Who here plays with distortion in church?

[katstrat]

This is like a dream come true. I went to praise rehersal tonight and we were working on a song that three of us knows real well. We're playing "Trading My Sorrows" by Darrell Evans tomorrow. We were playing and our pastor said,"Something is missing". I was giving our fourteen year old bass player pointers. I was telling him that the D and the F should have a solid punch and crunch when it came time for those chords.My pastor looked at me as I played it,I tweaked the distortion up,and said "I liked that sound,but I left out the pick rake for call of better judgement! Do you all play clean or distorted? I play both,but do you add distortion when you feel like it?

[funkStrat_97]

I mostly play clean and use chorus pretty often.  But if I feel that a song needs some power, then I'll kick in some distortion.

[david5425]

I mostly play clean and use chorus pretty often.

I do the same too... But for some I'll use distortion in certain songs.

[JayP5150]

Wow, amps have a clean channel?  :wink:

I always use a bit of gain(about 6 on the crunch channel of a 5150, or about 8 on the Classic 30), and just roll back my volume on the guitar for the cleaner stuff.

Wow, clean guitar.  That's a concept... :lol:

God Bless.

[funkStrat_97]

Wow, amps have a clean channel?  :wink:

I always use a bit of gain(about 6 on the crunch channel of a 5150, or about 8 on the Classic 30), and just roll back my volume on the guitar for the cleaner stuff.

Wow, clean guitar.  That's a concept... :lol:

God Bless.

Wait a minute.  You mean to tell me that there are AMPS designed for guitar and we should not be running direct to the board?  Dude, that's deep!  I'll have to tell my worship leader about this latest discovery.

[trackman]

I rarely play without some distortion. I like to have a bluesy feel to my playing.  :wink: I'll switch over to clean when there is a music break or something like that.

[brothajason]

I still have my 15W amp and it has a overdrive button, should I use it?

[funkStrat_97]

I still have my 15W amp and it has a overdrive button, should I use it?

Tell us a bit more about your amp.  What kind of speaker does it have.  How many other musicians will you be playing with and how loud do they play?

[brothajason]

I play with about 4-5 other people, my amp isn't really that loud as it is. But I know the steel guitarist/guitarist plays the steel guitar fairly loud. I am gettin me a new Fender Frontman 25W soon also.

[gtrdave]

Wow, amps have a clean channel?  :wink:

I always use a bit of gain(about 6 on the crunch channel of a 5150, or about 8 on the Classic 30), and just roll back my volume on the guitar for the cleaner stuff.

Wow, clean guitar.  That's a concept... :lol:

God Bless.

Wait a minute.  You mean to tell me that there are AMPS designed for guitar and we should not be running direct to the board?  Dude, that's deep!  I'll have to tell my worship leader about this latest discovery.

If you're a guitarist and you're NOT running at least a small combo amp because the "soundman says so", that soundman needs help.

And I have my Line 6 amp set up with 2 clean channels (1 straight dry clean and 1 chorus/delay clean) and 2 distortion channels (1 light overdrive/chorus for some rhythm and 1 severe overdrive...like Steve Lukather would use...for leads).
The pastor loves the sound...and I'm sure the Lord does, too.  

[elio]

A good distorted sound is very important (to me at least) to play rhythm with palm muting. You can play very simple single-note 1-4-5 funk-type patterns and still sound quite full.

Tip: this is very useful for those times when you don't know (or have forgotten  :oops:) a particular song and want to stick to simple stuff and yet fill your sound slot.

[jlynnb1]

Wow, amps have a clean channel?  :wink:

I always use a bit of gain(about 6 on the crunch channel of a 5150, or about 8 on the Classic 30), and just roll back my volume on the guitar for the cleaner stuff.

Wow, clean guitar.  That's a concept... :lol:

God Bless.

Wait a minute.  You mean to tell me that there are AMPS designed for guitar and we should not be running direct to the board?  Dude, that's deep!  I'll have to tell my worship leader about this latest discovery.

lol, you are being sarcastic, right??
anyway, I use whatever the song calls for.....clean, dirty, nasty, whatever.

[funkStrat_97]

[/quote]

If you're a guitarist and you're NOT running at least a small combo amp because the "soundman says so", that soundman needs help.

And I have my Line 6 amp set up with 2 clean channels (1 straight dry clean and 1 chorus/delay clean) and 2 distortion channels (1 light overdrive/chorus for some rhythm and 1 severe overdrive...like Steve Lukather would use...for leads).
The pastor loves the sound...and I'm sure the Lord does, too.  [/quote]

It took a bit of getting used to, but it works pretty well.  I share a monitor with the other guitar player and run my Strats into a Boss ME-5 and then to the board.  The ME-5 does have a stero out so I guess I could run the second output into a small combo if I wanted to.

[t-shirtsnjeans]

Wow, this is great!! I thought I was gonna see a bunch of negative replies to the question only to see this!!!

Yep, to me overdrive is like having glass packs on a '57 Chevy or a '63 Galaxy!!  Just gotta love it!!!

I've been working through a PODxt and POD2.0, also digitech stuff, and a Peavey XXL amp head through a Marshall 1960A cab on the dirty channel and am loving it, I also have a 2x15 Kustom bass cab that I plug into mostly for that fat bottom for my LP Custom to bark through!

Wow, I AM in Heaven!!!!!!!!

[mt_spiffy]

I'm really a clean player, even though we refer to it as "lead guitar" I think of myself more as a rhythm player . . . but distortion has it's uses.  For playing a hook, melody line or solo . . . for accenting a certain break (especially if the bass player is playing the same line) . . . or jsut to add power to certain parts of the song (think "Praise Is What I Do")

I recently saw Kirk Franklin peform some new material with his band.  I was really impressed at his guitar player's use of distortion  . . . his name escapes me at the moment.  But he was playing an acoustic, some really sweet, pretty chords, and then BAM distortion for the breaks.

[mike251]

 
I use an process called layering.  I use two overdrives, one for punch to the clean channel sound(blues), then add the 2nd overdrive for the solo parts or chorus. This 2nd overdrive adds gain without muddying the sound.  Oooooh........ Distortion pedal harsh.  Overdrives gives you that warm and creamy

Try these combs at you local music shop:

Guitar>> BOSS SD1>> Ibanez TS9>> AMP (clean channel)      
Guitar>> BOSS BD2>> Ibanez TS9>> AMP (clean channel)
Guitar>> Boss DS1>> Boss SD1>> AMP (clean)

Secret: Boss SD1 ($49) is built off TS9 ($99) schematic with some minor frequency changes.
Let me know what you all think........Overdrive is my choice
Please watch your levels, or look at the Kids and Senior in the congregation. If they have their hands over their ears, you are to loud........   Turn the levels down.......

Mike251

[Sonar]

Please watch your levels, or look at the Kids and Senior in the congregation. If they have their hands over their ears, you are to loud........   Turn the levels down.......

Mike251

I must be in a strange crew.

I haven't FOUND a distortion pedal nasty enough for my gang. They're very odd in this respect...I'm always being asked if I can crank it up a notch with more distortion.

I generally watch one particular older matron in the audience. When her crown starts spinning and she gets that scared frog look about her...I suspect I should back it down a bit.

[jlynnb1]

yeah, we do all modern-worship type stuff, so i get to pretty much rock out to my heats desire every sunday.

[gtrdave]

I changed my rig not too long ago, switching from the Spider II 112 to an Epi Valve Standard, and last night I made another change: removing the modified Boss DS-1 and in it's place I put a Digitech Bad Monkey and a recently aquired Bixonic Expandora II...the latter being an AMAZING OD/DIST PEDAL!!!
I now have the ability to get at least 4 different 'tones':
clean - amp w/ no od/dist
clean boost - amp w/ Boss GE-7
od - amp w/ Bad Monkey
dist - amp w/ Expandora II

I can use the GE-7 in combo with either of the other pedals, too, to get a boost if needed but I think I'm set to not need it except for on the clean channel.

I'm going to continue to change items in my pedalboard, inspired by the new Expandora, and eventually the GE-7 will make way for an RC Booster and my DOD delay and chorus will be changed to a Visual Sound Liquid Chorus and Echo. I'll probably also lose the cheap Danelectro French Fries auto-wah and install my classic modded Dunlop wah.

To answer the original question asked years ago: yes, I play with distortion in church. 

[jlynnb1]

I changed my rig not too long ago, switching from the Spider II 112 to an Epi Valve Standard, and last night I made another change: removing the modified Boss DS-1 and in it's place I put a Digitech Bad Monkey and a recently aquired Bixonic Expandora II...the latter being an AMAZING OD/DIST PEDAL!!!
I now have the ability to get at least 4 different 'tones':
clean - amp w/ no od/dist
clean boost - amp w/ Boss GE-7
od - amp w/ Bad Monkey
dist - amp w/ Expandora II

I can use the GE-7 in combo with either of the other pedals, too, to get a boost if needed but I think I'm set to not need it except for on the clean channel.

I'm going to continue to change items in my pedalboard, inspired by the new Expandora, and eventually the GE-7 will make way for an RC Booster and my DOD delay and chorus will be changed to a Visual Sound Liquid Chorus and Echo. I'll probably also lose the cheap Danelectro French Fries auto-wah and install my classic modded Dunlop wah.

To answer the original question asked years ago: yes, I play with distortion in church. 

dave, you should check out the Boss DD-20 delay. it's one of their twin pedals....has 4 memory settings, tap tempo...you can set the tepeat type you want for each setting so you can get that dotted eigth "Edge" thing happening, not to mention it's got about 12 delay types in it. (the mod delay is NICE)