Worship Guitar Guy: Simplified Setup

August 16, 2007

I recently came across a post on the benefits of a simplified instrument setup for the worship musician, by Jon Chema at the Worship Guitar Guy blog. The guitar guy(s) there always have insightful posts, but this one caught my eye, mostly because I have been thinking about posting on this topic myself lately! Give it a read, but let me share what I’ve learned (the hard way, after years of lugging needless equipment around)…

Simple is good… I mean, really good. There is already so much going on in preparation for a worship service (especially in a portable church, where the entire PA is reconstructed each week), an equipment setup that:

1. Takes less time to set-up/tear down (so you can spend time with people),
2. Has the fewest number of components to fail, and
3. Is easiest to use in the intensity of a worship session
is going to make life easier for yourself, the sound tech, fellow worshippers, everybody.

My current setup (which is going to kill guitar purists, sorry) is my acoustic (Taylor 310CE) into a PodXT live into the mixer, or my electric (a modified ‘72 Telecaster Custom reissue… simplified with all volume/tone knobs removed!) into the PodXT live and straight into the board. Simple to set up, easier on my back than carrying an an amp (provided you have ample stage monitoring), and very reliable.

I see some other folks posting their setup on the comments at WGG… check them out and ask, “what can I do without this week?”

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