Guitar for Worship

The rule is that it takes a better musician to find the one perfect note for the
phrase than the one who can fit 800 32nd note arpeggios into the same phrase.
Again, a very broad statement, but I find, at least in my hopefully humble
opinion that it is more often than not, true.

However, John Mayer is the exception to the rule for me. See, according to
my rule, he plays waaaaay too much. But he does subscribe to the even
bigger rule than playing tastefully: ‘Sound good.’

See, I talk to musicians until I’m blue in the face about playing less, and playing
simple, and being minimalists. But what it really comes down to is, ‘Sound good.
Play with soul. Let the music do something for you, let it do something for the
crowd.’ And Mr. Mayer definitely has soul, and his live stuff definitely does
something for me. And if you’ve only heard radio John Mayer, I’d encourage you to
check out some live stuff. Incredible blues guitar player. Great tone, great soul,
and he just stomps all over my minimalistic views and makes me go running back
from whence I came, crying like a little schoolgirl, to go re-think my minimalism
mindset.

Oh, ya, and he has the blues face when he hits a note he really likes.

See, I think as musicians (hehehe, I’m totally trying to have a serious thought
here, but I keep glancing up at the picture and laughing) we sometimes get a
little bogged down with the formulas for the music…..and dare I say, the formulas
for what will get people to worship. My personal formula is minimalism. And I
believe I am right….just ask me. hehe But in reality, sometimes we need to
step back, and just play. Play with soul, and do it for the One who loved you
enough to die for you.

See? John Mayer made it make sense for me. And then I hear another worship
guitar player just Eddie Van Halen-ing ‘How Great is Our God’ where a three note
recurring line with a bit of modulation effect would have fit so much better, and
I’m back on the minimalism kick.

Ah, the need for balance in our ever-so-staunch viewpoints, and how hard said
balance is to achieve. Please let me know when you’ve got it figured out. I’ll pay
you.

Splendid.
Karl.

–>6/8, 7:30 PM Edit:

(The Lava ELC)

Now, I had always been one of those guys who couldn’t stand the jerks who
would spend hundreds of dollars on cables. I saw it as more of a status symbol
than a tone thing. But if you think about it, you’re tone is only as good as you’re
weakest link….and the extra $500 you spent for WCR PAF handwired clone
pickups with ’50’s wiring is totally negated if that extra tonal push those pickups
and wiring give can’t be heard because the cables and pedals in your board suck
out too much treble and high mid frequencies.

So I went through a few different cables, and ended up with Lava ELC cables. I
really like them. Your tone gets through….they don’t add or take away, in my
hopefully humble opinion. But I’m also running a grip (sweet ’90’s word) of pedals.
So, for my acoustic, which I like nice and dry and clean (meaning acoustic –>
cable –> direct box) I didn’t really think there would be much tone sucked through
just one cable. So I would grab whatever extra one I had lying around at the time.

But the other day, I’m at church, and my acoustic cable (the one I happened
to have lying around at the time, totally went out, and I didn’t have a
replacement. So, since it was our acoustic service, I grabbed my guitar-to-board
Lava ELC off of my electric rig, and used that. The difference, in just one
cable, was astounding. And I’ve been thinking about selling my acoustic…
it’s got an LR Baggs system in it, but it’s just never sounded the same
plugged in as it does acoustic. With the Lava, brilliance. It’s amazing
how much difference a cable makes, and how often I underestimate it.
I mean, it’s just one cable, and I pay a lot for cables. But I was still
completely dumbfounded when I used it with my acoustic.