The Pursuit of Tone (updated 28/01/09)
There are varying opinions of the best way to build a guitar rig to achieve that ultimate, but sometimes elusive tone. Nowadays with so many choices and options out there it’s easier to end up with a bad sound. Different playing environments can call for different setups, but, based on what has worked for us here at Hillsong, I would like to offer a few simple thoughts on some of the basics when it comes to picking out the gear and putting it together.
1. The Guitar
This is obviously the most important tool of which you will express your musical thoughts through. The better a guitar sounds and feels in your hands, then the better you will play. Many people make the mistake of trying to compensate for a cheap or bad sounding axe with more effects where clearly this is not the best approach. Obviously budget will be a factor, but if you’re not sure, stick to some of the more common brand names that have been around for a while. You generally won’t go wrong with them as they’re not out to put out products that will ultimately damage their reputation, whereas something cheap and nasty will sound bad and be hard to play, probably leaving you quite frustrated!
2. The Amplifier
Once again, budget will play a part in what you ultimately purchase, but do consider this: a bad amp can make a good guitar sound bad where as a good amp can make an average guitar sound good. There are several types of amplification available – Tube/valve, solid state, digital modeling and hybrids. For the sake of this article I will talk mostly about tube amplification as this is what is widely used by our players here.
Tube amplifiers have been around the longest and are still the preferred choice for many guitarists. Without going into too much technical detail, these amps have a fat, warm tone that tends to reproduce the guitar signal most naturally. Today, solid state (and amp modeling) technology is as good as it has ever been, and this amplification is often used in PA’s, keyboards, bass amps etc. Though these different types are now so readily available, guitarists still describe tube amps with attributes that are not yet found in the others. You may often hear common descriptions such as “warmth”, “richness”, “feel”, “organic”, “attack” and “sustain” from players using good tube amps.
Tube amps are generally louder than solid state amplifiers with a similar wattage, so do consider one that will be mostly conducive to your playing environment (try comparing a 50 watt solid state to a 50watt tube amp). If you’re just starting out then there’s no point getting a 100 watt stack for your bedroom (or is there?! Some will beg to differ…)
So when buying an amp, take your time and shop around. Take your guitar with you and get familiar with how different amps will sound and respond to your playing. Try different amps in different price ranges, and play them soft and loud…and if you’re not sure just take someone with you. A wise purchase will mean you’ll sound great and have a piece of equipment that should last a very long time.
3. The Effects
The first pedal I ever owned was the original RAT distortion pedal…I later sold it to ‘upgrade’ to a Boss ME-6 multi effects system. Hmmmm…
There are a million choices that have been presented to guitarists, and nowadays much of it is consistently good. Multi effects? Pedals? Here are my thoughts…
I’ve been playing for almost 20 years now and have been through most types of rigs available on the market. Solid state amps, valve, pedals, multi effects, racks, modeling amps etc…but when it comes to using effects I’ve always found myself going back to pedals. Besides its simplicity in working nature, I’ve often found them to least “colour” my sound than other setups. With most multi effects systems, your guitar signal goes through an analog to digital conversion, then through the effects processing, and finally converted back to analog, and it’s in this process that your pure guitar tone is affected. Don’t get me wrong, multi effects serve their purpose in having many sounds at your disposal, not to mention the ease of transport, and nowadays many have come close to not changing your tone at all. Maybe I’m a little more old school, but I do just love having pedals in front of me that I can easily turn on or off, and quickly fiddle with on the fly. And, with its simple internal design and more so now with true bypass capabilities, I find my guitar signal remains mostly unchanged, even with the effect off.
An important thing to consider when acquiring pedals: use pedals to enhance your sound rather than to fix it. If your tone sucks and you’re adding various EQ pedals, chorus, reverb, overdrives etc to compensate for a bad sound, then you’re going about it the wrong way. Start by plugging your guitar straight into your amp, pull a good sound, THEN start inserting effects into your signal chain. Take note of your guitar’s attack, volume and sparkle. When all your pedals are finally set up, turn them all off and your end sound should be no different at all if you unplugged from your board and went direct into your amp.
The Basics:
If you’re starting out and want to know a few must-haves, then let me offer my suggestions…
A good tuner will never go astray. An in-tune guitar is always a good place to start.
A couple of good overdrives to have at least 2 stages of gain…eg rhythm/lead.
A simple delay with a tap tempo function will enhance the ‘dryness’ of your sound. Perhaps a Boss DD-5 or a DD-7 are good options.
Volume pedals, compressors, modulation effects and other bells and whistles can be added later. With every new pedal added, always reference it back to your original tone starting point – a guitar plugged directly into your amp. If there is any loss of tone or level, then you know it’s time to simplify!
4. Peripherals
Never underestimate the importance of a reliable power supply and good quality cables. These are the make-or-break’s in many setups but are often so easily overlooked, and having the right gear will ensure many years of trouble-free operation.
When shopping around for a power supply, look for one that will amply power all your pedals with room for growth. A good quality supply should keep your rig quiet with no hum or buzz, and be flexible enough to power various pedal juice requirements. (eg 9/12v, +ive or –ive tip, ac/dc etc..) An underpowered supply will introduce hum to the rig and will eventually short out and die!
Cables are like the veins through your board, carrying the life of your tone to your amp. Cheap, inadequately shielded cables with poor connectors can suck the goodness out of your guitar signal, often resulting in loss of level and sparkle, and can introduce external artifacts like buzz and hum. Stay away from flimsy multicoloured patch cables between pedals…this is where most tone loss occurs. Many of the guys here use the .155 George L’s for patching as they are extremely flexible, are easlily cut to length and maintain your high frequency sparkle which is so critical in a guitarist’s tone.
Finally, take the time to practice hard, and train your ear in hearing what is good and what is not. A good sound ultimately comes from your fingers. You can have the best gear in the world but if you don’t know how to get the most out of it then it will be a tragic waste. Your ear will be your biggest asset in helping you on your journey to becoming an excellent musician.
Have fun!! Life is too short for bad tone…
Written by Nigel Hendroff
(Updated 28/01/09)
Tags: Gear
Life is too short for bad tone… Haha. my question is does it matter where i put my volume pedal in the chain?
“Life is too short for bad tone…”
Amen Brother, Amen…
Awesome article nigel! just what i needed to hear(read?).
What’s your opinion on what are some of the better “low-end” guitars out there? we all know you play $2500-3000+(US) guitars, but what about the guys that don’t have that kind of money to spend?
Hi Nigel,
When trying out a guitar do you always have the volume and tone nobs all the way up? Also what are you going for when setting the eq for an amp? What settings would you use on your vox for example ( volume, bass, treble, cut nobs)?
Hey Matt,
There are a couple of places you can insert your vol pedal into the chain. Some have it as the first thing they plug into, and this doubles as your volume on your guitar. I personally have my VP after my overdrives and before and modulation effects (trem, delay etc). This allows volume swells and the delays can trail off naturally, as opposed to being cut off if the VP was last.
Take care!
Hi James,
When trying guitars, or amps, I always have all the volume and tone knobs up full. This gives you maximum signal into the amp, and you’ll get an accurate feel of the guitar’s true tone and amp’s responsiveness. With an overdrive channel on an amp, or when running into overdrive pedals, start with the volume knob on full and then try rolling it back and see how this affects your tone and gain.
With my amp settings, I start off with everything flat and then make subtle adjustments from there. I keep the Vox fairly flat, and my Matchless only has a Volume, Tone and Master control which keeps things very simple indeed.
A note with setting EQ for amps: What could sound great for you playing by yourself might not necessarily work in the final mix, when you’re having to compete with vocals, keys, bass, drums etc. For example, if I wind up too much bottom end, our FOH guy will either tell me, or just wind it back out!! On the other hand, a sound that you may think is quite bright at the amp can often help the FOH guy get your guitar cutting through in the mix…and we all know how important that is!!
Work with your sound guys in achieving the best tone (and volume!!) for your amps. They’re our friends, not enemies!!
Hope this helps mate.
Hi Nigel
I’m from South Africa, stomp boxes/pedals are quite expensive here so I bought myself a Boss GT-8 Multifx unit. Its my first effects unit so I’m still busy tweaking it. Just wanted to find out, since u owned an ME-6, if I will be able to create some good tones with it or if I should get rid of it and start from scratch with pedals.
Thanks
Hi Dustin,
Some of the best sounding and feeling guitars i’ve played (and own!) are ones that are well under those prices you mentioned. A guitar may have more bells and whistles so to speak, and certain attributes like age, vintage or not, place of manufacture, custom models etc may jack the price up, but may not necessarily feel or sound better.
There are many options out there for you to choose, and the best bet is to ask a sales person or a pro when it comes down to the final purchase. Remember, you need to feel comfortable with it in your hands.
Good luck mate!
Hi Subash,
I owned that Boss ME-6 about 19 years ago and I’m not that familiar with the workings of the GT-8. What I will say is start with a clean palette by turning off all the effects, sound enhancements, noise gates etc then build your sound from there. Get familiar with how your guitar sounds straight into your amp and use that as your reference when building your effects library. Though you may have a dozen or so effects it doesn’t mean you have to use them all!!!
Have fun…
Dear droff maestro…
What’s your view on pickup heights (as this can have an impact on tone) and what do you usually find works for you and your tone for the neck/bridge pickups?
Lee
Hi Lee,
I keep my pickups levels fairly even…ie not too high or low. The only time i’ve ever had to adjust them is when levels were not evenly matched when changing between neck and bridge. Obviously, when switching between a single coil and humbucker there will be natural level and tone differences, but i just try to match them as best as possible.
So…if when on my neck pickup either has too much bass or too thin, then i’ll adjust the heights accordingly. Same goes for the bridge…the whole time while adjusting I try to keep the levels and tones matched as much as possible. You don’t want different pickups to ‘jump’ out at you, especially on a clean sound where it will be most noticable.
Take care.
Thanks for that nigel.
There’s so many different things that can affect tone right from settings on the guitar to FOH/recording.
One thing that I struggle with is micing up amps. What mic’s do you usually find work best for your amps in a live and recording situation - and what positioning of them works best for you.
Lee
thanks for the reply nigel. when i say “low-end”, i’m talking sub $1000 guitars. any suggestions? how do you “stack” overdrives? I’m also running a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive(which i’m loving) which has good amounts of gain for rhythm, but i’m looking for a higher gain pedal for leads and such, something like a Bad Monkey or SD-1. do you leave the Sparkle Drive on all the time and just flip on the additional ODs for when you need it, or is there only one on at a time?
Hey Mr.Droff,
First I wanna thank you so much for taking the time to do this… It’s really awesome of you to help out all these guitarists that have been dying to figure out just how you do it…
Secondly, I’ve always wanted to ask. I also own a maxon od820, but I find that I’m never able to get enough drive out of it to play rhythm… Do you use the maxon for your rhythm parts?
…A couple of good overdrives to have at least 2 stages of gain…eg rhythm/lead…
Do you use two overdrives simultaneously for your lead tone?
hey mr. droff..
i have recently been experimenting with running two amps in stereo..however ive come to learn that there are a few different ways to accomplish this..
i was wondering how do you run your amps in stereo together? i have been using a 2 direct boxes from my final pedal (nova delay) to my amps..one boxes’ output goes to one amp and the other boxes’ output goes to the other amp..then both amps are miced..(sound guys say im crazy for having 4 channels..i just laugh)
which way has worked best for you?
also..like lee, the mic question is of interest to me too..
thanks for all your advice and for the website! it truly shows how humble your team is..thats jesus!
thanks from texas!
Hey Nigel,
I’m having trouble getting the sound that I want from my setup. I can get a beautiful clean tone (not as nice as I will once I get my ac30), and a nice full distorted tone, but I’m having a hard time getting something in between those gain stages.
I currently own a gretsch duo jet with ______ pickups and my effects chain is
volume pedal
Boss blues driver
visual sound jekyll & hyde
Vox wah
DD20 giga delay
Line6 DL4 delay
Vox Valvetronix AD50
Any suggestions on what I can add to my effects chain to acheive a crunchier, possibly wetter grip on my tone in the mid - gain levels? I just can’t for the life of me get my overdrives to have the right settings. Either I have the volume at 9:00 and the gain past 12 and it sounds bad, or I have the volume around 12 and the gain around 3 and it sounds weak.
oh I meant to say I have the filtertron pickups.
is there something better that could provide a wetter tone?
hey nigel,
i was wondering where i should go from here….ive got a fulltone fulldrive 2. I was wondering how you used yours when you used to have one. Like, did you set it up more for a higher gain overdrive and use the sparkle drive for the light rhythm overdrive sound or what? Also, I was wondering what a good high gain pedal would be. What do you use for a thicker sound (i.e. what the world will never take)?
Hi Tim - re your Fulldrive II question, to get a very warm and fat tone I use the vintage setting as follows:
Volume: just enough to increase rhythm levels for lead
Tone: 9-12 o’clock
Overdrive: 12-full depending on the song
Boost: personal choice here
I use my sparkle drive for extra gain rhythms set as follows:
Gain: zero
Tone: 9-12 o’clock
Clean: 9 o’clock
Volume: set almost identical to my clean volume level
My rig consists of the following:
Boss TU2 into
Timon Klein True by-pass looper
Sparkle Drive
Fulltone Fulldrive 2
Morley volume
Fulltone Clyde Wah
Boss Chorus
Boss DD5
Boss DD7
Both delays are connected to FS-5U
The looper out is connected to a splitter which runs out to my amps. Mesa Boogie F30 (truly brilliant cleans) through stereo Marshall 1936 cab. I am trialling the addition of my Marshall DSL100 (never used) into the stereo mix. Otherwise a trade might be on the cards
Cables are all George L and a Diago Power Supply
Yum Yum
Cheers, Wes
Hey Droff,
I’ve been a huge fan of hillsong and united for a while. I run my pedal board in stereo with a Orange AD 30 and a VOX AC 30. I have all the delays and stuff down but I can’t quite get that good overdrive sound that you guys have. What do I need to do? I have a jeckle and hyde OD pedal.
Hey Nigel,
What BOSS overdrives or distortion would you recommend ?
Hi Tim - in response to your question re the Fulldrive, try this:
Fulltone Fulldrive 2 - vintage setting
Volume: slightly above overdriven rhythm volume
Tone: 9-12 o’clock
Gain: 12 o’clock + depending on what you want
Boost: personal choice here (i like it full for most)
Sparkle Drive:
Gain: zero
Tone: 9-12 o’clock
Clean: 9 o’clock
Volume: same or slightly above clean volume
I run these (among others) through a Timon Klein True By-Pass Looper, then out a splitter into my amps. All connections are George L
Cheers and keep plucking
Wes
Droff,
Setup question for you Gretsch. Not sure if you have answered this one already but since you said you set your own guitar up, did you use double-sided tape for the floating bridge? Any thoughts on if you should or not?
Hi, Dustin, first off… when switching from rhythm to leads its important to remember less is more… i always set my rhythm settings on the tube screamer or whatever under 12 o’clock.. but that is when i have my compressor driving my amp a little bit… one constant that i can hear in almost all of the guitar players at hillsong is that their lead tone is very clear and clean… its not distorted at all… its fat and full of sustain. i would recomend using an overdrive like the one you have, then adding for a lead part on top of it a clean boost… there are many clean boosts out there such as the keeley katana boost. i personaly use the voodoo lab sparkle drive set to a clean setting but with the volume up just a bit from my reference point (the original rhythm setting). so when i add the sparkle drive to the tube screamer it just enhances the tone of the sparkle drive and your amp… doesnt really add more gain, but makes more sustain and more presence…. hope this helps
Hi Glenn, i recently spoke with timon klein (another hillsong guitarist) at the hillsong united conference here in houston a few months back. He said a lot of the lead tones are acheived by stacking an overdrive with a boost…. i.e. a tubescreamer then a sparkle drive set to a clean setting, or a tubescreamer the a katana boost. there are a lot of clean boosts out there that can do this… the overall goal is to not change the main tone of your amp… just enhance it.
Hey Thomas,
These are just my thoughts.
Make sure you keep your amp clean as it will effect the tones you will be getting from your pedals…
And with the jekyll and hyde you have, only keep the Overdrive side turned on, and keep the drive of that side turned down pretty low.
I’m pretty sure you knew all of those already… but if not… I hope it helped a little
I feel ya Jeremy. when i have the cleans up really high on my sparkle drive it tends to get lost in the mix. but yes i dont have another clean boost under it. i’m also trying to figure out the right tone like that used on “free” or “what the world will never take” thats a fat, mid gain(?) sound.
to jeremy, oh yeah i dont have a compressor either. i like that its clean, but i also like that its piercing, which is what i’m not getting.
how important is a compressor? i love using delay, but sometimes that initial delay attack is too loud or doesn’t fit, especially with hammer-ons and lead lines(i’m using a DD20). does it normally get turned off or could i use the compressor to turn down the attack?
“Stay away from flimsy multicoloured patch cables between pedals…this is where most tone loss occurs.”
Haha. This is exactly what I am using on my setup. I’ll be sure to invest in some better cables. I enjoyed this article. I have a lot of things to change about my setup after reading this. I am excited to hear the fullness of my equipment though when I am done.
Hi nigel
i own a dd-5 what settings do i use for the delay on the time has come.
also would you recommend a strat or a tele.
hey Nigel, just wandering how much reverb you use in your sound to get that full sound?
Hello Nigel, Back to Guitar/Amp settings would you apply the same idea of guitar pickup full on and the then adjust the amp. I play Accoustic Guitar I have the usual Bs/Mid/Hi/Pres and Vol going to an accoustic amp? Also, rather than mic the amp I go out of the built in post EQ Di and use the amp as my monitor, does that sound about right or would you do something different there?
Cheers
Dean
Hi, does anyone know the specific dimenions of nigel’s pedal board?
Is it 800mm x 450mm ?
Gary
Hey DJ,
I actually only use the distortion side of my Jekyll and Hyde, it really sounds beautiful, I get a very good distorted tone from it that really just works great. And I don’t actually even use the overdrive because anytime I’ve tried to work to get it to sound good it always ends up super mid-dy and just yucky. Do you have a Jekyll and Hyde and have a good overdrive setting? any tips for me?
Hi, Droff! Great insight on building a good tone!
One thing you said and I just discovered is the importance of a good amp - it took me 9 years to realize that
But it’s never too late 
Hey nigel i have a few effects pedals and a multi effects unit, and they are, the Proco RAT 2 distortion, Digitech badmonkey tube overdrive,Boss DD-7 Digital delay, and a Boss CE-5 Chorus ensemble, and the Multi effects thing is a really old Digitech RP20 valve multi effects processor wich i only use for the tuner Wah and volume pedal, and iv been playing for about a year now
and have played live more than 30 times im just a kid so i cant afford effects and stuff like that i play all the leads and solos that you do and stuff and love your tone so any advice you can give is appreciated, oh yeah and i have a strat. + i want to get a Ernieball VP jr volume pedal a Crybaby wah and the Boss TU-2 tuner and what is a good Pedalboard?
Dustin, if you run the sparkle drive after a tube screamer in the signal chain but stack them… You should get that clean mid range fat sound that cuts through the mix… It also depends on what kind of amp you are running… What amp do you use?
Gary, i’m 99% sure that his board is 800mm x 450mm but it might be slightly bigger height wise, maybe 460 or 470.
To droff, timon, jad or any electric guitar player who gets to this question:
I’m planning to buy my first tube amp for my graduation present. I have been playing for six years now and I want a tube really badly. My question is, should I start out with a less expensive tube amp like AC15 or Crate V series or go for the expensive ones if I can, like Mesa Boogie Lonestar (I really like it)?
I don’t know if I’ll play for a church in college when I leave home. I think that has an impact on my amp decision.
Brian,
My advice to you would be to go with maybe an AC-15… only because its smaller and more portable… but still has great tone… i personally use two AC-30’s but thats only for when our worship team has a big worship night… but for every sunday i just use the AC-30… but its still very big and very heavy… so if you dont mind having to lug that thing around everywhere go for the AC-30… but the 15 still has great tone… just at a lower volume… as far as the crate and the mesa… those are great amps but they will have a lot more break up to them than the ac15 or ac30 would… the beauty of the vox amps is that they have very “chimy” tones to them… very clean sounds… but when you run an overdrive in front of them they sound incredible… i can get my vox sounding like two Marshall Full Stacks tone wise… maybe not as loud but you get what i mean… but the vox is a very versital amp… and versital is awesome for church… especially when you are playing all different kinds of music.
Brian i say that you go with the Vox ac 15 their cheap and sound great, and you have to take into consideration with tube amps you have to replace the tubes, another consideration is getting a solid state amp and getting a Zvex micro amp witch gives tube sound and stuff like that.
hey droff, i’ve been buying some nice pedals. fulltone ocd, tc electronic nova delay, got your typical boss tu-2. but the drive is just a bit heavy for my church, and what really would be good for my amp is a nice clean boost pedal, but i don’t really know what to get. I use an Orange Tiny Terror full valve. i was thinking maybe zvex super hard-on.. any suggestions, thanks jordan
Brian- try to find a used ac15 or 30. They’re great amps and being used you’ll save on $ and not take a hit assuming you decide its not your cup of tea and want to sell for another one.
The ac15 is great for a great organic ( chimey tone). the crates i would stay away from. great for when your in a pinch but not somthing guitarists go for as first of choice ( as he said life is too short for bad tone)
Hey there Brian.
A few things to consider when buying your amp.
Portability. A big expensive tube amp is nice, but they are very heavy! If you need to be able to transport your amp a lot and don’t plan on having it in a road case then smaller is probably more manageable.
Overall volume. You mentioned that you’re not sure if you’ll be playing at church or not, though I’m sure you’ll be playing it in your room.
Therefore it’s important to consider how loud you’ll be able to run the amp. As I said before, a big loud tube amp is awesome, however they really need to be running fairly loud to achieve a good open sound with good sustain. Running a big wattage amp low, and getting gain from your overdrives will add a lot of compression and decrease the overall responsiveness.
Having a lower wattage all tube amp allows you to get a fantastic tube amp sound at levels that won’t annoy the neighbours or your fellow musicians on stage.
If you are playing at church, will the amp be on stage?
How big is the room etc?
Here at Hillsong we use amp boxes (behind / under stage) that allow us to run the amps hotter while still containing the sound.
I’d recommend something like the AC15. It’s portable and can produce a great open tube sound at lower volumes. They’re also very receptive to pedals
Hope this helps.
bless…
Hey there Dave. With regards to your question about Nigel and reverb, neither of his amps have it and as you’ll see there is no reverb pedal on his board. In fact none of the guys (that I’m aware of) use a reverb pedal. I think that fullness you mentioned is born a lot from experience, and with knowing how to set up a great sound - something I’m still learning! At times Nigel does use delay even when playing rhythm, though I’m not sure how regularly he does that.
Brian,
i personally would recommend going with the amp that sounds best to you. you don’t need to spend $5000 on an amp to get the best sound. my suggestion would be to decide first what you would use the amp for, and what features you are looking for in an amp (ie. an overdrive channel, reverb, tremolo etc), bearing in mind that tube amps are alot more powerful than solid state amps (ie. a 30 watt tube amp is alot louder then a 30 watt solid state amp). from there look at as many amps as possible that have those specs and compare them, from there pick an amp that suits you best. you’ll notice if you look at the other thread about droffs gear that he only uses an AC15, so clearly you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get a great sounding amp. hope that helps you mate.
Jeremy, is there anyway I could get your email so i could shoot you some questions? i’m thinking about picking up another overdrive that has higher gain because we don’t only do songs in the nature of Salvation is Here, but also some songs in the fashion of What the World Will Never Take and Free and although i know droff uses two different guitars, i’m looking for a similar crunchier sound on those kinds of songs and still be able to back it all off for a cleaner sound via the sparkle drive. I was wondering how that could be worked out with the two overdrive pedals. would i use the sparkle drive in a similar fashion to what Jeremy described(use a tubscreamer(probably going with either a TS9 or Bad Monkey and then flip on the sparkle drive with all the gain off and clean all the way up for leads), or would i do something like flip the OD on and off that I need, or leave the sparkle drive on to a setting that i would use for the cleaner sounding songs and flip on the tubescreamer for the songs that i need it and flip it off after?
I’m looking for an amp with really nice cleans “chime” like what Hillsong has or The Edge from U2. I’m not trying to get the exact sound but somewhere in that ball park. I would like an overdrive channel but not too heavy like a Mesa Rectifier. Also a reverb would be nice. I don’t care much for tremolo, I use a pedal for it. I really don’t know what I would be using the amp for because I’m going to college. I’m not going to play for my current church anymore. I could end up playing for a church in my college. I guess ac15 is the best deal and much more likely to buy than the Mesa Lonestar because of the price.
Dustin, my email is Jreed1235@me.com i would still go with my first recommendation… when you stack the sparkle drive on top of an overdrive it increases the output but also increases the sensitivity of the attack… so really the control of how much crunch you get out of it depends on how hard you strike the string… hope this helps
Hey guys…just letting you know that i’ve posted my signal chain under “the Droff’s Gear” writeup….
hope it helps.
Hey there was a post on here about a amp box…. I was wondering if these could be purchased or are they homemade? Also how are they made?
Eric, are you talking about the A/B/Y amp switcher on the top left of Jad’s board? that one is bought, made by a company called Radial, its called the big shot. i’m pretty sure you can make them yourself though.
I have a fulltone fulldrive and I noticed a lot of guys at hillsong use this pedal.I was wondering if you have one and if you do, how do you use it.
Many apologies, as i forgot to add this in the last post. I use 2 schecter tempest guitars, one fitted with a duncan 59 and JB and the other fitted with an EMG 81 and 60A.
Would the duncan equiped guitar be more of a preference to the hillsong music? as i love playing my EMG and it would sound great overdrive wise but im not sure it i would get away using it on the clean delays etc.
Many Thanks
Hello Hillsong guitarists,
I really enjoy the tone of the lead guitar in Run. I was wondering what guitar was being used for lead part for that song. I noticed it wasn’t the normal filtertrons in Nigel’s Gretsch and it sure didn’t sound like the Dusenberg any of you folks have. My guess was the dynasonics in some of the Gretsches? Or perhaps a different guitar? Or perhaps it is one of the guitars that I mentioned already. Thanks
Hey Chris.
I’m not 100% sure on this but I think it was Dylan who played that line. Hey plays a Tennesse Rose.
Hey hillsong guitar players,
i was wondering….. ok so i play at my church for worship and we do alot alot of hillsong so i was wondering what should i do to get that full on hillsong sound? im currently playing with an apollo. which is a vintage brand its basically like grestch. thanks guys… God bless you:) your doing a good thing down there
Hello guys,
I have started playing acoustic guitar at Church in the UK, we play loads of Hillsong songs here. How do your acoustic guitarists set up the tone of their instruments as a starting point e.g. Bass, Mid (Frequency), Treb, Presence. Also, do they set guitar to mid points, mix in the house and then adjust from those mid points themselves? Any advice would be great apart from leaving it all to the sound engineer as I think the musician needs to have a decision in the final tone.
Cheers
Dean
Hi hillong team,
i’m a beginner in a music team here in our local church, could you please tell me your preferred setting for a fender princeton 650 amplifier co’z i’m finding it hard to have a good sound especially all of us are beginners, the bass guitarist, the keyboard, the drummer and i the guitarist.. Thamk you God bless you all….
Hi hillsong united,
I’m a beginner guitar player in our local church, could you please tell me your preffered setting for a fender princeton 650 amplifier co’z i’m finding it hard to have a good sound especially we are all beginner players the bass guitarist, the drummer, the keybord and i the guitarist could you please help us to improve our sound…. Thank you God bless you all…. FOr the glory of our God…
Hey Michael what is Dylans last name? i was wondering who played on the song this is our god it wasnt nigel for that song. i saw who it was on the video.
In your “pursuit of tone” outside of the gear aspect your fingers alone play a big part. What are some good exercises or techniques you have used over the years, other than lots of practice, to get good tone from the hands/fingers.
Hope this is not to far off topic
Thank You
Hey guys!
I’m using fender princeton 650 amp w/ built in effects, what’s the best EQ setup and gain for distorion tone
Hi Nigel, I’m from Argentina and I like the guitar Duesenberg starplayer tv you have not reached that mark here, which Gretsch guitar, gibson, fender prs or recommend me, that sounds like the starplayer tv? Thanks
How do you go about writing a good guitar hook to start a song/carry out through a song? Ya know, the kind of hook where people hear three notes and go “Hey! I know this one!”
hi droff,
how about the strings you use?
hi droff. i like your guitar sounds very powerful
hi marco…please see ‘the droff’s gear’ article…thanks!
hey Droff,
I have a question about a guitar. I play an SG special and im not liking it all that much. The amp i have is a fender ‘65 deluxe reverb reissue and i play on a lot of the same pedals you guys use. I am interested in the gretsch Black Penguin (mikey chislett’s gretsch) but its a bit pricey. i was wondering if its worth the price because i know there’s a lot of gold and pearl fancy stuff on it that probably add to the price. I dont want to end up paying for the looks more than tone ya know. And I cant seem to try it out anywhere for myself so ill just trust your opinion and ya great ear! So is that guitar worth it or would i be better off with something else? thanks!
Hi droff. I have watched you from the album “You are my world” onwards and saw your guitars evolve change from time to time. Is it necessary to switch guitars for different songs and does it help you produce the right sound for the songs?
I’ve been trying to earn enough money to buy an electric guitar but I’m thinking of what Guitar should I buy when it comes to using it for praise and worship songs?
Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.
Thanks for your posts, really helped me to start acquiring the right gear. =)
God bless you all!
Hey Droff & Jad and all you other guitar enthusiasts,
So im getting my Gibson Les Paul Vintage Mahogany this week and im also looking into a new amp, TUBE/VALVE (my opinion the only way to go).
Here is my predicament. People tell me to get a Fender Deville 2×12 or 4×10. I want to get an amp for worship and messing around, im not planning on doing anything like hillsong does any time soon tho it would be sweet. Anyway People have also told me about Blackheart Amps and how there the way to go. Here is my preferable budget, 600.00 $$ USA. There is also the Vox AC-15. What do you recommend on a tube amp, any of the options i listed?
Fender Deville, Blackheart, Vox AC-15. 600.00 $$ budget, would love some input. The sound im looking for is generally hillsong style, i play rhythm and lead.
if this helps my pedal board is:
Boss TU-2 tuner
Volume pedal
Ibanez Tube Screamer w/ boost MOD
Boss Flanger
Visual Sound Chorus/Echo
DD-5 w/ tap tempo
JHS Boost Pedal
Any help on an amp under the specifications above would be helpful
Blessings
Kenny
Hey Jeremy R. I saw that you had said that you can get your Voxes sounding like 2 Marshall full stacks. What pedals and what eq settings on the amp do you use to achieve this tone?
Question…Where do you set your cut control on the VOX?
hey this question is for anyone who can answer. I’m currently planning on buying either a new gretsch guitar, or a deusenberg. Im currently looking at the new pro jets w/ dynosonic pickups. I realize the new ones are never as good as the old ones, at least when it comes to dynasonic, and im looking to do as little to no mod work if possible. I have heard that the dynasonics are very difficult to work with sometimes, and struggle to cooperate with any typ of overdrive pedals. But on the upside, when used correctly, they can yeild probably the brightest warmest tone around. would you recomend a gretsch with dynasonic, filtertron, or megatron pickups, or should i just purchase a deusenberg and be safe?
Eric, with my AC-30 i run the EQ as follow
Bass: 3 o’clock
Treble: 12 o’clock
i turn the tone cut all the way down… or to the left…
i run on the top boost channel… with the channel volume at around 10 o’clock and the master around 12 o’clock…
This will give you a great clean sound… the trick to the marshall stack sound is having a great compressor such as the keeley and a great overdrive… i use the keeley compressor and for that type of sound i use the fulltone fulldrive 2…. i have a bunch of different overdrives so if you want to shoot me an email i’ll email you a picture of my pedalboard so you can see how i have the pedal settings… Jreed1235@me.com
P.S. if anyone else out there wants a pic of my board to see how i run things feel free to shoot me an email… just so you know its very close to jad, nigel, and timon’s board…
Kenny I love the VOX AC-15,I play it every time I go to Guitar Center, and its in your budget. its good for messing around and for worship. but thats just my opine
“With most multi effects systems, your guitar signal goes through an analog to digital conversion, then through the effects processing, and finally converted back to analog, and it’s in this process that your pure guitar tone is affected” u say
How does this process affect the tone? Badly - (infered?)Are u saying that turning on (no bypass) 10 analogue pedals does nothing bad to the signal (sound)? I would suggest it would be so noisy that it is unusable in most situations; maybe the digital multi-fx isn’t so bad after all. Try a GT-8 or 10. also add up the cost of all the pedals, tuner. patching, switches, etc - multi-fx looks to be good value. Not everyone can buy all u would suggest. If a gt-8/10 is too much too handle, try a ME-50 - v easy to use.
Hey Nigel, I was just wondering what type of Vox ac-15 you have? Is it the one with celestion alnico speakers, or the one with wharfdales? Thanks a lot, God Bless!
hey nigel or anybody in the hillsong guitarist,
what kind of picks are you guys using? which one is good for rythm or lead? thanks..
Hi Andy,
I’ve recently discovered that the choice of pick you use does actually make a significant difference. It’s almost as effective as another pedal for example.
I’ve started using the blue herdim picks (upside down) like the edge uses and it makes a lovely chime sound which cuts through the mix. It’s fantastic for lead/semi muted lead with dotted 8th echo, but also works for chords too.
The best thing to do is to try a variety of picks (jim dunlop, Herdim) with different thicknesses and experiment with the different sounds you get and how they feel when playing.
For acoustic, i like a much thinner jim dunlop pick as I like the acoustic to sit nicely in the mix with a fuller sound rather than stand out too sharply.
Lee
Nick,
I think this was answered somewhere in the posts, but I b elieve Nigel uses a 1990’s british made box with everything standard (which i think is wharfdale).
I have one of the newer chinese made ones (CC1) which aren’t as beautifully made as the british ones but are just as fantastic in sound providing nothing goes wrong with it. Mine has been fine so far after 3 months. God is good!
Lee
Hey guys I run my mic on the right speaker of my AC-30 and I was wondering how to EQ the mic to get the clearest sound possible. Can someone please tell me their EQ mic settings
Jeremy. I noticed that the new fulltone fulldrive you mentioned has a boost feature wich im assuming is for leads and such. Is this boost feature/drive pedal alone enough to cut through the mix, or do you stack it w/ another pedal? I’ve tried it and i love it, but obviously i havnt been able to try it in a live situation so i don’t know if it will solve my problem. I’m currently planning on buying the fulltone, im wondering if thats all i need to purchase. My current problem is obviously cutting through the mix effectively during leads w/out needing the sound crew to boost me up on the main faders during solo’s. Any help is greatly appreciated! thanks
Those who use the chinese AC30 or AC15, don’t forget to do a bright cap mod! It will make your amp sound like the original AC30..Huge difference! Especially if your playing a strat or a tele.
Cheers!
Good advice. I don’t have the best stuff in the world but I manage to get a good sound with decent volume out of a Peavey Raptor, an Ibanez practice amp, and a digitech RP50. Just loud enough without a drummer which we don’t have right now but I’ve managed to reproduce a couple of sounds to songs on this website. I don’t have money for a new guitar but mine already sounds way better then it should.
I currently have a fender strat squier affinity and i think it is time to upgrade my guitar.
I really like the gretsch white falcon, however I can’t convince my parents. Does anyone have any ideas on a good versatile guitar under the 1500 dollar mark?
Hey guys I was wondering what type of mics you use to mic your amps?
Hey hillsong guitar players,
I’ve been trying to figure out how you guys go from guitar to guitar without having to tweek your amp or pedals. For example Jad switches from a Gibson Les Paul to a Fender Telecaster, you can clearly tell when he is using either one but he does not spent 30 minutes getting his sound just right again… How do I do that? I play through a Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson SG, sometimes i use my epiphone les paul.
Thanks.
-Josiah
hey jeremy, i was wondering what you would recommend me buying along with my fulltone fulldrive pedal. I recently got one and i love it, but i just feel like something is missing, and i still occasionally have trouble cutting through mixes when switching from a light distortion to a heavier more saturated distortion, especially during solo’s. I also love the vintage sound, but i noticed the boost isnt as loud as it is when i using the comp cut mode. Weird? What do you recommend, or better yet, how do you use your fulldrive i.e settings eq’s and modes effectively during live play?
Hey Nigel,
i have a BOSS Distortion DD-1 pedal, and i need some advice on settings for it, and how to use it at its fullest, since i also play for i church. im a beginner and i have an Ibanez RG220b with a no name amp, and i thought hacve the pedal can help build the sound your talking about. I just need help since i get advice form other guitarist at my church, but i feel they really don’t help. can you help me out?
Hey Bo,
To answer you question about Gretsches… I’ve played on many Gretsches before, however, I never had the money to afford one, so never thoguht I could ever own one for a long time. The Pro Jets are cheap, but didn’t come close to a good Duo Jet. The Pro Jet is basically a Les Paul, with a lil bit of chambering, and with Gretsch humbucker pickups in (which dont sound awful!). I decided to buy one of these in the end, to turn it into a Duo Jet, which is pretty easy. I installed a rocking bar bridge, grover tuners, B3 V bigsby, two more pots for the extra controls, new wiring harness, chambering more, and TV Jones Classics pickups. Now I can honestly say I cannot tell the difference between how this sounds, and a new Duo Jet with filters in. The only things which are different is the height of the neck, which is shallower than a Duo Jet, which means a small piece of wood for the bridge to sit on is not needed, and the pearl inlays on the fretboard. and of course the Electromatic logo…
I don’t think you can get a Pro Jet with Dynasonics in. I think you should give TV Jones a look, he makes Classics pickups which are made to replicate the sound of vintage gretsch filtertrons, which sound way better than Gretsch’s own filtertrons now. If you’re after the dynasonic sound, try TV’s magnatrons. Hope this helps!
Hey guys, this may be a little off subject, but I’m wondering what type of education the guitarists have? Did you guys go to a college for music or have you learned on your own?
Also what do you think are some of the most important things you have learned about music/guitar over the years? What should guitarist spend their practice time learning?
Ok so I’ve come to the conclusion my Vox AC-30 sounds like crap. So many people have told me their amp settings on here and I really dislike the sound. I mean the thing sounds like a box full of harsh gritty treble. I still have to find a way to smooth out the treble and get a nice smooth overdrive. I would really like to know how nigel sets his amps but I never get a reply. I’m very frusterated because I don’t want to sound like junk when playing. I’m just looking for that perfect tone and I can’t find it.
thanks for this article. it is pretty cool. I play in a church but i am on a low budget I need an amp what should I choose? I am getting a carvin SX-100 for a price within my budget. It is a small amp but its pretty good for the price.
Nigel, I own a Fender Hotrod Deluxe Amp, DL-4 Line 6 Delay, Fulldrive 2 (By Fulltone), Ibanez Tube Screamer, and several others which are irrelevant. My point is this though, with these differant combinations I find that I can replicate certain tones I’ve come to appreciate for playing contemporary worship music. I have not however found a way to get that Shimmer sound one gets from playing through an AC-30 or 15. Any clue about how to achieve this without dropping a ton on a new amp? Thanks.
Bo,
I’ve been feeling a gretsch too. i only hear good things about them, you get some sort of filtertron-like pickups and a bigsby.
on the other hand, i’ve heard duesenbergs described as “a cross b/w a les paul and a gretsch”, sounds like the perfect guitar to me…
Hey Nigel felt that this article helped me alot. much appreciated, but one question. My youth ministry had started a band well everyone there is musicly talented and all. We have decent guitar such as an acoustic taylor and fender custom strat and all. But know we need amps i ask everyone they dont know were willing to spend $5,000 for amps for me and the bass is that enought?
Hey droff.
Ron here from India and im an average player.At present i have a roland amp and a JandD electric guitar with me so im kinda planning to upgrade my equipment so i was thinking mayebe a couple of OD/DS pedals as per how u have suggested but i kinda need some help on my setup…and other suff that i need to know . And even about which pedal board do u recomend which would not break easily…?and how do u set up ur pedal borad with the power supply……so and so forth….Thanks..
god bless..
Ron B. Hillsong rules
I’ve been completing my pedalboard for a while now, and I have been using my own homemade board to set my pedals on. I was wondering what the guys at Hillsong, or anybody for that matter, recommend using for the actual pedal BOARD. I don’t need any power supply or special storage underneath– just a good, solid board that will work when our worship team travels. I like how some of your boards have the handles on the side to pull out of the case, but all I can find is Pedaltrain boards. Any suggestions?
Cameron,
They all use boards made by one of the guitarists from Hillsong, Timon. I use his boards too and they’re awesome, i’d recommend them.
His website is
timonkleinindustries.com
Bo, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the gretsch corvette, maybe thats an option.
if your looking for brightness and maybe a lil more versatility, maybe even a telecaster?
HI Droff
Quick question what are your settings on you Line 6 mm4? And do you use the expression pedal with it?
Cheers!
Mark
hey nigel!!
what do you think about Pod X3live of line 6? is it worth buying a multieffects gadget or a single one?
and why do you you use Gretsch guitars than other ones? hmm.. like ur new guitar..
God Bless bro! we love ur stlye from Tucson Arizona!! keep it up!!
Hey guys love what you guys are doing.
Quick question, i know you guys use the Vox ac-30 mostly for how clean they sound, but what amp sounds the best with overdrive/distortion?
I use a Roland jc-120, and it sounds great for cleans and such. But I somtimes have trouble making my overdrives/distortion sound
Droff,
How do you run your guitar controls? Leave everything on 10? Or do you roll back on the tone/volume controls? Thanks!
Oh I see its a T.klein . . . nice. Hmmmmm . . . . interesting.
Hi Droff,
OK so I think you have an original version of the Visual Sound’s Jeckyll & Hyde… But i hve the newest version. I noticed that for the overdrive half there is are drive, tone, and volume knobs and i don’t think thats different from the old version and on the distortion side I have drive, high, mids, and volume, but i think it’s different on the other one. Is this true? And also it seems that the distortion side can get almost to heavy for what I play. Any tips? Then also I wnat to get a TS9, and I know the TS808 is way better, but I’m getting the Visual Sound Route 808 which is almost e replica of the TS808, so should I just go with the TS9 for a nice overdrive or not waste the money on my 3rd overdrive and spend it on something better? Any tips on waht to buy if so?
Peace!
Jonathan
Hey Mr. Hendroff I met you at Wave Church A month ago on a Sunday Night. I have a question. What Overdrive would you suggest for a Bandit 112? I want two of them. What would be good for a praise song and then a Worship song for a strong clean sound thanks ,Matt!
hey Timon, just wondering what kind of strat do you use? do you change the pickups? what is it? I like your tone too..
Hey man. I’m a big fan of you guys and the great sounds you get! I’m really keen on your delay tricks espescialy the melodic/single note stuff Michael Guy did. Do your drummers always work with a click? And do you have any tips for me, I’ve got a line 6 dl4 which is very cool but struggle to get that triplet feel thing going.
hey nigel,
Im just wondering how would you arrange my pedals, as of the moment i have Eb Vp, sparkle drive, distortion + mxr, zvex super hard on, ibanez de7 and a line6 dl4 =)
let me hear from your thoughts! thank you! God bless!
Nigel,
How do you get the triplet delay out of the Boss DD5? How can you set up two Boss Delay pedals to one tap tempo switch? How you do run your two amps together? Are they stereo through a stereo effect or do you just use a “Y” cable? Do you set the amp’s clean and get your overdrive from pedals? Sorry for so many questions but I just recently ran across your YouTube videos and just love your playing and your sound!
Hey Nigel,
I’ve recently started playing in a worship band at my church. Right now, I’m just using a Line 6 POD 2.0, but I’ve been meaning to switch over to single-effects pedals. What would you recommend that I use for a start. I don’t know where to begin. By the way, I use a Epiphone Les Paul, Fender Telecaster MIM, and Kustom Coupe `72 amp.
Thanks,
-Mike
Hey Nigel, i know you can get sustain from your Overdrive, am wondering, i use set it like this: 2 oclock- gain, 1 oclock- level and 12 oclock tone. I dont wanna use a compressor to sustain. HOw can i set it to get that really sustain that leads also to a feedback?
hey nige,
I have a VOX AC30CC and I was just wondering,cause I know you use one as well..or used to.But like in terms of overdrive and that what are you using?and Im not sure (im really hoping) but is there a way to manouver the between the dirty and clean channel without swapping the inputs on the amp…yeha I shouldve looked at that before I bought it…
Thanks mate
A.
Hey Andy,
I’m pretty sure Timon uses an American Vintage ‘57 Strat, fitted with the Samarian Cobalt Noiseless pickups, played with the covers on. Though i saw a photo somewhere of Timon at the Hillsong conference in toronto playing what looked more like a Deluxe Players Strat. I’m not 100% sure though, there are a million different models of the Stratocaster its hard to tell them all apart. I don’t know if he owns both guitars either, but he definitely owns the first one.
Diky, i would arrange your effects like this,
Sparkle Drive
Super Hard On
Distortion +
Volume Pedal
DE-7
DL-4
i don’t think it matters much which order the delays are in, i only put them that way because you can run a stereo delay with the DL-4 so you’d want that last if you were to run it that way. play around with your order a bit though, find out what works for you and what doesn’t, you might find that you hate the way i’ve arranged it and it doesn’t work for you at all.
Also, if you don’t already have one, i suggest a good tuner, seems thats about the only essential item you don’t have there already.
Hey Nigel
Jas here, just asking i have a Line 6 pod X3 live and now i want to get a really good Gibson les paul. Can you tell me where to get a nice and good sounding Gibon Les Paul from? if you could it would be really helpful of you. THANKS, GOD BLESS
JAS
Heya Droff, or anyone else who can answer.
I own an Agile AL-3100, which is a well built guitar with high quality woods, like high end mahogany and birdseye maple. I’d recommend this guitar to anyone looking for a good Les Paul style guitar. The one problem is, the pickups are kinda lame. They sound great, but a little weak at some times. My question is, what kind of pickups would be good for that rocky kind of Hillsong sound? I’m looking at the Seymour Duncan SH11 Custom bridge pickup and the Seymour Duncan ‘59 neck. Does anyone think this’ll do it for me?
Hello,
I see that you use a Jekyll & Hyde Overdrive pedal. I have a good tone on the Jeykll side. Its a nice crisp overdrive sound but I am struggling to find a good tone that compliments it. I tried one of the presets of the British stack. It is a nice tone but doesn’t get the sound I want. Do you have any recommendations. I also am running a TS9DX in front of it. If that changes some thinking.
hi droff, what are your current amp settings right now? i cant seem to get the right tone from my pod x3 live.
hey nigel,
just two questions, do you always run a delay over every worship song?, for example, lets say the song gets intense and you go into an overdrive, do you put a delay on top of it so it doesnt overpower the song?
and another question how do you get those whale sounds, does it take more than a delay pedal and a volume?, do you put extra raverb on it?
thx much
God Bless
I thought I’d throw out some suggestions as there are a lot of younger members here in search of that perfect Tone.
I play thru this moderately priced set up at my church in Hagerstown, Maryland in the States.
Gibson Les Paul or Epiphone Dot into…
Boss Tuner ->
Dunlop Original Wah ->
Radial Line switcher channel A is Clean, B for Overdrives->
Boss Line Selector
Channel A is a Fulltone Fulldrive set for mild overdrive. Volume 1 oclock, Tone 3 oclock, switch FM, Gain 9 oclock… which is pretty low but with humbuckers is enough, Boost 9 oclock.
Channel B is a Ocean EFX Texas Deuce which is kind of a Tubescreamer on steroids. Sound a million times better and has more organic and natural gain. Its is my personal favorite pedal and is used for heavier leads.
Then we go into a Boss DD-5 for that crazy off the wall delay sounds. I set it 12 oclock for every knob.
Then we go to a Whirlwind AB/Y. One goes to a Fender Twin. The other goes to a light delay made my Ocean Effects called the Vintage Echo. Its set to be on all the time with a light ambient sound. That then goes to a Vox AC30.
Both amps are clean and loud. The vox is on the brink of overdrive.
I have found a few things in my travels. Mix american and british amps. Pick one that is marshall/vox/ or any el34 style amp. Then pick one that is Fender/dumble/6l6 type tube amp. This will complement each other nicely.
I use the Boss line selector to pick between 2 overdrives without having to turn either on or off. It saves your feet from having to stomp on lots of things.
Good luck and remember Watts are not everything. Some of the best amps in the world are 10-20 watts. Stay away from Line 6 and Digitech unless you have to for sound purposes. They will not give you a hillsong like sound.
Good luck.
Jeremy G
Hi Droff, I have a question.
Can I plug my Digitech RP250 multiprocessor pedal to a single pendal for example: Boss DS-1 Distortion and my Digitech using delay enfect? it is good or no?
thank you!
Hie Droff
How dose one compensate for a bad amp tone especialy when he eq’s are not working properly?
Thank You1
Hey Nigel
Ive got myself a
Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
Boss DD-5 Digital Delay
Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde Ultimate Overdrive
Ive also got a boss phaser and a boss volume which i got given to me
im saving for a new guitar (im only 13) and i want to know what should be my next pedal?
hi nigel just wanna ask what kind of guitar pickups are you using (Dimarzio tone zone, airnorton etc) tnx godbless
First just wanna say thanks guys for taking the time to help spread the wealth!
I have a couple of questions for…well pretty much anyone who’s in the know (Tim or Droff would be amazing…).
I really liked the tone of the Duesenbergs with the P-90/Vintage Bucker combination, so I decided to do up my Ibanez Artcore full hollowbody with the same combo. I went with GFS mean-90 in the neck and a GFS Hot Nashville in the bridge (basically an overwound P-90 and a TV-Jones). It’s basically an Imperial without the high quality odds and ends.
So far, so good with the tone. I like the way it feels (and I’ve owned Duo Jets and other Gretsches). But I know I can get closer to the Duesy’s sound. If anyone out there has a Duesy… I’d really like to know some more specifics. Like what caps does it have with the tone pots? Is it running a treble bleed, and how? Bone nut, or some other kind? That sort of stuff.
Also, with the pickup switch in the middle selector, do you end up with a thinner sound? It’s the first time I’m running a single and a HB together, so I was a little surprised at the tone with this combo.
Lastly, I’m just about to try and get a low wattage amp. By low, I mean 5 or 7 watts. It’s the best solution for my church. (And I don’t wanna spend too too much on this) Has anyone had a good experience taking an Epiphone Valve Jr. or Blackheart and doing the bitmo mods to get more of a vox-like tone?
cheers
Hey Kasper,
I don’t actually own a Duesenberg, though i wish i did, so i won’t be much help in terms of the specs of the actual guitar, but a couple of things to note are.
1. The Artcore guitars have a much bigger body to the Duesenbergs, more of a gretsch body, both in size and in thickness, and this will contribute alot to the sound
2. From what i can see, you’re actually using different pickups to the ones that are in the Duesenberg Starplayer TV models, its the same configuration (Neck Single Coil, Bridge Humbucker), but not the same pickups. That will play a factor in the sound also.
In the end i think you’re better off saving up and actually buying a Duesenberg, they are great guitars, i’ve played one a couple of times and they feel and sound great. They are just beautiful guitars. At the end of the day a Duesenberg is about twice as much as your standard Artcore, but its worth every cent.
With your amp question, i’ve never used either of those amps, nor do i know of those mods, but i believe that with the Vox amps you can actually change the resistance on it to effectively lower the output, which would mean that you could run an AC15 at 10 watts, or perhaps even less. Also, i know that Bad Cat make a 7.5 watt amp, that might be worth checking out, i’ve heard good things about their amps, and also Matchless do low watt amps too so have a look at those.
Hope that helps you mate.
I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and I was wondering what to set the Mids, Trebble, Bass, etc. to get the best clean tone? I’m lost
Thanks
Hey Nigel, I’m all about the best sound qualities and providing the best atmosphere and sound, i’ve already got all the equipment to have the sound, but i was wondering if u would share:
what kind of interface does the Hillsong team use for live or studio recordings since i know the team also uses the Logic recording software?
Thank You
Hey guys,
Right now I’m using the Fulltone Fulldrive II and the DD20 (as well as a TU2).
I am looking to add a few more pedals. Any thoughts on the best:
Tremelo
Wah
Boost Pedal (the whole using a clean boost for your lead lines is a new concept for me… Seems pretty logical though, IF you like your OD rhythm tone that is.)
And maybe a Compressor. Any thoughts on why and how to use a compressor?
what guitar effects was used in the chorus of “with everything” by hillsong?
just came back from a missions trip in indonesia, amazing is all i can say about it, such a different culture and its awesome to se god moving in that country rocked for god. About to start busking to save up for a new rig consisting of a ernie ball music man jp6 a fender supersonic amp, a couple eventide pedals, a trailer trash pro pedalboard, by the way Nigel you are awesome rock for god man also if you like satch guys check out steffen schackinger “”freak”"!! Leroy jellicoe speaking here 15 years old been playing for 9 years going on to ten in 2 months SICKKKK
Nick,
I’m not part of Hillsong man, but i do know my gear, i’ve been reading up on this stuff for the past year or so gather ing pedals for my rig. Tremolo i really can’t help there becasue i’ve never used one, i usually let the keys handle that, but a good place to start would be the voodoo lab tremolo. as for wah i use a crybaby 535q, it’s adjustable so you can get diff sounds. The fulltone standard clyde has the biggest wah sweep that i know of, but it’s rather harsh for my liking. The budda-wah is extremely vocal like and doesn’t have a harsh hogh end, more of a subtle sound, all depends on what you want dude. Boosting/Goosing pedals is pretty easy and simple, you could get a second OD and kick that on for a boost to your lines. Check out the Fulltone OCD, it’s an OD pedal that can be clean boost or produce enough gain for a gnarly lead tone man. Compressors also can give you a bit of a gain boost but not as much as a designated clean boost or OD pedal will. one of the most common compressors around is the Dyna Comp from MXR, a personal favorite of mine. It’s about $70, and is as simple as it gets. You can check out all these pedals on guitar center. Hope i was able to help!
God bless
Hey guys, here’s the thing Im 15 and from Malaysia. I really wanna get the basics on effects and the adjustments i have to make when switching between songs. So let’s say Im gonna go out and buy a delay pedal, what pedals should I buy next that would help me in the future. I play mostly Hillsong songs in church, and I really want to get started on the effects side of things. Thanks everyone! God bless!
Hey Divyang Hong,
Dude, I bought a boss dd-20 for playing hillsong stuff and honestly it has been my best gear purchase! I love it and with the dual mode you can get the best sound for time has come and you deserve. That setting is: Dual Mode, FX Level - 2 o clock, Fback - approx 3 or 4 repeats, tone - 12 o clock, short delay at 100ms, long delay (normal tap) at about 153bpm. Hit that and rock!
how exactly should one order their overdrives? heavier- lighter or lighter to heavier?
Greg, i order mine lighter - heaviest, but i’m not sure that it makes much of a difference to be honest. in theory it works better for layering overdrives, but i’m not sure that its actually true.
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yeah– for organization’s sake (I think we’re all a little OCD at heart), I go lightest to heaviest. Just make sure that you aren’t choking an earlier pedal by cutting the volume on one of them.. I’ve had times where I’ve layered a heavier drive on top of a lighter one, then when I turn off the heavy gain pedal my signal is really loud because the volume is higher on my light gain pedal… sorry, long-winded.
hey everyone, i have just purchased a FULLTONE FULLDRIVE 2 MOSFET. And i would like to get some of your opinions of another overdrive pedal to go with it.
Great article that emphasizes the most important aspects of a guitarist. Kids these days forget about tone. Start from a gleaming, sparkling clean then add from that, without compromising tone. Fast fingers and sweeps will still sound bad if your guitar isn’t tuned and your sound is thin and weak, or dull and muddy.
Also, I love the individuality and different character of each single effects pedal, as opposed to multi effects. And you can really hear the difference from the processed sounds of multi effects to the organic tone of stompboxes.
Hey what do you guys think of the Matchless Spitfire? Are they gig-worthy? I use an AC30 and a Mesa Boogie Stiletto, but need something lighter and smaller…. I’ve heard a lot of good about the Matchless, but want to make sure the 15 watts can cut through the mix. Thanks!!
Hey Billy,
Try the Holy Fire Overdrive from Creation Audio Labs!!!
Hey guys. Great thoughts and comments. I wanted to add my two cents for anyone starting from scratch but needing versatility right away. I picked up a Line 6 Spider III last year and a pedalboard controller. I’ve found it to get me 90% of the way there and the whole rig cost me less than $400. Right on the amp I’ve got 12 different amp models, overdrive, delay, tremolo, chorus and reverb. I play this with a Gretsch Power Jet Firebird that’s not unlike The Droff’s Duo Jet except with TV jones Powertrons.
Anyway, my point is that other guitarists in my church (~700 people on any given Sunday) have a few pedals and a tube amp, but can’t get near the sound I can get because they’re always fighting hum, inflexible sounds and their lousy guitar tone. Will I ever get the true Hillsong tone with my current rig? No. But at my small church with limited options (I smile when people talk about using two separate amps to compliment the sound…) The amp modeling route is a great way to go. We’re not just playing Hillsong songs, but David Crowder, Tomlin, Starfield, and even reworked hymns. It requires much more versatility than nailing that triplet delay and sparkle.
Just my $0.02.
Erik-
By cutting through the mix are you micing? if so watts won’t have much to do with that but lower will help with you tone and the sound you can achieve. If you going for the amp with no mic then 15w will be the breakup point for an amp. Most likely will be driven pretty hard to the point of a lot of saturation. If micing its a great amp and has a great sound that will cut through an PA mix as long as its mixed with some sanity.
Yeah, I mic the amps wherever I go, I guess I’m talking more about stage volume… There are times when things sound great and times when it’s hard to hear stuff….. Welcome to the land of playing live! Anyway, I am thinking hard about the 2X12 Matchless Spitfire…. With the two speakers my guess is that it has a little more air to push therefore more headroom….. Reason Amps also makes a SM20 and SM25…. Just trying to get an overall view and see what will work. I have many amps, but they are all too heavy, hence why I’m looking into the smaller amps…
Hi Nigel…
I am glad to see your taking time to help out fellow musicians like yourself lol…heres my problem..on the hillsong creative DVD where you guys did RUN,I love the tone that you used and I want to do that song at church but I have no idea how to get it..lol and I was wondering if you could help….I use a stratocaster guitar and for effects I use the new BOSS GT-10 multi effects processing pedal…I think I just probably need to know what effects you put on it instead of the gear you use…like delay,reverb etc….that would be awesome!! and I appreciate your help! thanks!
hey nigel,
hope all is well bruh. I just wanted to ask you why do u have 3 drives? the maxon od820, jekyll and hyde, and the sparkle drive? do u use the sparkle as a clean booster, and the maxon for example for a heavier overdrive for chorus’s and the jekyll & hyde for solos?
Eric-
I use a Matchless Lighting 1×12 combo and I love it! It’s the best sounding amp I’ve ever owned/played hands down. It has a great range of volume (and can get brutally loud, without losing character or sounding flabby) and the sound guys at my church are in love with it. Matchless amps are voiced on the bright side (think VOX chime with fender roundness and warmth) and really ‘cut through’ the often muddy mid-range mix that is so prevalent in worship sets with acoustic guitar(s) and keyboard(s), etc. The 1×12 has PLENTY of volume and clean headroom. The sound guys won’t let me turn it past 1/2 volume and I play in a church that can seat 1,200+ They also respond well to good tubes, which are an often overlooked aspect of good tone.. I use NOS (New Old Stock, from the early sixties) Mullard power tubes(EL84) and rectifier(GZ34) and an Amperex Bugle Boy 12AX7 in the first gain stage, as well as a Mullard 12AU7 in the phase inverter spot.
Droff, try these in your Spitfire! I promise the difference will be night and day!
Hey Kevin! Yeah, class A amps are the best! I’m contemplating a Matchless Spitfire, Bad Cat Classic Cat, Ceriatone Marshall 18 watt clone….. Ahhhh too many to choose from!
I’m traveling all the time and need something portable to use…. All of my amps are too big and waaaay too loud… But need something with enough headroom to keep up for the bigger venues. The search goes on…. Have you tried Reason amps? Those things are from the Lord himself!!!
Also, check out the Holy Fire OD by Creation Audio Labs!!
Hi I was just wondering what any of your guys suggestions were from Humbucker pickups I have a LP Studio and I trying to get a more quiet pick up when i switch it to the neck pick up it buzzes quite a bit. Any help thanks!
Eric-
I will have to check those out! Always in search of ‘the’ OD pedal. I have not trued Reason amps, I’ll have to do a search for those. Also check out Morgan amps (www.morganamplification.com) these are great amps and are really reasonably priced for how great they sound. And the build is quality too.
Darryll-
I use Sheptone Tribute pickups in my Les Paul Studio and they sound awesome! They are perfectly balanced and are an exact (supposedly) replica of the old PAF pickups that Gibson used from ‘58-’60. They’re hand scatter wound with long pole alnice 5 (or your choice) magnets. http://www.sheptone.com -They’re well worth the 5 week wait!
Hey Darryl,
try lowering your pickup height to get a more balanced sound. Pickups are magnetic and the closer they are to the strings the more boominess they have which therefore means they are more sensitive which can lead to excessive buzz.
Eric
Kevin,
also look at Bad Cat’s Classic Cat…. Drool drool!!!
Eric
Hello there!!
I use an american telecaster run to a laney 20 watts, and just a few pedals like DD-3 or BD-2, SD-1 and the wah-wah, but i get the problem that i can’t find the overdrive tone i’m looking for, cause i think that my brigde pick-up is not good enough. I think Ben used a Tele before, and i would like to ask you, what settings you used to have, and what overdrive and dealy pedals you would have chosen to the tele? love, love the way u’ve arranged the “You’ll Come” and then “Oh You Bring” drive!
God bless your work! We’re all in this together!
Hey droff,
I have an m13 muli effects board and im trying to figure out a good order for my drives and commpressors. It seems if i put the drives before the compressors i get better resopnces from my volume knobs and i can clean up. the downfall is that my actual volume doesnt change enough, just the tone does. Any tips on how to get the sustain of the compressor into my sound but not kill the responsiveness and tone changes of my drives and overall volume?
Aaron
Hey! How are you? Nice article Nigel!! I have a question! How can I insert my pedals, I mean wich fisrt, wich second?… I have a Boss DS1, Boss DD-5, Boss Super Chorus, Ibanez Tubescreamer,and a classic Dunlop Cry Baby! Another one… Wich distortion and overdrive pedal did you use for the Mighty To Save album?. Sorry about my english, Im from Peru! God Bless!
Hey Carlos
what kind of amp are you running? If you are running an amp with an effects loop I would suggest running your chorus and delay through the loop to get a cleaner signal. As for your others, put the wah first followed by your overdrives, use 1 drive as a rhythm crunch sound and your tube screamer as a boost for your solos….this is a basic setup and will sound awesome! Hope this helps!
Eric
Thanks a ton eric, kevin. I adjusted the pick up height and worked out nicely. I was wondering now I see the Timon Klein true bypass pedal switch and hear it cleans up your tone a lot. Could you just get the strip or do you also need the buffer. I looked at the road rage true bypass pedal switches and you have the option to get the masterbypass or not what does that mean? Thanks again!
Hey Darryl,
Road Rage makes some awesome stuff! I would definitely get a strip with a buffer in it, it helps “kick” and “retain” your guitar sound. Understand that when you put a pedal in front of your signal, you have a slight amount of tone loss….especially if the pedal is not true bypass. The loopers from Road Rage give these non true bypass pedals ie deluxe memory man, tube screamer etc etc a sense of true bypass which will retain your true signal when on or off. I have a ten channel looper on my studio board and I love it!
It’s one of those things where some tone purists feel that the guitar to the amp Is the best approach, some feel the pedal thing is the way, others love the rack mounted effects…. It’s all how you want to do your signal! Best of luck!!
Eric
Thanks Eric I’ll be looking to get one soon. Another question to Eric and anyone who would like to help out. I run through a 40 watt fender blues deluxe reissue and I want another amp to run through simultaneosly does anyone recommend any that would compliment my amp. I was thinking Vox ac15?
A Bad Cat Hot Cat 15 would be my choice…… their amps are the best in the business!!!
Hi Droff! I checked out the reviews of two pedals that I’m really having a hard tome choosing from, namely the Love Pedal Eternity and the Jekyll and Hyde Overdrive/Distortion. I would just like to know your thoughts regarding these two pedals, They’re both pretty awesome though! Thanks Droff!
well, as of now i only have a zoom multi effects pedal..
in order to have a more similar sound i just add reverbs on it and adjust the delays..
but i’ve always encountered problems on my gain adjustments..sometimes it sucks..
Awesome! Thanks a ton! God Bless!
I also had a question about wah’s which wah’s are the best dunlop, fulltone, vox?
Hey Darryl,
The original Hendrix Crybaby that Dunlop released a number of years ago along with the Vox and Fulltone Clyde 2 are my votes. They all sound different tho…. If you ever run across one of the older model Hendrix Crybaby wahs snag it….. The newer ones don’t sound as great.
All these wahs sound different through different amps too….. I have been using a stock Vox wah through a Bad Cat Hot Cat and a Vox AC30 and even though it chokes a little of the guitar tone it has a great short sweep focusing more on the mids and lows whereas the Hendrix is great with more higher gain amps like Marshalls or Mesas….
Nice thank you again! I’ll be looking out for those ones! Your awesome!
Hey Nigel
I live in the US and I am going to study at Hillsong.
I have a small array of pedals on a Pedaltrain Pro pedalboard. What kind of wattage converter can I use for my pedals? I don’t want my gear to get fried when I get there?
I looked into SKB boards with a converter, but they aren’t worth it. Any suggestions anyone?
Thanks
Droff,
I saw you got the timmy. I am on the waitin list, and I was just curious what you thought of it? i have the TC nova delay. I was curious what is your favorite dely, and OD?
Thanks!
Does anyone know the difference between the blue alnico, green back celestions, and the wharfdale speakers in the vox ac15
Hey John!
Man as far as overdrives go, there are so many to choose from. What kind of amp are you running? 3 overdrives that never leave my board are the TS-808, the Fulltone OCD and of course the Creation Audio Labs Holy Fire…… You have got to check those out!!! The Holy Fire is the most transparent overdrive I’ve ever played! Hope this helps!
Hey droff
Im in the process of finding a good amp, i was chatting to some of the other guitarist’s at my church and they suggested that tube amps would be my best bet for sound. After reading most of your blogs and talking to the other guitarist at my church they said to have a look into amp brands like orange, mesa boogie, vox, fender. Ive been playing guitar for about almost 5 years, could i have your opinion on amps?! Also im using an epiphone les paul 100. Umm not sure if this info is helping out but my church holds like umm lets say 650. thanks for your help! enjoi!
hello …
Thanks for the blog!
What microphones using the amps … the video we see 2 microphones …
What are the characteristics of the microphones?
Thanks …
What is the opinion of roland jc-120 jazz chorus?
Thanks…
Hey Nigel, I play lead/rythem guitar for my church band, i’ve just got into using effects pedals, I don’t have a very big board setup yet, right now I use…visual sound route 808 overdrive, boss TU-2 tuner, a pretty bad delay pedal that somebody gave me haha, earnie ball volume (normal size) cool cat chorus, and then a digitech rp 50 that i use for my clean channel i have it set like a light overdrive. anything else you can recommend?
Hi Droff
I just built a pedal board and I am wondering what order you would put the peadls in. I have a volume, Wah, voodoo lab Sparkle Drive, Ts9 Tube screamer, Jekyl & Hyde, Boss overdrive/distortion,Nova Delay, Thanks
Hi Nigel,
I know that you said once that you set your tempos for your delay pedals before your gig that way there isn’t much “tap dancing” while your performing. My question is does the band play with a Metronome that way your delays match the tempo??
Hey, Droff. I want to know your take on the new Boss ME-70. Tell me what you think about it.
Life is too short for bad tone…
DMwonga
what would you guys think about the eventide timefactor going into a mesa lonestar and a duesenberg starplayer tv ice pearl?
Hey Droff,
I love your tone! But I have a question about your board.
Right now I am running a fairly simple board. Usually my Les Paul Custom through a Boss DD-20, a Boss DS-1, a Ernie Ball volume pedal, and a tuner and noise gate running into two Fender Princeton Chorus amps. What are you doing to create the clean sounds you have? It has a bit of attack at the beginning… sounds like a “les paul” crunch sort of… is it from your compressor? I can’t seem to re create it.
Thanks so much.
God Bless.
Hey Everyone!!! I have just received my new Reason Bambino amp. This is by far the most versatile amp I’ve ever played. It’s lightweight, capable of getting the cleanest of clean and the dirty channel does not need an overdrive… It’s 8 watts, but this is the loudest 8 watt amp I’ve ever heard and will keep up with ANY amp…. Plus it has a line out feature that actually retains the true tone of the amp thru the P.A.!!! All Handwired and made in USA…..This is the ultimate amp for us Christian musicians, definitely a gift from the Lord!! Go check them out!! http://www.reasonamps.com
only kidding, I think the JC-120 is an awesome sounding amp and is the king of all solid state amps. I had a mate who had one and no matter what overdrive pedal you were using (his was a just a humble DS-1 and a Maxon OD9) it sounds amazing.
Hi Droff God Bless where you connect your delay on the loop of the amp or on the from of the amp please help thanks
I agree with 99.9% of all the tone tips that Droff gave. I would like to present an alternate view on one aspect though. He said that you should get your clean sound going direct into the amp, then add pedals and if they color your sound then simplify. I don’t think that’s totally necessary. For example, many people say the Boss TU-2 sucks tone, but I still run into mine at the front of my board. I think if you’re always going to be running through your pedalboard, it doesn’t really matter that the pedals might be coloring your tone when they’re off. As long as you still like your clean tone when the pedals are all off, what difference does it make if you adjusted the amp settings a little different than if you plugged straight in?
I am in no way trying to dispute that Droff has amazing tone or say that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, I just wanted to throw an alternate view out there. The Hillsong United guitar sound has been a bigger influence on my guitar playing than I could ever describe.
Conan,
Check out Reason Amps Bambino……it is the newest amp in my collection and it is putting some of my other amps in the corner!!
God Bless
Very insightful blog. I have a question, if I was to buy 3-5 pedals what pedals would you recomend I buy? (for overdive/distortion, delay etc. Our youth group plays many songs from Hillsong and I would like to get many of your sounds. I have a gibson les paul guitar(studio) and a small marshall amp(im thinking of buying a tube amp also). thanks