Just wondering how many of us play as part of some worship service, what setup you use, what instrumentation is involved, etc.

At our church (First Baptist Church of Camarillo), it's piano (or keyboard) and organ on everything except for contemporary praise songs. I join in on acoustic for the contemporary stuff.

We'll probably expand (and let me go full electric) at some point in the future. In the meantime, it's my trusty Ibanez PF-5 with built-in Fishman until I upgrade to something a bit better.

I play for a youth praise band. I got just guitar->FX board->amp kind of setup, while others just plug into the PA system.

Our praiseband this year grown in size. We have:
a lead electric
a rhythm electric
my Youth minister on anything (he's pretty musical)
acoustic guitar
Bass
piano
drums
a violinist (pretty cool addition)
two-three male vocals
three female vocals

Its a big band, but I wouldn't trade it for the world

oh and the occasional cowbell...

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I play electric guitar and mandolin on my praise team. Mostly the former.

Other members play: bass, keys, drums, ukelele (yep!), acoustic guitar/rhythm electric guitar.

My mandolin is a Fender FM52e acoustic-electric:



For guitar, I have 19 or 20 electrics available, and try to just rotate through them so they all get play time.



In church I use my little Super Champ XD as my stage monitor and line it out to the PA. The drums are electronic, so everyone else goes direct into the PA. I also go direct to PA on mandolin.

In some instances playing outside of the sanctuary, where we use regular acoustic drums, then we all use amps, of course. I use my SC XD and line it out to a bigger all tube rig, such as either my 50W Sovtek Tube Midget or my 60W Sunn 200S 1960's vintage head, into a cab. So far I have used my DIY homemade 2x12 open-back cab with silverback Celestions. Here's a shot of the 2x12 with the Sovtek head:



Here's a shot of me (in one of my rock bands) using the SC XD lined out to the Sunn head and the 2x12 cab (horizontal instead of vertical). The SC XD is way over to the right, and the Sunn/2x12 rig is behind me (playing sunburst Tele) in the backline:



The rhythm guitarist uses one of these amps:



He has 3 electrics. One is a wine-red Les Paul Studio.



He also has this Tele:



And this Ibby Talman thinline:



Not sure what kind of bass the regular bassist uses, it's some inexpensive P-bass copy, Jay Turser I think. When my daughter, her backup, plays bass, she uses a Peavey USA Foundation (that I found in a pawn for $100):



Neither of our bassists has a bass amp, so I lend them my rig, a Crate BX-200 head into an old '70's Ampeg SVT 8x10 cab (shown here with a couple of my basses):

I have played guitar in our Church for about 15 years.

We have the following:
me on guitar
Drummer
Bass Player
Two keyboard players
one trumpet
one sax
one trombone
four back up singers
several different people take turns singing lead.

I play a brand new Fender Amercian Deluxe Strat thru a Fender Twin Reverb or a PRS SE Single cut thru a Fender Cyber Deluxe.
right now the Twin is on the blink so i'm using the cyber for everything.
minimum of fx
it's Church you really don't need any distortion

I belong to a Unitarian congregation, so I'm pretty much in hog heaven when it comes to getting to play in church. Just to give you an Idea, our church keyboardist is a well-respected working jazz pianist and faculty member at VA Tech, and he's more likely to be playing Thelonius Monk than "bringing in the sheaves" on any given Sunday (he did a very nice "Stella by Starlight" last week.

Anyway, I get asked to do a lot of traditional type stuff (old-time, celtic, mountain spirituals) with my fiddle-playing 10-year old son...backing him up on flat-top or mandolin. We did "Cuckoo's Nest a couple weeks ago and I did a Tony Rice style "Favorite Things" solo on acoustic back in December. Me and the boy always share one Blue-Bottle mic through the house PA for that stuff.

For electric stuff with some other fellows in the congregation, I run my Strat into a friend's Marshall Class 5 which is located in an isolation room and mic'd into the house PA. The isolation room is what we call the "crying room"...a sound insulated room off the side of the main chapel that's supposed to be used by mothers with crying kids. It's wired into the PA and has a big triple-glazed window so the mothers can hear and watch the service, but it's almost totally sound proof....pretty sweet. The rhythm and bass guys go through PODs into the house board, and the drummer plays mic'd.

Me and a couple other old farts from the congregation did a cover of Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away" last summer with that set-up.

Do you line-out the amps? Mic them? Just use stage volume?



Say what?

Keep in mind, there are some churches wherein the thinking is, "It's church, so no instruments should be used, only the human voice." My point being, you're projecting your experience as if it were universal. It's most definitely not.

PLENTY of church guitarists, myself included, very much need distortion for our songs that rock out. Maybe you don't play such songs, or have decided to play them in such a way that they do not rock out, but that's not "church," that's "your church."

Just sayin'.

Yep, ideally you should be able to use distortion in Church, I have too. A lot of new praise and worship music utilize electric guitar and effects in a really cool way.

I've played with Church bands since I was 14. Some were really great, others not so much. One nearly made me want to stop playing guitar, another went a long ways in teaching me how to play as part of a band, to be able to write songs, and to be able to play bluesy things in a modern rock setting. So it's been a mixed bag to say the least. Right now I'm not playing in Church (some places are very traditional, and honestly I have a hard time playing in places like that). But I am part of a praise and worship band which is not affiliated with a single Church. I use the same rig I use for rock which is basically a Strat, wah, distortion, two overdrives, two delays and tremolo through my Fender amp. We play a much more modern style of music than what's normally accepting during Church. Which is unfortunate in my opinion, because it just seems like an obstacle which shouldn't be there. It's not 1959, the electric guitar is a standard instrument in nearly every style of popular music and rock n' roll is no longer new and shocking. People my age should finally be able to play our own style of music and bring it into Church with us. Not to replace the traditional hymns or anything like that, but to be in addition to it.

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I actually agree with you on this for a few reasons:

1. Often, people will hide behind FX and distortion to cover up sloppy playing. I've been guilty of this myself. Nothing like playing acoustic to challenge you to bring your A-game (or your "Gentleman's C" game )

2. It's easy to get carried away and spend more time focusing on fx and distortion rather than the actual worship at hand.

3. If you have a multi-generational audience, you run the risk of dividing versus uniting. While you can't please everyone, I believe that musical sensitivity is very important with an audience that is there for reasons other than to listen to you play.

4. There's a line I think that exists between playing the guitar versus playing an electronic instrument that has a controller in the shape of a guitar. Layer on enough fx, and the argument can be made that a snyth will do just as good of a job.

That being said, with worship service playing, I think the most important thing is to think about what your motivations are in performing. Once you have your motivation in the right place, everything else is a question of style.

I just started playing in my church band we have , drums ,piano, synth, bass , electric guitar acoustic guitar 4 singers. I get tired of church people saying you cant do this or that ,my church is mostly elderly people , but they have the early service and we (i am 45) have the late service where they expect the electric to have distortion and its not about hiding sloppy playing its just the new music is that way.

Exactly. And honestly, how is it we're calling it "new" music in 2011? Distortion in guitars has been around for FIFTY OR SIXTY YEARS NOW. Yet we have to be careful not to offend the throngs of 120-year-olds who've somehow never heard an electric guitar before, because we'd "divide" rather than "unite?

How exactly does that work again? How is it that it's not the crotchety World War I veteran who's not "dividing," by insisting on hearing the same antiquated boring music he heard during his Victorian Age childhood, when the overwhelming majority of most any population outside a retirement community is bored to tears by that and wants something that's relevant to their lives? Particularly where the parishioners are given a choice between traditional music and modern music, as in your church and mine.

The "sloppy playing" and personal attacks on the "motivation" of any player using distortion are two more canards that often come up in defense of anti-modernism as well, which are just as invalid. If the player is sloppy, play better. Distortion is not the problem, just a convenient target for someone with a bone to pick. A player who uses distortion called for by a song is playing for the song, not himself or herself. Such a player is no more wrongly motivated (in fact, quite the opposite) than is the player who insists on watering down a piece's impact so as to avoid misplaced personal attacks on his or her motivation by the anti-modernist faction.

Lest I be accused of being some crazed "youngster" with an animus against traditional music, I grew up in a churched home, listening to traditional church music. I'm 52 and have played in church for at least 15 years. So long as those with a problem with modern music are given a traditional music option, I have yet to see a single valid argument against modern music generally or distortion on guitars in particular. Meanwhile churches are dying everywhere because their worship is not relevant.

Weren't we supposed to be talking about out our rigs? gar1013, what instruments, amps, and effects do you use?

well said brian

We have an 8:30am and 10:30am service and the 10:30 is pretty much the younger crowd.They are pretty good and play electric guitars and I really enjoy that service .The first service which I attend is the older folks and I am only 43 ,so I am actually one of the younger people that attend this service.It is much more mellow than the second service,but I like hangin out with the older folks.The praise band at first service is one gentleman on the piano a bass player and two or three female singers and thats usually it.On an occasion the guitar player from second service will sit in at first service.I am thinking about just asking it they would like me to play acoustic guitar permanently cause it would really sound nice with the piano.I am so much younger than these folks though and I am not sure if they think I would be a good addition.My wife says go for it....Maybe say a prayer for me for those who pray.My heart is there, but not sure how they would feel.I guess I just need to ask the worship leader.I've only played in a blues band...never a worship.Maybe I could add a little harmonica in there

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2010 Fender Mustang 1
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Go for it! You'll never know if you don't ask! Sounds like something God has put there for you to help with; good onya for being willing to help, and for your wife for both supporting you and for being willing to "share" you with everyone else. Prayers said!

I am pretty much in agreement with Brian Krashpad. My church is definintly contemporary (think Lincoln Brewster, Tommy Walker), we still do some of the old hymms but our team leader usually modernizes them. My mains are Am deluxe Tele, Am deluxe Strat, or PRS McCarty, into a Boss ME70 and a Pod as a preamp direct to the PA.
We have a small stage area that I call the telephone booth so stage volume is an issue otherwise I would be using a tube amp. I also play acoustic guitar and mandolin when we do unplugged sets.
I do use effects when the song calls for it, I thinks it's a matter of using common sense. I have seen other P&W bands destroy songs buy over use or lack of effects. Our church has two seperate teams so we only play every two weeks, which leaves me free to help at another church on my off weeks. Our church has some of the most gifted musicians I have ever seen and I consider it an honor to serve. Our team consists of team leader on acoustic and vocals, me on electric, bass,keys ,electronic drums, and three singers.
We recently started a road band with a combination of players and singers from both teams to play different venues, what a blast! I am an old geezer(58) but I still would rather do what I am doing as I just can't relate to some of the old traditional things. As long as we al remember why we are there it's all good to Gods ears

Saute and hats off to all Military Service Players.