My Gear

Some might be wondering what I use as a worship leader on a regular basis. This is instruments, gadgets, brands, programs, etc.

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Taylor 414 CE Acoustic

I have the privildge of playing a Taylor in worship. I found this guitar in a music store in Texas and got a really good deal. I traded in an Alvarez and got this guitar for like $900 or so. I’ve linked the logo to Musician’s Friend so you can buy one too!

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Epiphone Goth Les Paul Studio Electric

This is a great beginner’s electric. It has a great feel, great action, and a great sound…especially if you don’t know what a top-end Les Paul can sound like…which I don’t.

My favorite thing about it is actually its looks. You may not be able to tell from the pic, but it’s a flat black finish (rather than a glossy black). It also is dripping with other black features – pickups, tuning knobs, volume/tone knobs, pick guard. It’s just sweet. Give it a chance…even though it’s not the top-end Les Paul you’ve been drooling over!

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Line 6 POD XT Live Guitar Multi Effects Pedal

I first saw this thing with another guy in our band at church. After he felt God moving him away, we didn’t have electric for a while. I felt like I needed to learn…so I bought the Goth Guitar above and this multi effects pedal. Man… good stuff. I don’t know all the ins and outs of how it works…or even all it can do. But what little I have figured out…holy cow. Not only can you pick what type of amp (Marshall for example) but you can pick what sort of modeling you want on the sound, numerous delay options, and my favorite – the stomp pedal (giving you that all-too familiar one sound through verses until you’re ready to have bleeding ears for the chorus!). If you’re looking for an all in one fix for a beginner – though pricey – you can get almost everything you need here.

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Aviom Personal Monitoring System

This totally changed the way we “do” sound in our church. Each of the band have their own “mix” of what they want to hear in their headsets and the sound guy only has to think about what it sounds like in the main mix. What a relief.

Top-notch sound quality and well worth the expense.

I’ve linked to Musician’s Friend here, but we bought ours somewhere else that had a free Shure In-Ear headphone set with each mixer – and wound up being even cheaper with them.

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Hammond XK-1

This is your best option for adding that famous B3 Hammond sound to your band. So many current worship songs have this little addition, you’ll find yourself wondering what you did without it. You won’t be disappointed. We used a keyboard stand that positioned this right above our other keyboard that supplies piano, strings, and pad sounds. Our organist finds it quite easy to play one with one hand and the other with the other hand.

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Elixir – with Nanoweb Coating

Electric Guitar Strings

Now…remember I’m not a “real” electric guitarist, but to me, these strings have better tone and playability than any other brand I’ve used. I’ve also been told they last longer…we’ll see about that (since I’ve only had them on for 2-3 weeks). I got light because of a few bends I do on a few solos (light seems to bend better).

Elixir – with Polyweb Coating

Acoustic Guitar Strings

I have been thoroughly impressed with the feel and sound of these strings. It’s my first time using them after mostly Martin SPs. I’ve also got light since they were out of my normal Medium selection – but I think I might stick with light…I really like what I’ve got here. Again – a little more expensive, but supposed to last longer – give them a shot.

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Sennheiser – ew135G2 E835 Cardioid Hand-Held Wireless System

We’ve got 8 of these in the sanctuary. Well, we bought 8 receivers and 4 handhelds and 7 bodypacks so we could have what we needed for various productions. With it’s ease of channel changing, each handheld and each body pack can be programed to work with any of the 8 receivers. All Pro Sound did an awesome job of rack mounting all 8 receivers and a power distribution system in a rugged Gator case for a whole lot less than anyone else I could find (even included an 8 mic cable snake). Sennheiser seems to have the advantage in sound quality of anything I’ve used before. Flexibility is also a plus. If you can, go with Sennheiser for your wireless system needs.

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AKG Guitar Bug

This little guy is something special. I’m sure it’s not the greatest thing ever, but I’ve got two, one for my acoustic and one for my electric. And, my other acoustic guitarist bought one for himself. Unfortunately, that’s all we can have in our room since there are only 3 available frequencies (as I understand it anyway). The good news is that I haven’t had any problems with this at all. Well, that’s not exactly true…my strap slipped off my electric one morning and the whole thing hit the floor right on the bug. Of course the bug busted into a hundred pieces…but it just might have saved my guitar. In trying to find a replacement bug, I had a little difficulty…but finally found a place that I could buy just the bug and not the whole system. If you’re looking to go wireless, this is a fairly inexpensive way to do so.

<come back later for more additions to this list>