Worship Band Electric Amp Settings

shane · #1 03-29-2004, 02:41 PM

For those of you who play electrics for praise bands, what settings do you use as far as Bass, mids, trebles, and gain? (not for hard songs like my glorious, i mean stuff like the lead parts in famous one)

ELK · #2 03-29-2004, 03:04 PM

I play a Les Paul through a Marshall tube amp, and for clean sound I set the highs at about 5, the mids down around 2, and the bass at about 4. For distorted, highs about 7, bass about 8, and mids about 1. Settings will vary a lot depending on what guitar and amp you are using. humbucking pickups usually have more mids and bass than single coils, and different amps are built to have different response curves. A Mesa rectifier, for example, is designed to have more bass than a traditional Marshall tube amp.

shane · #3 03-29-2004, 03:12 PM

im going Godin -> (possibly my digitech rp300) -> Marshall solid state (ill mic it.. the amp they have there sucks, and mines only 15 watts).

since theyre both marshalls, ill give your settings a shot. thanks.

hey you didnt say how much gain you would usually use.. wanna give me a general idea?

shane · #4 03-29-2004, 07:23 PM

bump?

For Him · #5 03-29-2004, 09:06 PM

Shane,
just do whatever sounds good....

troubleman · #6 03-30-2004, 04:03 AM

I use a fair amount of compression - it gives the impression of playing "at volume" without actually playing at volume . I use a Fender Deluxe Reverb or a Mesa MkIV. Clean settings are mostly flat with a bit of boost in the highs and a bit of warmth in the mids. Crunchy rhythms feature boosted mids. Leads are either boosted mids or boosted highs and lows with scooped mids. Again - key for me is my compressor. I want enough thump to be punchy and full, but I don't wanna knock 76-year-old Mrs. McGruetter out of her chair in the 2nd row. For guitars I tend to favor a PRS custom or a Strat with hum-cancelling pickups.

ELK · #7 03-30-2004, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by shane
im going Godin -> (possibly my digitech rp300) -> Marshall solid state (ill mic it.. the amp they have there sucks, and mines only 15 watts).

since theyre both marshalls, ill give your settings a shot. thanks.

hey you didnt say how much gain you would usually use.. wanna give me a general idea?

A lot less than you probably think you need. Especially if you use compression too (I do). The distortion coming out of the amp (or the amp's D.I.) is further overdriven by the subsequent amplification of the P.A. You need to listen to your monitor, not your amp, to determine your gain. I usually end up using not much more than 2 in the high gain channel.

gdgross · #8 03-30-2004, 04:58 PM

Different amps with different tonestacks will have totally different sounds even with the same settings, So don't compare numbers to numbers, or at least know that you're comparing apples to oranges. Go with what your ears tell you.

That being said, I generally eq like troubleman said. Cleans fairly flat, boost the mids or highs when I throw on the dirt.

As far as gain, goes, again, let your ears be the judge. And again, the settings depend on your amp, how many stages it has, how loud you crank the MV, etc.

FWIW, I usually crank the MV on my boogie DC5, and set the gain between 5-10, depending on the tune. I use my guitar volume knob as a more immediate adjustment. This is all on the rhythm channel, BTW. (Even when I'm playing lead, which is most of the time) I can't remember the last time I used the lead channel. I don't like the tone it gives at all. very compressed and un-musical, IMO.