Add your unique musical thumbprint to your congregation’s authentic worship! Jordan Houghton and I asked key worship-guitar movers and shakers and up-and-comers David Hislop, E Edwards, Chad Carouthers, Tyler Logan, Austin Shuffit, Mason Veloz, AJ Rodriquez, and Nick Bowcott for their techniques and recommendations. From playing on Elevation and Bethel songs to supporting artists including Brandon Lake, Kari Jobe, Israel Houghton, Anberlin, and Brooke Ligertwood, these guitarists offered some fantastic advice to help you shine.
How Do You Approach Crafting Your Signature Sound?
David Hislop
When it comes to tone, we’re all constantly learning, and we never fully arrive. It’s about getting inspired and improving. Your musical thumbprint is the sum of your influences, your practice, and what you’ve taken time with and created on your own. Explore what you’re inspired by. It’s the “Children learn by imitation” idea — practice something until it becomes your own. Then the things you’ve learned get stored away in your tool bag for when you want something with that kind of energy and feeling. You develop a muscle for creating because you’ve imitated so much or studied so much. Keep everything in its right context but try new things to push the boundaries where you can. So, imitate as much as you can until you start to learn to create in your own way.
AJ Rodriquez
The gear that you gravitate toward, the gear that excites you — it becomes a part of your personal expression. So, the sounds that you choose eventually shape your own personal sound. I try to match the best guitar and gear for the scenario. It’s like you’re a painter and you’re selecting the colors that you’re painting with. I’ve been rocking a Quad Cortex as my all-in-one because it gets me through. It’s really cool because the options are endless, and you just make something beautiful with it.
Chad Carouthers
Signature sound is more than gear. Gear can get in the way. If I go to Sweetwater.com and type “delay pedal” in the search bar, I get like 50,000 delay options. [Actually, there are 128.] Which one will give me the church thing? All of them . . . if I understand the fundamentals and principles. What happens if everything catches on fire and I have to use something else? I’m fine . . . if I understand the fundamentals and principles. I don’t want a thousand different options on the stage at my feet. I want something simple because having fewer options forces me to think differently. If you’re not dependent on gear, you’ll still sound like you, whatever you play.
Mason Veloz
Even early on, before I could play well technically, I would gravitate toward songs, guitar players, artists, or singers that would make me feel something. It would point me toward what I do that is special. When I feel like I’m losing my voice or if I feel confused about who I am as a guitarist, I go back to those. They give me a frame of reference.
E Edwards
What transitioned me from being a replicator to having my own voice is knowing the fretboard and how to get the sound that I want. If you can find the time to get to know the fretboard, it’s vital. Getting comfortable with chord shapes will make the neck feel smaller. If you only know the open E position and one pentatonic scale, the neck seems miles long, and there’s so much opportunity to mess up. But if you spend time going through your scales in the A shape and in the D shape, you’ll get to know completely different spots on the neck. A capo can help because it shows you the cage system and you can find anchor points on the fretboard. Not knowing the fretboard is like wanting to join in a conversation but not being able to speak the language. When you know the fretboard and want to add something in a different spot, you know exactly where it is. It makes your ear not so distant from your hand. That definitely doesn’t come from playing only on Sundays.
Nick Bowcott
What fascinates me about the guitar and signature sound is you can take the same guitar plugged into the same amp and have six different people play the exact same riff, and they’ll all sound like themselves. That’s the beauty of the guitar; it’s a truly expressive, tactile instrument. The great players have their own sound, their own way of playing. Even though they can’t be duplicated, they give you clues: the gear they use; how short and melodic their solos are; all the things they could play but don’t so that their playing works with the song, fits with what the rest of the band is doing, and is never ostentatious. Embrace the fact that, ultimately, you’re going to sound like you. Don’t play a song the way it is — play it the way you hear it. The world doesn’t need a clone.
What Gear Is Core to Your Sound?
Tyler Logan
Establish the foundation of guitar, amp, and pedals, and you’re free to create beautiful moments. When I pick inspiring tools that are right for the day, creative ideas pop out. Get a guitar you love — it doesn’t have to be expensive. I took an inexpensive Jazzmaster-style guitar, and we basically gutted it (get a great guitar tech). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played it on albums. An HSS Strat-style is probably the most versatile guitar. In the Helix amp world, the Matchstick model is God’s gift to humanity. Whoever modeled that Matchless amp deserves a crown in heaven! Whether with physical pedals or on the Helix, I go compressor, drop, big drive, boost, octave, dotted quarter-note delay, big verb, and little verb. I usually rock the JHS Double Barrel — it’s like a Morning Glory and a TS-style overdrive. I can’t say how many times I’ve recorded with a Blue Box octave fuzz, and I like a Nobels-sounding overdrive. I’ve been doing sessions at MultiTracks using the amazing Eventide H90 for mods and delay. For a non-Helix amp pedal, I suggest a ToneX at the end of the chain — it has a small footprint but can do anything from fuzz to D-style. I put a ToneX One in my gig case in case anything fails along with a Morning Glory, IEC power cable, picks, and a tuner. What matters is that pedals translate from my guitar to my hands. So, when I pedal shop, I bring my guitar.
AJ Rodriquez
My PRS 509 has become my desert-island guitar. My absolute favorite amp is a Suhr Badger 18. The Quad Cortex is my multi-effects unit of choice. I think the Eventide H90 is one of the best effects pedals to come out in recent years, and I feel similarly about the Line 6 HX Stomp because both of these companies put every iconic thing they’ve done into one insane unit and said, “Here you go!”
Mason Veloz
I love my custom Strat with beautiful Michael Landau HSS pickups and a roasted maple neck. I will never get rid of it. Ever. When I lead worship with an electric, it’s not ideal to have a massive pedalboard at my feet. I’m focusing on a room of 2,000 people, playing parts, leading a band, and paying attention to what God is doing in the moment. So, I set my amp to a gain structure for when my guitar volume is on 10. I have reverb from the amp and a delay that responds dynamically to what I’m doing, kind of like the iconic blues-rock guitarist we all know and love. To craft your sound with only one pedal, I would suggest a Helix or Quad Cortex. They literally do everything. But for sounds and textures from physical pedals, I’d say to get a D-style pedal, a BOSS DD-500 delay and mod, and a reverb like the BigSky, TC Hall of Fame, or one of the Source Audio reverbs.
Chad Carouthers
Whatever the guitar, I change out the guts myself because then I can fix it if it breaks on the road. So, I play cheap guitars. I did the entire Anberlin tour on a Squire Affinity. As a young player, I dealt with the shame and insecurity of not being able to afford one of those phenomenally fun and powerful custom guitars, and if I can help break that off some other people, that’s inspirational. For the pedalboard, I keep coming back to the Helix. Sometimes I use it with other pedals, but I like the control that I have within that ecosystem, especially by adding a little 2-button switch that I can hit with my foot. That gives me up to 32 parameters I can change with one pedal. You’d have to have racks and racks of MIDI to do that, and who has that kind of money? The Quad Cortex and Kempers also have some great options. The Line 6 Helix makes it simple for me. But if I had to make a pedalboard by grabbing three effects pedals, I would start with one of the UA amp pedals. I have four, and they’re the greatest things ever. I personally like the Lion because it can go from super-clean to just ripping your face off. I’d grab a dual drive like the JHS Double Barrel for that mid/low-gain push-the-amp thing. Then I would use the Source Audio Collider for delay and reverb. Those three pedals plus the guitar’s splitable pickups and tone knob would let you do some crazy stuff.
Austin Shuffit
For the guitar, I like the versatility of a Strat with HSS pickups. But for tone, my amp matters more. Pickups make a difference, just not as drastic. A really nice guitar played through a bad amp is still going to sound horrible. So, an amp with a good feel is key. Once that’s right, everything works better. I can put almost anything in front of it, and it does what I want. Personally, I’m a Quad Cortex guy, so finding the right amp model is easy. But for a physical amp, I like a Fender Deluxe Reverb or the clean channel on a Fender Hot Rod — so the UA Dream is a great amp-in-a-box pedal alternative. I also need a delay pedal. So, HSS Strat, delay, and Fender Twin, that’s me.
Jordan Houghton
As a worship leader, you have to flex and take whatever leap you need to start doing whatever makes the most sense in the set. So, aside from my custom Taylor, the Line 6 Helix is the only thing that I would need.
David Hislop
I play an old 2000s Eric Johnson Strat that I love, and my primary player is a Fender Custom Shop Strat with Fat ’50s pickups. But sometimes I need something with humbuckers; and with Brandon Lake, I also play a Tele-style guitar. A lot of my tone comes from good-sounding clean amps that are harmonically rich when pushed with drive and boost. I was lucky to grow up using my dad’s 1965 Deluxe Reverb tube amp. I run a Vox AC30S1 with a Benson Chimera a lot or my out-of-production Fender Prosonic. I have a Tweed Deluxe and a Vibrolux, and I love using those amps. They’re smaller and give pristine cleans, and when you push them, they give a really musical drive tone. I’m a gearhead and collect iconic vintage gear, so I started making impulses with some of these great amps. The feedback was so positive that I started Tone Factor with Kenyon Reed as a cool resource. I have a lot of Strymon and JHS pedals on my board. I love my JHS Kilt overdrive, but I’ve been switching it up. A lot of pedals and gear out there can give you great tone — what matters is how you dial it in.
E Edwards
It’s important to have one really great guitar that does most things, tunes quickly, and lets you sound like yourself. Choose a Strat-style, Les Paul-style, or whatever as long as it gives the options you need to express yourself without hindrances. If I’m not comfortable on a guitar, it doesn’t matter what I do down the chain. Know how to navigate the tones of the neck, bridge, and middle positions. My workhorse is more of a Jazzmaster-style guitar. It’s so lush. It can be aggressive, but its P-90s clean up nicely. It’s a hardtail, so I can go to Drop D or tune a half step down. That guitar covers pretty much everything.
If I need a hook to soar and feel a little soundscapy, I use a slide. For more sustain, I add an EBow. It fills the space like a synth and is more atmospheric than a guitar hook. It’s very floaty. If I start with it in the intro, I’ll bring it back later in the song to make it cyclical.
I always use physical amps in the studio. We took them on the road, but it was too loud backstage — way too loud. We’re back to modelers now. But gear is just a tool, not what you worship or care about most.
Pedals help me feel what I play. You don’t know which pedal will grab you until you play it, so use your ears when you shop for a pedal rather than your eyes. Try out a lot of them until you find something incredible. Then get to know it thoroughly so that it adds to the way you play and you can get what you want quickly. My Strymon BigSky reverb pedal is super-vital for adding and enhancing texture. I still do the pedal search looking for something fresh, but at the end of the day, I always come back to the HX Stomp. It’s my desert-island pedal. You can get whatever sound you want in a pinch whether you’re in the studio or live.
Nick Bowcott
A big part of tone comes from the guitar. When I look for an electric, before I plug it in, I check it acoustically with my ear against the guitar. That tells me if I’ll like it. You can’t put tone in that’s not there to start with. You can dial things out — if the guitar is bright, you can make it unbright. But if the guitar is dull, you can’t add frequencies that don’t exist.
Tone also depends on the amp, the pedals, and how you dial them in. I’ll dial the amp to the best of my ability, but my settings may not be yours. We’re always evolving, tone chasing. You may be like, “This is the rig. This is the pedal,” and then a week later, you’ve ditched it and you’re messing with something else. There’s nothing wrong with the pedal. You’re just ready to move from where you are to someplace new. Enjoy the journey.
My gear reflects that I’m a hard rock/metal player. At church, I use headphones and a BOSS Katana-100 because I can get a great sound from its IRs. I like the BOSS SD-1 Super Overdrive for its asymmetrical tone, its slight mid bump, and the way it rolls off the highs and lows. Guitars are midrange instruments, so I make the most of that space. I don’t need to fatten the sound because there’s usually a keyboard, a bass, and another electric guitar, and we stay out of each other’s frequencies. I leave on a Wampler Ego 76 compressor as a tone enhancer. I use the Keeley Halo dual echo sparingly — just strike a chord, and the pedal does its magic. I use an MXR Phase 90 to lift things like Eddie Van Halen did for solos or to be a bit more forward in the mix. I keep my sounds kind of dry. I don’t like hiding behind too much reverb or too much delay because it can smear the sound and fool me into thinking I’m playing way better than I actually am. I’ve got boxes of overdrive pedals, and they’re all great, but what gets picked depends on my mood, who I’m playing with, what the drummer sounds like, and the style of music.
But regardless of the pedals I grab, my settings are always kind of the same. I look for four primary tones. One is clean with a fairly subtle chorus, and delay set around 350 milliseconds. The other three settings are mostly varying levels of distortion. Otherwise, I may use the SD-1 sometimes on the clean channel, or I may step on the Halo very sparingly to swell in at the end of the song. I don’t change the tempo or other pedal settings for the song — I used to, but it was too much tap dancing. I’ll just set it where it’s cool to my ears and leave things at that.
Tim Miller
I’ve led worship using the same ’97 custom Godin LGX-SA guitar for decades. I love the feel and tonal flexibility. It has split-coil rail humbuckers, a sophisticated acoustic transducer system, and a MIDI out — I can blend all three on the guitar or send each through individual outputs into separate rigs. I use a Helix and avoid pedal dancing by crafting a patch for each song and a snapshot for each song section. That frees me during the set and rehearsals to listen and be a part of the moment. Combined, the Godin and Helix give me an extraordinarily huge palette of tones for creating something that serves the song with its own space in the overall blend of the band and a sound that expresses my heart.
Find the Gear to Enhance Your Signature Sound
Looking to enhance your signature sound? Reach out to our knowledgeable Sweetwater Sales Engineers at (800) 222-4700 for personalized recommendations. We’re here to help you reach your music goals with the right guitars, amps, pedals, and accessories. Get started today!
Special thanks to these great guitarists! Jordan and I were delighted to talk with you and hear your stories and insights. I was so inspired by your humility and passionate desire to support the relentless guitarists who give so much to serve their congregations week after week!