Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced player, you’ll find valuable insights to elevate your tone and inspire your worship playing.
The Foundation: Choosing the Right Guitar
Before diving into amp settings and effects, it’s crucial to start with a guitar that feels right for you. I play a PRS Custom 22 with Dragon pickups. It’s important to play a guitar that you can really gel with… you have to be comfortable with your guitar.
Whether you prefer a Strat, Tele, or Les Paul, choose an instrument that inspires you to play. Comfort and familiarity with your guitar will significantly impact your overall tone and performance.
The Heart of the Tone: Amp Profile
I use a Kemper Profiler with a profile based on a Matchless Spitfire amp. This profile, called “Praises,” was created by Tone Junkie and is part of their worship profile collection. Here’s a breakdown of the signal chain:
- Compression: Tightens up the tone and makes the amp work harder.
- Boost: Drives the amp a bit more with a 1.7 volume boost.
- Distortion: A Tube Screamer-style effect for added grit (optional).
- Soft Shaper: Adds presence and clarity to the tone.
- Delays: Two delays for depth and ambience.
- Reverb: Adds space and dimension to the sound.
Let’s dive deeper into each of these elements.
Breaking Down the Effects
Compression
Compression is the first effect in the chain, helping to even out the signal and add sustain. It makes the amp work a little bit harder. This results in a tighter, more controlled tone.
Boost and Distortion
The boost pedal is set to a 1.7 volume boost, pushing the amp into slight overdrive. There’s also an optional Tube Screamer-style distortion with these settings:
- Drive: 0.3 boost
- Tone: 7.5 boost
- Volume: 1.5 boost
- Mix: 60%
Soft Shaper
This effect adds presence and clarity to the tone with a 1.0 drive boost and a 1.0 volume boost. It helps to bring out the nuances in your playing and adds a bit of “sparkle” to the sound.
Delays
I use two delays to create depth and atmosphere:
- Quad Delay:
- Mix: 42.9%
- Rhythms: Quarter note and dotted eighth note
- Feedback: 55%
- Reverse Mix: 100%
- Dual Delay: Adds additional depth to the sound
Reverb
The final touch is a natural reverb with these settings:
- Mix: 54.1%
- Decay Time: 8.79 seconds
- Room Size: 5.7
- Pre-delay: 110 milliseconds
The Secret Ingredient: Technique
While gear and settings are important, the most crucial factor in achieving great tone is your technique. The best thing that you can do for your tone is to work on your technique.
It’s going to allow you to play with more confidence, and with the more confidence you play, the better you are gonna sound.
Focus on improving your string muting, picking precision, and overall playing confidence. These skills will translate into a better tone, regardless of your gear.
Putting It All Together
Creating the perfect worship guitar tone is a combination of the right gear, thoughtful settings, and most importantly, solid technique. By following the guidelines in this post and continually working on your skills, you’ll be well on your way to crafting inspiring tones for worship.
Remember, the goal is to find a tone that excites you and inspires your playing. Experiment with these settings as a starting point, but don’t be afraid to tweak them to suit your personal style and the needs of your worship team.
Keep practicing, stay inspired, and let your improved tone elevate your worship guitar skills to new heights!
