA stuff is profound, so I drag the EA stuff in almost always.
CrashClint
I Play Bass therefore I Am
Having come out of rock, we can adapt if someone skips a verse or drops a few measures, but the other folks are totally dependent on reading and, somewhat ironically, are the ones who get lost most often. Even the music minister, who has a PhD in music, quite often comes in singing too soon or too late ... and refuses to go with the flow, so we have to turn the beat around to follow him. QUOTE]
I had to smile when I read this, in the old church I attended, we had a Contemporary (what you hear on the radio) team and a Traditional team (Hymns, Integrity Music mostly 80's and earlier). Being the only bass player, I played pretty much both teams and both services each Sunday. Steve, who led the Traditional team would jump versus, jump to the chorus early and all we could do is laugh and make the transition as smoothly as possible. I could remember the drummer, guitarist and me laughing so hard we could hardly play. People would come up after worship and ask us what we were laughing at, what was so funny.
I had to smile when I read this, in the old church I attended, we had a Contemporary (what you hear on the radio) team and a Traditional team (Hymns, Integrity Music mostly 80's and earlier). Being the only bass player, I played pretty much both teams and both services each Sunday. Steve, who led the Traditional team would jump versus, jump to the chorus early and all we could do is laugh and make the transition as smoothly as possible. I could remember the drummer, guitarist and me laughing so hard we could hardly play. People would come up after worship and ask us what we were laughing at, what was so funny.
Well, at least we are not alone. I can read music and do so when needed, but the readers-only in the band are continually amazed that I can hear most worship songs once, then play them without music. I guess they didn't learn to play by listening to records.
It was also rather funny after playing a song that uses the C Am F & G progression, I pointed out that many, many doo-wop songs use that same pattern, no one seemed to understand what I was saying. And another song used the "Gilligan's Island" trick of going up a half step every verse. Not a week passes when I don't hear echoes of popular music in the praise tunes we play, which I'm sure is intended. In fact, when we have a subsitute drummer on occasion who is not familiar with the songs, I'll tell him "Springsteen," or "U2" to give him an idea of the feel for the song. One Christmas, we even had a tune that sounded like the theme from "Shaft." As you say, sometimes you have to laugh.I have been accused of being so loud during service, that the Church next to us have came over, to ask if I could turn down... the bass seems to resonate across the street and through the walls of their church.
In the Spirit of Christ, we oblige and adjust the levels. This has happened twice in the last two years, I currently hook in through the house P.A. I anticipate that the combo of the BASS and the Organ both going through the house, may be the issue. I am now contemplating getting my own setup for church and not going through the house. The finances just aren't there right now to do so.
In the Spirit of Christ, we oblige and adjust the levels. This has happened twice in the last two years, I currently hook in through the house P.A. I anticipate that the combo of the BASS and the Organ both going through the house, may be the issue. I am now contemplating getting my own setup for church and not going through the house. The finances just aren't there right now to do so.
wow, spot on.our little band has 4 of us with rock backgrounds all over 40.when we hear a new tune at pratice for the first time,it becomes a game of "name that tune" it seems like everything can be linked to something from the 60-70s rock era.
So how many songs does your church play that are directly lifted from The Joker (I'm a joker... I'm a smoker... I'm a midnight toker)? Whenever we do one (there's seriously 4 or 5 with the same progression in the same rhythm!), I try to fit in the groovy walkdown back to the I at least once a verse.
Hawkeye
Canuck Amateur
If you wanted to go there, "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" would present an opportunity, but seriously, I have never been tempted to used that walkdown. Come on, it's too camp, plus I would not use a riff that was directly linked to a highly popular druggy song. YMMV
I can't remember one sounding like the joker.the intro on a new one today sounded just like the intro of Rush's Lakeside park
Looking to try and get some different music into my local church. Only been in the area for about six months but 10 years ago before i drifted away from playing music (i've recently returned to bass and have started teaching myself to play again 
) i used to play in a church doing simple numbers. I'm quite keen to get back into playing and i'm hoping to drag the church into the 21st century - probably screaming! 
) i used to play in a church doing simple numbers. I'm quite keen to get back into playing and i'm hoping to drag the church into the 21st century - probably screaming! Lot's of churches are already there. My suggestion is to find one and leave the others alone. You'll wind up doing more harm than good by trying to change one. Some people love the old way of doing things, especially the music. They have that right and we shouldn't try to take it away from them. I know what you mean though because I've been stuck having to attend some of these services in the past because I used to live in a small city where there weren't many options. It does get very old singing hymns or worship songs from the 80's.Looking to try and get some different music into my local church. Only been in the area for about six months but 10 years ago before i drifted away from playing music (i've recently returned to bass and have started teaching myself to play again
good point, well presented
The vicar is keen to try something different as the congregation is quite literally dying and there is no new inlfux of people. wasn't going to modern to begin with - just adding a bass would be radical enough!
I have a 500 watt bass rig (amp/4x10 cab) behind me and a Direct box into the p.a. With that combo We can easily blow the doors off the building. Sometimes we come close lol.
My church rig (well, my only rig right now) is a Mesa 400+ and powerhouse 212 cab. I usually run a DI to the house, which is an incredible top of the line JBL line array setup with 4 dual 18" sub cabs. All this is driven by around 65,000 watts of QSC powerlite series amplification, and a 96 channel yamaha digital board with apogee rackmount preamps. It is a pretty large church, and we are blessed to have some amazing talent. Even with the size, we have a combo of floor wedges and Aviom in ear monitoring... and we try to keep the stage volume as low as possible. I can't quite seem to get used to the avioms as of yet. My sound always seems so... sterile coming through the headphones. Then again, our stage volumes are reasonable enough that I can play without earplugs and have no fatigue at all after playing. Our drums are fully enclosed, so I turn up just enough to be able to hear myself and let the FOH engineer take care of the mix. Now when the youth team leads... that is a different story! I've filled in for their bass player several times... and that can be painful if you're not wearing ear protection!
Oh yeah? You ain't got nothin' on my Crate BX100! So there...
In all seriousness, sounds like a awesome setup and would love to hear it. My little Crate actually does OK in my situation. Smaller church, we average about 200-250 for both services with little to no FOH support for the bass (no subs). They have a good start on the PA, but they need a little more help in that area but they're waiting for their new facility. What's nice about the Crate is that I only paid $100 for it, I can leave it at the church for the youth to use on the Mid-Week service and not have to worry about them hurting it and I don't have to pack gear back and forth.
