Guitarists with GAS

The above is a great video on how to get different sounds from your guitar/amp/pedals rig. Loads of good ideas and funky combinations from the guys at Worship Central.

As I watched this video, though, I started to get a bit uncomfortable with the 'bit of funs' and 'kinda cools'. The more I thought about, I realised that the problem I had was with encouraging guitarists in a worship team to pursue a certain anorak-ism about guitaring that required the purchase of all sorts of fancy gadgets and gizmo's, notwithstanding the time and effort required to dial in settings, tap tempos, pump treadles, and then there's all the sticking on of little bits of velcro, the plugging in of little jack-to-jack-leads, arranging little cables... I can't tell the difference anymore between guitar players and guitar nerds! I think that the goal-posts for church music are being.

I am a guitarist, and one of the fun things about being a guitarist is the glittering treasure-trove of things you can buy - guitars, effects pedals, amps, slides, Ebows, pedal boards, power supplies... you end up with what's known as GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome - and no guitarist is truly immune. Macari's and Rose Morris in Denmark Street were like Santa's Grotto to me. I would spend afternoons in there just making puddles of saliva on the floor. For the record, I play a Tokai LoveRock (sycamore-topped beauty), through a Korg Pitchblack strobe tuner into an EHX LPB-1 '68 reissue booster set at 9 o'clock into a Boss Super Overdrive with a low gain and bit of treble boost into a vintage Boss CE-3 chorus(c. 1982) with low rate and high depth with the A out going into an EHX Holy Grail Plus reverb set to a wet-ish spring into the amp, and the B out going to a Samson S-Direct DI to the desk. I have a tendency for GAS - in spades.

But before I started building my rig, I was aware of the tendency to become like a child in a sweet shop, buying the latest gear, poring over magazines, and just generally believe satisfaction will come with next acquisition of gear. I wanted to use music to help people respond to God's Word sincerely in song. So I bought a good guitar that would be easy to use and play on stage, and a few basic effects to allow me the variety necessary to sit in the mix well. I dream about Giga-delays and Crybabys, but I am actually quite satisfied with what I have, and besides constantly improving my technique, there's enough sonic landscape to explore on my little pedalboard for a long time yet. I am a servant in ministry, so my brief is to serve, not to wow or make noises that are 'kinda cool'.

Maybe I can summarise what I'm trying to say in a few points:

• The simplest worship music is often the best. Trying to get too complicated will tend to narrow your field of view, causing you to disengage with those around you in corporate worship and to enagage more with the music you're creating. It's a small step from here to windfans in front of the stage...
• As a guitarist, don't overdo it. You're only there to point people to Jesus. Learn to ditch anything that might come in the way of that. If you like pedals, make sure that you are still being a good steward of the money God has given you, and keep them for private pleasure. Church is not an opportunity to play around with your latest Keeley-modified T-Rex Mudhoney. Effects pedals are not from the devil, but they are not the Holy Grail of music in church either (unless you're talking about my reverb unit).
• Don't lose the plot; be a servant; glorify Jesus.

Grumble.