GUITAR
WHAT IS THE “ WORSHIP TONE ”? | Chris Rocha & Jonathan Diaz
For a few years now I ’ ve heard guitar players talk about that the worship tone is like some sort of washed out reverb sound that doesn ’ t require any technique or skill , but that ’ s definitely not the case . I take pride that I can execute this sound and am continually modifying and upgrading it . I know this one guitar player that ’ s pretty upset at life for some reason , he has that “ old school ” type of tone and will never modify it . He once posted on his socials that he ’ ll never have a reverb pedal on his pedalboard . I thought that was a little drastic cause he does play at a church on a weekly basis . I think that he has a wrong perspective of what the worship tone is . It ’ s not just putting a lot of reverb and playing ABC chords . Many of you might be wondering what the worship tone actually is . The best that I can describe it is that it ’ s the sound that takes you on a ride somewhere . Just like a good movie that ’ ll take you to a different time or circumstance , our guitar sound can do the same for our worship experience . In this article me and JJ go into detail on what exactly the “ worship tone ” is .
The worship tone isn ’ t just church guitar lingo anymore , it is a widely recognized standard sound in the guitar community and has made its way alongside other widely popular and recognized guitar sounds . For example , the “ Brown Sound ” is known to be a Van Halen style sound , the “ SRV ” sound is a loud tube amp with a Tube Screamer slamming the front end of the amp . A “ jazzy ” or “ blues ” sound is known to be dark , mostly using the neck pickup of a guitar .
Recently in conversations with other guitarists we ’ ve been talking about sounds and how they influence how someone will play . In that conversation one of them mentioned that the worship tone always makes them want to play big open chords with “ all that reverb ”. So let ’ s break down how to get a standard worship sound .
CHIME The first thing that you might notice in the “ worship tone ” is how clean the base guitars tone is . Most of the times the popular worship sound comes from Vox style amplifiers . Some good amplifier options ( or digital amplifier options ) are Vox , Matchless , DrZ , or Morgan , they ’ re all similar though they have their differences . The word “ chime ” refers to the high-end presence that the amplifiers have .
The way amplifiers are used in worship is “ edge of breakup ”. Meaning you set the volume on the amplifier to where the amplifier will distort when you pick harder and stay clean with a little natural compression when picking lighter . Combining the chime and grittiness of the amplifier helps the guitar “ cut through the mix ” without sounding overbearing . If you ’ re using a digital multi effects unit , you can achieve this by adjusting the gain .
TRANSPARENT OVERDRIVE The transparent overdrive is the sound of a Marshall Bluesbreaker style circuit . Some popular pedals that are variations of the popular Boss Blues Driver include the JHS Morning Glory , El Valiente , Bondi Del Mar , Jet Lamb , King of Tone etc . The way these pedals are usually used is either as an “ always on ” pedal , meaning the pedal always stays on and is a core element to the tone of the guitar . Or it ’ s used as a first stage overdrive , meaning it ’ s used mostly as a light distortion effect for rhythm parts . Though not completely necessary , this is a popular part of the worship sound .
LEAD SOUND The lead sound is usually two distortion pedals