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?? Pedals For Church Musicians ??
- Thread starter ENMusic
- Start date
i posted a thread about essential CCM pedals a while ago.. i've been messing around with A TON of pedals, from exotics to ordinary run of the mill boss's
and i'll be honest. you really don't NEED any pedals.
granted, some songs call for a bit of an overdriven sound or some aura-like echo, i have yet to encounter situations where i'd use a pedal for more than one songs a set (if any)
However, some would be definitely nice to have (in order of importance & suggestion):
Compressor (Demeter or EBS)
Analog Delay (Deluxe Memory Man or Carbon Copy)
Overdrive (Truly Beautiful Disaster or Valvedrive)
Volume Pedal (ErnieBall or Boss) and/or
Clean Boost (MXR or BBE)
Chorus/Flanger (stereo mistress or tc)
----------------------------
[[seriously.. do u need these for praise? not really, but they're so much fun!!!]]
Envelope/funkifresh (Q-tron+ or Moogerfooger)
Synth (Akai Deep Impact or Moogerfooger)
miscellany would be probably loop pedals or isp decimators/noise gates but these are total luxuries or for the electronically anal-retentive imo.
Pretty important are DI boxes. Not too familiar with them, as i don't use any myself, but u could look into the Sansamp PBDDI (the dirt [and the di] on it is pretty impressive from what i hear on these boards)
and i'll be honest. you really don't NEED any pedals.
granted, some songs call for a bit of an overdriven sound or some aura-like echo, i have yet to encounter situations where i'd use a pedal for more than one songs a set (if any)
However, some would be definitely nice to have (in order of importance & suggestion):
Compressor (Demeter or EBS)
Analog Delay (Deluxe Memory Man or Carbon Copy)
Overdrive (Truly Beautiful Disaster or Valvedrive)
Volume Pedal (ErnieBall or Boss) and/or
Clean Boost (MXR or BBE)
Chorus/Flanger (stereo mistress or tc)
----------------------------
[[seriously.. do u need these for praise? not really, but they're so much fun!!!]]
Envelope/funkifresh (Q-tron+ or Moogerfooger)
Synth (Akai Deep Impact or Moogerfooger)
miscellany would be probably loop pedals or isp decimators/noise gates but these are total luxuries or for the electronically anal-retentive imo.
Pretty important are DI boxes. Not too familiar with them, as i don't use any myself, but u could look into the Sansamp PBDDI (the dirt [and the di] on it is pretty impressive from what i hear on these boards)
+1!!!
For the style of music I play at the various churches I play at, they would NOT be happy with all the mud I would be adding if I used a Delay/Reverb unit. Seriously... I respect creativity to the max, but sometimes a bassist really does need to lay the solid and tight foundation and serve the music (that's what the christians life is about anyways right? serving).
In the era of playing Jesus gigs (2000-2003), I used chorus, octaver (only when playing the fretless 4, as I had a fretted 5 too), and the occasional envelope filter. My amp had an on-board limiter that rarely kicked in, even when slapping the hell outta Hillsongs' "Shelter House." A volume pedal also served to get that bowed cello sound on Hillsongs' "Yet I Will Praise," which was very proper for the one time we played it: 9/16/01, with imagery of you-know-what on the 10 foot video screen behind us (ordinarily lyrics would appear there). All in all, the "slightly overplayed" style of Graham Maby (Joe Jackson's bassist) best describes my own approach, and my sound had more to do with choosing the right instrument for the song selection of agiven week, and playing that instrument with the proper gusto for the material.
The above was the Sunday morning gig; I also did Saturday vigil Mass for the Catholics, and used the fretless MIM J there more often. Nonetheless, I would still call the use of a USA Bassballs in a funked-up treatment of Psalm 95 as a responsorial very progressive, if not downright envelope-pushing for liturgical music. Most modern music in the Catholic setting tends to be very "in the box" and would not really need effects at all. Fretless thus kept me from being bored by providing its own brand of challenge.
The most fun for me in this era was the fact that I was bringing the best of each group's material to the other, and achieving some limited cross-pollination. The non-denom loved Psalm 95, and I used the Bassballs on Hillsongs' "I Walk by Faith" as well. The Catholics eventually inserted me into the LifeTeen group on Sunday evenings, and it rocked and roared. Christmas of 2001 saw me play 6 Masses in a span of 19 hours, with a variety of instrumentation and vocal combinations. All were recorded, and the album that I produced from it, sequenced in Mass order, was much sought after in the gift shop.
The above was the Sunday morning gig; I also did Saturday vigil Mass for the Catholics, and used the fretless MIM J there more often. Nonetheless, I would still call the use of a USA Bassballs in a funked-up treatment of Psalm 95 as a responsorial very progressive, if not downright envelope-pushing for liturgical music. Most modern music in the Catholic setting tends to be very "in the box" and would not really need effects at all. Fretless thus kept me from being bored by providing its own brand of challenge.
The most fun for me in this era was the fact that I was bringing the best of each group's material to the other, and achieving some limited cross-pollination. The non-denom loved Psalm 95, and I used the Bassballs on Hillsongs' "I Walk by Faith" as well. The Catholics eventually inserted me into the LifeTeen group on Sunday evenings, and it rocked and roared. Christmas of 2001 saw me play 6 Masses in a span of 19 hours, with a variety of instrumentation and vocal combinations. All were recorded, and the album that I produced from it, sequenced in Mass order, was much sought after in the gift shop.
- Jun 19, 2004
- 4,782
- 83
- 42
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist, Schroeder Cabinets
Me too, although the only things I really use are the volume pedal and tuner. It's nice to know that the delay etc is there if I want it, but I honestly don't need anything else.
As others have said, it's all about what works for what you're doing...
I've played many, many times using bass-cable-amp as my signal chain. However....
Our church has some interesting features, which mean that versatility is the key. It's been around for 150 years (which is a very long time by New Zealand standards) and so has a wide age range from young to elderly, and has a huge pipe organ, which is a crying shame not to use. We do all sorts of stuff from traditional hymns to modern P&W. We also must be alone in the universe of churches our size (a few hundred on a Sunday) in that we have almost no guitarists!
So I use what I consider quite a lot of effects.
Overdrive (BDDI or Boss OD3 on high frequencies only) is my #1 essential. We do quite a few upbeat, rock-styled songs, and with no rhythm guitarist, my 12 string bass (or a 4 or 5 with an octaver) and OD are essential to fill things out and drive them along.
Others (used much more occasionally) include delay (Ibanez AD99 or Akai headrush E2) (usually on high frequencies only, when playing in atmospheric songs or those where there is a bit of space, or when playing in a slightly higher register over deep organ bass. Chorus (Peavey BAC2) (a little bit on fretless, or just for a bit of texture) . Digitech bass synth wah (as an envelope filter) for funky/slap tunes occasionally.
So a bunch of things can be useful, but it depends on your situation and most importantly how it fits in with the style of your team.
Steve
I've played many, many times using bass-cable-amp as my signal chain. However....
Our church has some interesting features, which mean that versatility is the key. It's been around for 150 years (which is a very long time by New Zealand standards) and so has a wide age range from young to elderly, and has a huge pipe organ, which is a crying shame not to use. We do all sorts of stuff from traditional hymns to modern P&W. We also must be alone in the universe of churches our size (a few hundred on a Sunday) in that we have almost no guitarists!
So I use what I consider quite a lot of effects.
Overdrive (BDDI or Boss OD3 on high frequencies only) is my #1 essential. We do quite a few upbeat, rock-styled songs, and with no rhythm guitarist, my 12 string bass (or a 4 or 5 with an octaver) and OD are essential to fill things out and drive them along.
Others (used much more occasionally) include delay (Ibanez AD99 or Akai headrush E2) (usually on high frequencies only, when playing in atmospheric songs or those where there is a bit of space, or when playing in a slightly higher register over deep organ bass. Chorus (Peavey BAC2) (a little bit on fretless, or just for a bit of texture) . Digitech bass synth wah (as an envelope filter) for funky/slap tunes occasionally.
So a bunch of things can be useful, but it depends on your situation and most importantly how it fits in with the style of your team.
Steve
