Here’s the deal. I don’t have a very sophisticated guitar set up, and I don’t think that you have to in all settings. In fact in the average church setting, what I have will probably work just fine. I’ve had no problems with it at all. Along with that, I would like to say that I’m NOT the best guitar player, and i’m sure there are some of you out there who know a lot more about it than me, but this works for me and it’s a nice concise set up.

Guitar: It’s important to have a guitar that you love, and that you enjoy playing. I’ve had guitars that I didn’t enjoy playing and that didn’t sound that great. Thats 0-2 people, and thats not good! So a couple of years ago finally got a guitar that I love playing and that I enjoy listening too. I decided to go with a smaller body guitar because it fits me better (i’m a small guy). To me there’s nothing worse than seeing someone on stage and they are completely overshadowed by an oversized guitar. I play a Larrivee and I have really enjoyed it. I bought one that I could install my own pick-up of choice in, and I went with an LR Baggs pickup which sounds great.

Director Box: I think DI boxes are equally important for sound. I love using the LR Baggs Acoustic DI. It has great controls that really let you manage your tone, before it ever gets to FOH.

Tuner: Everyone needs a good tuner, and you can’t go wrong with Boss TU-2 or now TU-3

Line 6 Delay and POD: I don’t play much electric but when i do, I usually play through this Delay and the Line 6 Pod. Since i don’t play a lot and it’s mostly just rhythm i’m not to concerned with tons of effects. I just need a nice overdrive sound with some delay on it.  So these two things do the trick just fine. I’m sure there is much fancier equipment I could use, but these 2 work. One thing i’ve learned is that it’s ok to have simplicity in gear, don’t make it harder than it needs to be. Keep it simple and focus on leading, inspiring, and being a transparent worship leader. I’m not saying that tone isn’t important, IT IS. But for some folks, like myself, electric guitar isn’t my main instrument, so I just need it to sound good, and the easier the better!

Boss AB Switch:  I love using this switch from boss. Makes it super easy to switch between guitars on stage, and lets me have less cables to get tangled up in. I usually will have an acoustic and electric on stage at once and they go out to 2 different channels, so this allows me to still only have 1 guitar cable for both guitars.

Here is a picture of my stage set up and what it looks like, minus the guitars sitting out:

So there you have it. Questions? Comments?

-Bradley