Spence with Jason Crabb
[ Spence ] Jason is one of the most loving individuals I ' ve ever worked with . He cares about every single person on that bus and every single person that comes to see him perform . He is exactly the guy that you see on stage or the guy you see on his Instagram story . That ' s him . He ' s just a country boy from Beaver Dam Kentucky , who just happens to have one of the most amazing voices that I ' ve ever worked with . And I get to work with him , and I also get to work with his family periodically , the Crabb family . And they ' re just the most genuine people . And they ' ve become such great friends of mine .
And Jason became such a good friend and he and I go out and do some concerts just us with acoustic guitars , or sometimes we go out with the entire band .
[ WM ] So let ' s talk about your gear . Acoustic guitars first . On your YouTube “ Doxology ” video , what are you playing there ?
[ Spence ] That is a Charis SJ . So the Charis , it ' s probably the closest to the Olson SJ that I ' ve ever picked up . I did play Phil Keaggy ’ s Olson when he came in 2000 , but I had long forgotten how that guitar even felt or sounded in my hands . But I just knew when I picked up that Charis at a guitar shop in Texas , that was a fit for me . I ’ ve cultivated a relationship with Bill Wise , who builds those things and he ' s a great man . That guitar has been my partner on stage for everything acoustic .
I did something interesting with the electronics .
I ' m running an LR Baggs Anthem system . However , I can ' t leave well enough alone . So I actually took the Lyric microphone and I wired it into the preamp of the LR Baggs Anthem on my Charis . So I ' ve got , the Lyric microphone ' s behind the bridge , the Anthem mic is in front of the bridge , and then of course I ' ve got the Element . And it does chew through batteries a little faster now , but it did something for the tone that I ' ve never been able to replicate with any other pickup .
I was just trying to sort of smooth out the midrange a little bit . I didn ' t know what I was doing . I just had a hot soldering gun and I was going to town . ( laughing ) But , when I plugged it in , I went , " Okay , I ' m not changing a thing . I ' m going to bolt this thing back together and we ' re done ." And it ' s been like that ever since .
[ WM ] Right on . Let ' s talk electrics . I know you ’ ve got several .