worship recap 9.27.09

This week we wrapped the “soundtrack” series.  I think it went over great!  I continue to hear comments from a wide range of individuals who all really connected with the series. For some it was the music, others the videos, or the messages; but whatever it was, God used this series to reach people and challenge and them.  And that, to me, is what it’s all about.  Mission Accomplished!

The response has been so positive that we’re thinking of doing this again (perhaps as standalone instead of a series) in the future.  We could use music from all sorts of genres.  We could go from The Beatles to Michael Buble, to KISS (OK, well, perhaps not the latter  LOL

This final installment focused on our need as humans to search for contentment.  We look for it in relationships, in material possessions, in our jobs, even religion.  But until we realize that none of those things will ever satisfy us without a real, authentic relationship with Jesus Christ, we won’t ever find “what we’re looking for”, this side of heaven.

Ryan C nailed it singing U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”.  Great stuff!  I hope he’ll join us more often

Special thanks to the band, the techies, and Shane for giving this a shot and doing an outstanding job!

Contemporary Services (8:30/11AM)

• video :Man on the Street “What is Contentment?”
• welcome/announcements
• I AM FREE (D)
• EVERLASTING GOD (Bb)
• YOU ARE THE ONE (A)
• video: Man on the Street “Are You Content?”
• YOU ARE MY KING
• communion
• offering
• special music: I STILL HAVEN’t FOUND WHAT I’m LOOKING FOR
• video: Am I Content? (this video was a bit long, but so hilarious!  It really set the stage for the lesson)
• message
• I WILL RISE

Click here to hear our board-mix (low drums) version of “I Still Haven’t Found…”

Oh yeah…and a few commented on the different guitar  I sold my Gretsch and my JS1000.  I found a steal on PRS and I’ve never really given them a fair shake.  I got a 93 CE24 in Blue Mateo.  I’m debating between it and a Taylor SolidBody Standard.  More info for guitar-geeks to come  But here’s a sweet pic to whet your appetite…

questions:

- do you feel content?

- do you think we can ever be truly “content” on this earth?  Or is true contentment only found once in heaven?

- would you be interested in having other services that were “different” like this “soundtrack” series has been?  What connected with you?  What lost you?

worship recap 9.20.09

Week #2 of our “Soundtrack” series went great!  

This week’s theme song was “Everybody’s Fool” from Evanescence.  If you’re familiar with the song, it’s not a typical “church song”

The morning dealt with our tendency as humans to put so much stock in our “image”…how we dress, how we appear to others, looking successful, etc.  We divided the message portion in 2 sections.  The first dealt with our outward appearances (physical, social, etc.) and used the passage in 1 Samuel 16. 

 

“But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

 

The next section dealt with how as Christians, we sometimes “put on an image” of living the Christian life, when it’s really nothing more than playing a part.  We can go to church, study the Bible, etc…but if we can do it, as many examples in the New Testament demonstrated with the Pharisee’s, out of wrong motives.   The key line I took away was,

 

“Are you doing all the right things, for all the wrong reasons?”

We ended with a video done to Casting Crowns “Stained Glass Massquarade”…great message with a challenge.

The music as AWESOME.  (link to song @ bottom of page)  I was a bit nervous about doing such a “rocking” song…but it went over very well.  We toned it down a bit for 2nd service (Traditional), but no one walked out  Monica hit it out of the park on the lead, Jenn rocked the harmonies and the band really sounded great.  It’s so great to get to serve with such talented folks.  

I have heard many positive comments about this series.  It’s been a lot of extra work, but well worth it.  I actually think breaking things up in segments works very well for our 1 hour format.  One would think it would seem more disjointed and rushed, but for some reason, the pace sits better with me (perhaps it’s my ADD  

At any rate, I am glad that people are not just enjoying it “’cause it’s different” or they like the music, but that it’s connecting with people on a spiritual level and challenging them to walk deeper with Christ.  That’s what it’s all about!  

Next week we wrap this up with U2’s, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”

• FILLED WITH YOUR GLORY (G)
• MY SAVIOR LIVES (B)
• welcome
• soundtrack: everybody’s fool (HCC Worship Team)
• message part 1: Shane B
• THE HEART OF WORSHIP (D)
• REVELATION SONG (D)
• JESUS PAID IT ALL (Bb)
• communion
• offering
• video: the theology of image
• message part 2: Shane
• video: stained glass massquarade
• prayer

Everybody’s Fool – HCC Worship Team

questions:

- in what ways do you “put on a show” for the world around you?  do you work to maintain a certain “image”?

- remember the old saying, “fake it till you make it”?  Do you think that applies to your walk with Christ?  

- do you think the worship team should dress in black and play heavy metal every week?  :) 

worship recap 9.13.09

…it’s been a long time

 

I figured yesterday’s service was different enough that I should post about it

First, let me state that last week was a terrible, n0-good, rotten, very bad day (isn’t that how that book title goes?)

As many know, I am a mac user.  And  as many of you know, mac’s aren’t supposed to have problems.  And as many of you know, if it plugs into a wall, it will have problems  I am an avid “back-uper”, and Apple’s Time Machine makes it way too easy not to do.  So of course, for the past month, I haven’t  Wednesday evening my hard drive just died.  No warning, just dead.  All my attempts to revive it have failed.  So I lost all the work I’d done for the past month on this new series “Soundtrack”…God is good and worked it out for me to actually recreate everything in time, but boy…what a week!

I got the idea from a big church somewhere on the west coast to do a series taking music that’s popular in culture and looking at the themes presented through the lens of scripture. What does God say about some of the themes in popular music?  I ran this idea off Shane and he gave the go-ahead to put some stuff together. We usually don’t venture “out of the box” much @ HCC.  We keep the same general format each week (opening, worship songs, communion, message, end).  With three services, we have to watch the clock and with a 25 minute message and weekly communion, there isn’t a lot of wiggle room.  But for this series we were gonna step out the box and let the music do the majority of the teaching.  The idea was to take a song and use it as a spring-board for a service revolving around a theme.  We’d use video transitions, clips, comments, songs, readings, etc. to tie-it all together in a creative way.   Picking the songs proved more challenging than I had thought.  How do you pick “popular” songs in such a diverse culture?  I polled people, poured over iTunes, and prayed.  I ended up with several songs that I thought had strong themes that I wanted to tackle and would be fairly well known.  Of course, Shane hadn’t heard of any of the artists or the songs LOL

In the end we settled on John Mayer’s, “Waiting on the World to Change”, Evanescene’s “Everybody’s Fool” and U2 “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”.  Now I realize all these aren’t really “current” songs, but they’re close enough for our church  

I knew some of our leadership was nervous about how all would work out, but I really felt like it would connect with a bunch of our folks.  Things went very well.  Even with the change in format, it didn’t seem too foreign (at least from my point of view).  I created a series of clips that served as transitions in between the various sections of the service.   They used the word “one” as a creative element throughout, sharing how one person can make a difference in the world.  I also put spliced together a video on the double amputee Scott Rigsby, who overcame incredible odds and earned the prestigou Ironman title.  He shares the importance of changing the world for Christ.  

I heard lots of great comments about the service.  1st service really seemed to be engaged.  3rd service didn’t have the same reaction.  Things just weren’t “translating” to the congregation.  But hopefully, they could follow the message of the day, worship God and be challenged to change the world for Christ. 

The band worked really hard on “Waiting…”.  It’s a pretty easy song chord wise, until you listen to what Mayer plays on the guitar:) It’s not so easy for guys like me to play that stuff and sing @ the same time  I’ve gotten better over the past year or so of doing this, but moving out of the typical “cowboy chords” that most worship leaders play (think Chris Tomlin) to playing the main electric guitar parts, all while leading, hasn’t come easy.  So I probably struggled with this song more than the band did .  The band rocked! Don, Dan, Max and Kenny really nailed it!  GREAT JOB!   It sounded great!   

 

Contemporary Services (8:30/11)

• video: change is possible
• welcome
• WAITING ON THE WORLD TO CHANGE
• video: one pt 1
• message: shane
• video: one pt2
• OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART
• HERE I AM TO WORSHIP
• JESUS MESSIAH
• video: one pt 3
• communion: Jason S (great job Jason!!)
• video: Scott Rigsby on changing the world
• GOD OF THIS CITY
• HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD
• video: one pt 4
• challenge: steven
• prayer
• THE POWER OF ONE

I want to thank the band for doing a great job and for working so hard, even on Wednesday as I threw a completely new song “The Power of One” @ them  You guys are great!  

Here’s our version of “Waiting on the World to Change”.  It’s just the board mix  (most of the drum sound comes live), but it gives you an idea.  And keep in mind, this is at 8:30AM…no one should be doing anything that early LOL

questions:

- What was your reaction to this week’s service?

- Did the different format resonate with you or leave you confused or uncomfortable?

- How will you “change your world” this week?

worship recap 7.19.07

Wow…it’s been a long time since I’ve posted.  The past month or so has been hectic and I can’t imagine the crazy things I would have written about going on a few hours sleep  I’ve got a couple themes I want to post about, so I’ll break them up into a few posts.  This first post will be a Worship Recap from this past week…

Sunday was our first day in our newly remodel auditorium.  Everything but the carpet on the stage was finished in a week!  The new side parking lot was also finished this week.  Amazing!  I posted about the reasons for this update some time back, but it hinged around seating.  HCC is growing at a much faster rate than our building can sustain.  Our parking lot is past capacity, classrooms are full, and we were running into seating issues for our Contemporary Services.  If you want to read some of the thoughts behind it all see this post.

But also, let’s be honest, the room needed a facelift  It has served this church well in this state for decades.  This gave us an oppurtunity to bring it forward a few decades, while still paying tribute to the past.  The room looks great!  It’s comfortable and clean, while still feeling familiar.  As I mentioned on Sunday, our mission hasn’t changed.  We’re still about the same things this church was about when it started 50 years ago…partnering with God in helping to make disciples for Jesus Christ.  Our methods and tools change, but that will never change.  This also is a great “transition” from our traditional worship space to the much more contemporary one we’ll be building soon.

Contemporary Services (8:30/11)

• O WORSHIP THE KING (G)
• HE REIGNS (G)
• welcome/annoucements
• video: remodel
• prayer
• MIGHTY TO SAVE (A)
• I STAND IN AWE (A)
• communion & offering
• message: THE RACE
• TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS (D)
• prayer

Here’s some before/after pics.  The first shot is what the room looked like when we moved here last summer.  The 2nd pic is what it looked like before the remodel.

circa 2008                                                               early 2009

July 2009

I thought Sunday was a great day!  I was a bit nervous.   I prayed that people would be open to the changes and feel comfortable worshipping in this new environment.  I was grateful to hear so many comments about how much people liked the room.  There was a great spirit and we had some powerful worship times. A side benefit is that the sound improved TONS!  Our guys are getting to know our system better (way to to guys), but the padding from the chairs really helped tame some of our issues.   Everything is just more balanced now.  I heard many comments about the improvement in sound (almost as many as the visual changes)  Granted, the band really kicked it up a notch for 3rd service…things were just spot on, but the sound itself really did improve.  And I’m happy to say, we actually had to stick some more of the drums in the system. Awesome!  There are a few things I wish we could have done (redo the stage/front area, fix our lights….oh, how I want lights that dim…but that’s for another post , but all in all, I am proud of the work that was done and look forward to seeing how we can use this room for multiple purposes and configurations during this transition to the new facility.

questions:

- What was your reaction to the idea of changing this room?  Has your opinion changed now that you’ve experienced it?

worship recap 6.21.09

OK, yesterday was by far the craziest Sunday morning I’ve ever been a part of!

Game show lights?  Check.

Motorcycle on front of stage?  Check.

Rockin’ 60’s song to open? Check.

Witnessing someone dedicate their life to Jesus?  Check.

Joining with others as you sing praises to our God?  Check.

Trying not to ball your eyes out or make eye contact with anyone during a Father’s Day song?  Check.

…all this and still done by noon

This Sunday we ended our series, “Men as…” and it also happened to be the kick-off for StudioGO! VBS.  So we combined the themes and decided to have some fun. We had an all guy worship team, the songs were all picked by guys that shared their favorite worship songs, and we threw in 2 “extra’s” .  First, we started the morning with Chicago’s “I’m a Man”.  It was so much fun to play.  I wish we could have had some more time to really get it solid, but the band rocked.  Personally, my chops aren’t what they used to be, so if I’m gonna pull something like that off I need to practice much more…but nonetheless, it was fun, and people really seemed to take it in the spirit it was intended.  Max (our resident Chicago guru) tore it up on bass and sang a verse, Kenny made his debut on keys (awesome) and the praise team guys added their own flare…”MORE COWBELL!!!”  :)  lol

We also did Steven Curtis Chapman’s “Cinderella”. What an awesome song.  I was able to get a great video from the media team over @ Stonegate Fellowship.   They were awesome and put together this video for last year and were gracious enough to pass it along.  We had to play to a click (tough on a slower song like that) so we stayed in sync with the video, but the visual was worth it.  It was tough not to look around and catch the eyes of some teary eyed men…what a song.  It was even more powerful for us on stage.  A member of our team lost his daughter and I know his heart was heavy…we love you!

After the message on the importance of dad’s to raise godly kids we ended with the great new video, In his Shoes.

I closed us in a prayer for fathers.

Contemporary Services (8:30/11)

• I’M A Man (see below)
• welcome/announcements
• I AM FREE (D)
• BLESSED BE YOUR NAME (A)
• JESUS PAID IT ALL (Bb)
• communion
• offering
• CINDERELLA
• message
• video: in his steps
• prayer for fathers

OK…Against my better judgement I’m gonna post our version of “I’m A Man”  Now keep in mind, this a board mix (always sound nasty), and we only rehearsed it on Wednesday.  I wish you could hear Max’s vocals more, and my guitar is too loud (no amp on stage, so it’s hot on the board mix) and my playing is about as sloppy as you can get and still call playing …but hey, it was fun!  The band does a great job when we spring stuff like this on ‘em.

I’m a Man - HCC Worship Team (Stevie B – vocals, guitar; Don C – drums; Max M = bass & vocals; K-Dog – filling in on keys; Brad H – vocals and wood block; Justin S – vocals; Tim W (a.k.a. “i love pink shirts”) – vocals and cowbell

questions:

- even though I know no one could understand the words, what do you think about doing “fun” music like that @ church?

- as dads, are you walking where you want your kids to walk?

- as parents, how can you better help your kids walk “in His steps”?

worship recap 5.24.09

Well, I should probably do this before it’s time for a new one this week

We’ve got a great band and many of them spend every Sunday from 7:30-noon and an hour or so on Wednesdays for our worship services.  I am so honored that we have so many talented people to serve the body @ HCC.  So this week I thought it would be a good change of pace to give the band a break and go “unplugged”.  Daniel was gonna be back in town this week, so I decided that the two of us would lead worship.

Daniel did a great job as always and we had a great time putting it together.  We traded off on was leading, so it was fun to sing some harmonies  I think the morning went very well and the response seemed pretty good.  We started with a song that wasn’t familiar to HCC and I knew that was a risk, but it went over OK.  When you do an acoustic set like that, you really need to get people engaged right off the bat and stick to familiar songs.  Daniel wasn’t familiar with my original opener, so we switched to Tomlin’s “Your Grace is Enough”.  I don’t think many knew it from 1st service, but 3rd seemed to join in pretty good.  We also pulled in the old hymn “It is Well”.  I had been listening to Shane & Shane on YouTube and thought that would be a song people knew that would go over well unplugged.

I am LOVING our new sound system.  We’re still not quite there on the mix, vocals are not always balanced and I’m usually much lower than the other voices (is someone trying to tell me something lol, but it really has brought a fullness and clarity that we lacked.  It also let’s me record straight to  a USB key!  Here’s a bit of “It is Well” for your enjoyment!  Things went a little smoother for 3rd service (it’s just too early to sing @ 8:30AM ), but the recording didn’t come out as well.  I’m going out on a limb here with posting these  Mixes straight from the board never sound very good…but this doesn’t sound terrible.   It just reminds me how early our 1st service is

It is Well (1st)

This week ended our series, “Woman as…” as Shane shared the importance of women mentoring other women.  I thank God for some of the many women in my life who have mentored/continue to mentor me.

Thanks again to Daniel for using your gifts for His glory and to the band.  I hope you were refreshed and enjoyed sleeping in

Contemporary Services

(8:30/11)

• YOUR GRACE IS ENOUGH (G)
• welcome/announcements
• EVERLASTING GOD (Bb)
• MY SAVIOR, MY GOD (C)
• IT IS WELL (C)
• HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD (C) – chorus only
• communion
• offering
• special music: I AM NOTHING (Daniel)
• message: Woman as…Mentors
• THE HEART OF WORSHIP (D)
• prayer

questions:

- did the change of pace make it any easier/tougher for you to engage in worship?

- what women have been mentors to you?  would they know?

worship recap 5.17.09

First week with new sound system!  Yippee!!!

We were all a bit nervous for 1st service, as we weren’t sure if everything was gonna work and how it was gonna sound.  But things went just fine.  By 3rd service, we weren’t so nervous anymore We have a few sound issues to mess with (snare was a bit loud in places, vocals need to brought up more @ times, etc.) but all in all, I was totally pleased with how things went down this 1st Sunday. The new system didn’t seem to distract from people worshipping and all went well.  I’m looking forward to how things are going to sound as we get the kinks worked out.

Jenn H. joined us for the first time.  She and Monica did the song “Never Alone” from Barlow Girl.  It’s a little more “rock” than we usually do, but the girls sang awesome and the band rocked it out!  The song has such a wide dynamic range and with the new sound system it was funny when it went from the quiet reflective voices to full-on band.  It really caught people off guard.  It was a fun change of pace. Great song, great message and I thought the the video really helped to tie it all together.  Jenn, you really hit it out of the park!  I’m looking forward to you singing with the team more often!  Daniel also joined us again.  It’s so great to have him with us…

Contemporary Services (8:30/11Am)

• SING TO THE KING (E)
• welcome
• MIGHTY TO SAVE (A)
• JESUS MESSIAH (A)
• video transition
• NEVER ALONE
• communion
• offering
• video: Tim Hawkins – things you don’t say to your wife
• message: women as…wives
• SURRENDER (G)
• prayer

questions?:

- what was your reaction to the new sound system?  did you notice anything different?

- do the “silent video” transitions that we use between songs sometimes help you to focus on scriptures/themes/song lyrics?

- did you see Patrick almost jump out of his wheel chair when the band came in on “Never Alone”?  He loved it! I LOVE to watch him (and others) when they get excited in worship.  It reminds me that David once felt free enough to dance naked before the Lord…don’t worry Tim, I won’t try that on Sunday

new sound upgrade

What a crazy week!  I lost track of how many hours I worked around 70 , but it was worth it!

This past Sunday marked a new day @ HCC…a decent sound system  The old system was installed sometime in 99 and was in desperate need of being retired.  It was put in when “contemporary” meant a piano and tracks

Needless to say, we were in desperate need of an upgrade.  With the building project coming in the next year or two I knew we couldn’t invest a lot of money into it, so I looked for some cheap solutions.  I was able to find some EAW VR21 cabs for real cheap.  These are not “pro” level speaker by any means, but they are a big step up from what we had and a few notches above “garage band” gear.  That and a cheap dBX Driverack made a world of difference.  Those along with some great ears, professional tuning and moving the sub actually into the room (it used to be in the closest next to the baptistry…great location  The only place you could ever really hear it was my office) really brought our sound to a different level.  We also got a new Yamaha LS9-32 digital board.  This thing rocks!  It’ll make the move with us to the new facility, while the speakers/processor will remain in this room.  The guys from CSG came and hung the cabs and tuned the room.  CSG is the group that we’re using to help with our AV and infastructure for the new building project.  They came and spent 2 days and 2 long nights with me and really did a great job.  And they did all the labor for free!  Thanks to Matt and Neil for all their work.  It was a blast!   We had a few snags, but God provided and we worked it all out.

We’ve still got some kinks to work out, but the sound has never sounded this full before.  The entire room has even coverage and all but a few side seats are getting full stereo.  The kick drum actually sounds like a kick drum and who knew we actually had a bass player  I’m super excited and thankful!

I heard tons of comments from 3rd service about the sound.  Many who didn’t even know we had done anything asked what was different.  They said “it just sounded so much fuller”.  I didn’t hear anything from 1st service and I’m not sure it was even noticed.  We were so nervous about the fact that you could actually hear the full range sound that we ran it a bit too quiet.  When we rehearsed on Wednesday with the band, Matt and Neil helped set the sound.  Everyone thought it sounded awesome, but much louder than usual. It actually wasn’t any louder than we normally are, we’ve just never actually heard the low end before  So we’ve got to find where the right level is for our room and I’m guessing each service is gonna be a bit different.  In general, 1st service is more “conservative” than 3rd, so we may tweak things for that.  We don’t have to worry about too much low end for 2nd “Traditional” service though  But I did have a comment asking if we got a new piano or something…the sound difference was that dramatic.

All in all, I’m very pleased with how things turned out.  We’re still dealing with poor lighting, faulty wiring, noisy dimmers. etc.  but this is a dramatic step forward for us.  We’ve still got a long way to go, but we don’t have to worry about fighting with our poor quality sound system now …Praise God!  Now if we can get the dimmers fixed so we can actually turn the lights on for service  They’ve been off for many years.  As soon as you turn them on, the dimmers throw so much noise, it makes the whole room buzz.  So we’ve been having worship services with the nasty florescent “work lights” for as long as anyone can remember.  I’m gonna see what I can do to get the lights working.  But for now, I’m going to bask in the wonderful sound from our new PA

So thanks for CSG for their help and to HCC’ers, please be patient as we dial stuff in and find a happy level for each service.

worship recap 5.10.09

sorry this is late…it’s been a whirlwind of a week thus far (more to come on that)…

We had a great Mother’s Day service!  To change things up, we had an all female praise team.  So I got a chance to step back and just play with the band.  The Fab 4 (Sherry, her daughter Kari, Monica & Fayrene) did a GREAT job in leading worship! Way to go ladies!!  All of the songs we sang were chosen from mothers @ HCC.  I sent an email asking moms what were their favorite worship songs and why.  I received a ton of responses.

There is always the fear that on days like these, sentimentality takes over and overrides worship.  But you have to have some aknowledgment of Mother’s Day and the mothers among us certain deserve special honor.  But I have been wrestling with how to balance all that for years.  I think we did a good job of honoring mothers, yet still worship God.

I also realize that Mother’s Day (like Father’s Day) is not a day that brings everyone joy.  Many have painful memories of their mother’s, or have either chosen to, or have not been able to have children.  To these women, please know that you are not forgotten and hopefully we try to be as sensitive to that as possible.  And as I mentioned in 2nd/3rd service (failed to in 1st and very much regret it) we also honor those women who have been like a mother.  Almost every women I have known, whether they have children of their own or not have been like a mother to at least 1, most likely many more.  I believe it’s a characteristic of a Godly women.  So to all those women, I hope you felt honored on Sunday.  We thank God for surrounding us with so many godly examples of His character.

Contemporary Services (8:30/11)

• welcome
• Prayer for Mothers
• HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?
• IN THE GARDEN/THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU (the Watermark version.  ’In the Garden’ was among those most requested.  This isn’t a song you normally do in contemporary worship service; but the song is a powerful song.  This version spices it up just enough to make it relevant, yet still familiar enough to sing with)
• ENOUGH
• AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS
• communion
• offering
• LEGACY (special music – Sherry B)
• video: dear mom
• message: Women as…Mothers
• I GIVE YOU MY HEART
• prayer

questions:

- what do you think about the ways (special prayer, videos, message, etc.) we honored our moms?

p.s. for those following the ’search for tone’ I tried the Vox on Sunday.  It sounds good, but not enough headroom with the full band,  it just breaks up too much (OD) when the volume is set.  Also, I heard from several people that they could never even hear my guitar…hopefully we’ll get this sort of stuff worked on soon.  But i think the VOX sounds awesome as a small amp…just not quite enough to keep up with the band.  I think it’s either keep the SCXD or look into the Night Train.

new set-up

(AVOID THIS POST IF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT GUITARS AND THE SEARCH FOR TONE…IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WORSHIP…YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)

Well, since you asked Karl …

As some of you know, I’ve been playing through a Line 6 POD X3L since coming to HCC.  When I took this job (coming from the non-instrumental church) I had literally not played my guitar for more than 20 minutes in about 6-7 years.  I had sold most of my good gear after getting married (used to have a 5150 and a Marshall 1960 4×12 cab…yes it was loud, yes it rocked

So I had to start from scratch.  I started looking for the right guitar(s) and needed an amp.  I knew from visiting the church that stage volume was a huge issue.  It’s a little room with bad acoustics (well, it’s live sounding) and everyone was turning themselves up to hear over the drums, which basically made it a bunch of noise on stage  So I read up on the POD X3 and took the plunge.  No noise on stage, just straight sound to the PA, and Lincoln Brewster uses it, so it must be good.  I’ve had a love/hate relationship ever since.  Since arriving in June I’ve got through 4 (yes 4) units!  Line 6 was having a hard time with QC and users everywhere were having them konk out on them for no reason (it’s basically a computer with foot switches) I was never happy with the POD. I could get a decent tone out of it, but it was so awkward to change settings live.  And I found I didn’t really want to have 6o different amp sims…I was switching tones every song.  It had that digital “fizz” that sounded well, like a sim Plus it didn’t feel right…there was no response from the tubes.  I got a Zendrive since the OD’s were nasty sounding.  It really helped, but I still found I was only using the X3L on Sunday mornings.  I just didn’t want to mess with it any other time.  So anyway…

I traded some old gear @ GC and had a Gift Certificate plus a 10% coupon.  So I got the M13.  It’s still modeling, but it’s just pedals.   It’s got lots of great effects and is STUPID simple to use.  No crazy menus, just turn a dial and go…much better.  I thought about going “old school” with just pedals…but since I’m playing lead guitar, and oh, yeah…leading worship…I didn’t want to have to step on 6 different pedals a couple times a song to get the sounds we needed.  Plus that would cost a fortune to get the effects I needed.  On a song like “Mighty to Save” I’d need 2 different OD’s, and 2 delays.  If you through in some compression, you’re talking hundreds of dollars of pedals right there.  So this is the best of both worlds…decent effects, but no crazy tap dancing.  I can just set up each song as a scene, hit one button and everything is set…nice.

But I needed an amp.  I knew it needed to be low wattage and I didn’t care about a loop or a dirty channel.  All the OD’s will come from pedals, so I just wanted a nice clean chimey tone.  I wanted a head/cab and planned to run the cab in my office to keep the volume on stage nice and low.

I made the trek to a couple places over the course of a few weeks and tried everything I could.  I can’t afford the nice boutique stuff most of my “colleagues” in worship ministry play , so I stuck with mostly mass production amps.  Since my last amp purchase was to made in 1996 to emulate Van Halen (5150) I had no idea what kind of amp tone I was really looking for.  All I knew is, it wasn’t a 5150  I found I really liked the Vox ACish amps.  They were a bit loud for my use, and a bit over my budget.  I had some funds from other stuff I had sold, but not enough for either of those.  Plus, they are so heavy

So I narrowed it down to a few choices:

• Fender Blues Jr  (sounded boring and didn’t like price increase)
• Fender Super Champ XD (a little leery cause of all the hyped press, plus it had some “digital” effects…I was looking for all tube)
• Vox AC4tv (brand new, great reviews, but so new it was hard to find one to play)
• Vox Night Train (sounded awesome online, and loved the 15/7.5 watt switch…but as it was a head, I would have to also get a cab in order to use it.)

I really wanted the Night Train. It fulfills all my criteria: small, head (not have to worry about tube rattle, lighter), 7.5 watt mode, would work great for church and 15 watt for playing “out” (hope to do more of this soon), Vox chime, would be a “long term amp”, plus it’s so cool looking.  BUT it was a bit out of my budget WITHOUT the cab.  I couldn’t find an AC4 so I picked up a SCXD @ GC @ the old prices and that’s what I used last Sunday.  It sounded great!  I really am jelling with the M13 and I just feel more comfortable with what’s coming out using an amp. I doubt anyone else (besides my wife, who said she noticed the tone differnce:) even noticed or cared, (When I listen to “room recordings” of Sundays services, you can barely hear the guitar (or anything else) over the drums…but hopefully some of the changes coming in the next few weeks will help with that), but I did and I played better, so that’s all that matters, right ?

The SCXD is 15 watts and 2 channels with modeling and effects.  Honestly I don’t see using Ch2 or the effects. They just aren’t my cup of tea.  So I used ch. 1 (the actual tube channel).  But @ 15 watts, I had to keep the volume @ around 3.  It sounded much fuller around 5, but that was too loud.   @ 3 you could barely  hear it above the drums, but I didn’t want to add any more stage noise. I really liked it, but still wanted to try the AC4 to see…I found a place that had the new VOX AC4, so I figured I would give it a shot.  It’s 4 watts, all tube and dirt cheap.  It basically has no controls other than a Tone and Volume.  It can switch between 4, 1 and 1/4 watts.  It sounds best @ 4 so that’s what I’m gonna try @ church.  But it’s cool to go down to 1/4 for playing @ home.  It’s light and looks classic.

Both the AC4 and SCXD use 10″ speakers and really need an external cab to sound full.  That will come later.  That way I can run a cord to my office and put the speaker there.

So I’ve spent a tiny bit of time after the kids were in bed A/B’ing them and honestly I can’t decide.  They both have pros/cons.  I’ve still got a bit longer to decide.  We’ll see what I think after a Sunday of the Vox.

But it was sooo much fun to play last Sunday.  I know a lot of it was that the band/vocals were cooking, but I’m sure my tone had a lot to do with it  It was the first time I’ve actually liked what was coming out of my guitar.  That’s not the priority @ all (my task to to help people worship God), but it’s a nice bonus when I like the sound of my guitar  With the M13 I  used stuff I would never think of like a Seeker on “Filled with your Glory”, and I am loving the Octo setting.  I will have to watch myself so I don’t use it on every song …it’s great for us Edge wanna-bes  It provided a nice “bed” for slower songs.

So any thoughts?   SCXD or AC4?  Or if anyone bought the new Night Train and you hate it, I’ll take it off your hands