Guitar for Worship

Over to Guitar For Worship dot com, Ladies & Gents

Karl — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:42:11 +0000

Same site, new place. With letters that glow.

Everything is moved over…all comments, archives, posts, even typos. hehe Wayne’s World. Party Time. Excellent. And as is my custom, I just can’t get excited to move blog hosts without a picture of Jack, mirroring my excitement by showing how incredibly excited he is to have a picture of his own face:

Splendid.
Karl.

Experiment & Damage Control Timeline Telethon

Karl — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:48:04 +0000

Telethon for the now discontinued Damage Control Timeline.

But it’s over at guitarforworship.com

Here’s the deal. I’m not one to mince words, so the honest truth is…finances are a struggle right now. And since this blog does receive a fair amount of traffic (mostly from google searches for Vin Diesel pictures…sad, I know), a little extra income from advertisements wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. hehe But since, wordpress.com doesn’t allow advertisements, I’m experimenting with my own domain name. That’s the honest truth. And if people hate the new site, we’ll just move back here. But don’t hate it yet! Me and my technologically challenged self still have a lot of work to do over there. I just want to try it out first to see if it’ll even be worth the effort. Thanks for your patience.

So, for a while, all new posts will be at:

guitarforworship.com

Splendid.
Karl.

A Collection of…Well…Something I Collected

Karl — Sun, 09 May 2010 06:06:53 +0000

This post and its comments have been moved to the way more awesome guitarforworship.com website. Click here to read this post.

Splendid.
Karl.

None of these have to really do with anything, or are even remotely connected to each other in any way that might hint at an at least slightly coherent post. These are because I was like, ‘I love music. Music is awesome. I’d like to post some rad songs on the blog tonight.’ And then I did. Because music is awesome. And because I cannot remember life before youtube.

First up is the improved version of scary Kevin Bacon in one of the most awkward scenes in movie history. Gotta love a little New Zealand parody’ing (slash respectful homage…so I don’t get things thrown at me through the internet):

Hey, at least Kevin Bacon can make fun of himself:

And then I found this, and started to re-think my entire rig:

Which led me to this, which caused me to re-think even attempting to think of myself as a musician:

Now this is just plain sad how warm it makes me feel inside to see the same look on Edge’s face that I’ve had at least a dozen times…just this year…and then he doesn’t cleanly hit the anti-solo…which sadly, makes me feel even warmer. Yikes, imagine if over 4,000 people had watched a bootleg video of you messing up:

And lastly, I’m absolutely positive you’ve seen this, but just in case. It would be a crime to come to the end of your life without watching this:

And I promise, real posts are coming soon. Thank you all for your prayers. Like, for reals. And I did actually record new Timeline videos demonstrating how to program them with the Rocktron Midi Mate…the day Damage Control announces that they have been discontinued. lol But here’s hoping for the Damage Control Timeline 2. ;) And no…I never have dreams of going on to Britain’s for talent with my rig, and hitting one swell that changes my life forever. And by ‘never’, I mean ‘at least not every night.’ Gotta save some room for dreams of me and Bono trying to avoid Sting at the zoo, and me and Edge playing the U2 360 Tour in African skirts because Bono wanted to make a statement. And then I had to sit to play my Explorer, because the blasted skirt kept falling off. Very un-rockstar-ish. Stupid Bono.

Splendid.
Karl.

DR Strings Review

Karl — Thu, 06 May 2010 02:21:07 +0000

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Splendid.
Karl.

Yes.

Splendid.
Karl.

Leading Worship

Karl — Mon, 03 May 2010 06:52:09 +0000

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Splendid.
Karl.

These are some of the most beneficial things I have found for leading worship. And this is normally the part where I would try to inject some type of humour, but I’ve seriously got nothing tonight. Edge. Bono. Delay. Tone. Tubes. There ya go.
Always help your drummer load in at least one piece of equipment.
Learn your sound system…or at least how to plug in a direct box.
When services run long, be the first to suggest that your ministry be the one to cut back a few minutes. (Meaning, just don’t build back into the ‘epic’ end of ‘Saviour King’ for a fifth time.)
Don’t sing lead vocals on every song, every week.
Only mention mistakes to your team when you hear them a second time; giving people a change to recognize and correct their own mistakes goes a long way. And let’s face it…when you played that G chord in the 1st and 2nd frets instead of the 2nd and 3rd frets? You knew it. You didn’t need anyone to stop the song and point it out.
Get off the stage and let your team go for it every once in a while.
If a monitor’s not working, be the first to get up and make an effort towards fixing it…even if you have no idea where to start.
Arrive before your team, and leave after.
Say thanks.
And lastly, remember that you’re probably not the best worship leader even within your own church.
All this can be summed up with simply this: lead by example. I think sometimes we’re so busy trying to lead people, that we don’t have time to even be the Christ-like example to which we’re trying to lead them. And I’ve had this post in my head for so long; but I’ve hesitated to write it down, because I am so bad at doing this stuff, and so bad at being an example. But it kind of hit me this past week that when Jesus could have been going out landing lucrative guest speaker gigs, he was instead washing people’s feet. And maybe that’s the reason people listened to Him.
And even now, I don’t really want to hit ‘Publish’, because then I have to live by this stuff. Blast. Splendid.
Karl.

Tone Tip #243

Karl — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 01:09:36 +0000

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Splendid.
Karl.

I thought my tone could probably be a little bit woodier and a little bit washier, so I bought these:

And I know, that looks like a picture I just pulled off the internet to use as a cheesey punchline. Except that it’s true. I did buy those, and I can’t look you straight in the eye and say that it wasn’t because of the wood-paneling and the indie wave.

I also plugged it in, watched it light up, and took a picture of it……before plugging my guitar into it. But seriously…how can that not sound good? Oh, and the tap tempo pedal has a little blue led that lights up every time you tap a tempo. Not trying to contain my joy even a little.

Splendid.
Karl.

Does it Still Pump Your Heart?

Karl — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 06:42:55 +0000

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Splendid.
Karl.

There is nothing like cranking your amp, hitting it with a germanium fuzz, and throwing some delay on for good measure. I did this a couple nights ago, and my blood literally started to rush through my body. Like, real adrenaline. If it’s not still pumping your heart, then there’s something wrong.

Of course, once service started, I had to turn back down. But there’s something therapeutic about soundwaves beating your heart for you, for even just a few seconds. And I’ve needed that this week. I apologize, as this is the longest I’ve ever been away from the blog. I literally have not had time to even check back in here. I don’t think I’ve ever asked for this publicly, but if you happen to remember throughout the day, if you could throw up a prayer for me, I wouldn’t be against it. ;) My sincerest apologies for not being around, but I hope to be back pumping my heart with tone, and your ears with U2 and delay propaganda, very soon.

Thanks.
Karl.

And because you just can’t not smile when you hear this song (and yes, Tony Levin is wearing knee pads…as he skips):

hehe You’re smiling right now. I know. Can’t help it. Even here:

Confusion

Karl — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:02:52 +0000

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Splendid.
Karl.

Something has gone wrong.

And my lack of computer skills is not necessarily an asset in this particular situation.

Okay, okay. In any situation.

Do I say ‘Splendid’? This isn’t really a post.
Karl.

EDIT: Whoa! I actually fixed it! My computer theory still holds true: click random things until it gets better. 60% of the time, it works every time.

R&B?!

Karl — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:55:02 +0000

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Splendid.
Karl.

I’m not exactly sure how this happened, but I played for an R&B artist the other night. And I gotta say, I have a huge, newfound respect for that style of music. Not so much melodically in what I played, but in order for the vocals to come through right, you’ve got to be very, very tight rhythmically. I’m not so sure I was, but it definitely triggered in my mind how sometimes rhythm can actually be more important and more difficult to play than lead playing. Secondly, you’ve got to sit way back in the mix…just adding texture; but you don’t want to be too ambient, because then you start to lack rhythmically. So good chords voicings, tight rhythm, and strats help with this. Overall, a lot was learned, I was stretched, and it’s probably the first time ever that my pedalboard has seen six songs in succession without the benefit of a delay pedal. Also, I now like a Beyonce song. Please be gentle.

Splendid.
Karl.

P.S. Anybody want a Varidrive? ;)

Sad, isn’t it.

A Sort of Homecoming

Karl — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:56:34 +0000

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Splendid.
Karl.

Welcome home, my sweet Varidrive! I know I said I didn’t care, but I do! I care so much.

Please, for the love of everything that’s good in this world, remember that you’re a guitarist. That means you’re never done with a pedal until you’ve bought it back at least 3 times. I sold my SIB Varidrive black version with gain switch last year, in a failed attempt to do away with overdrive pedals. (There’s been a lot of those.) And I am just now getting it back, after a year of searching. It doesn’t help that this dominionator (yes, that’s exactly what I meant to type) of all solo pedals, that wouldn’t sell used for $100 two years ago, suddenly shot up to around $300 the day after I sold it for $175. This will always happen too. It’s part of the perils of being a guitarist. But if those perils weren’t so painful, the joys would not be so devouringly sweet. What is ‘devouringly sweet’ joy? It’s quite simple. Hitting a two note rhythmic solo on a SIB Varidrive black version with gain switch and a modded ECC81 tube. (Gotta say ‘modded’…sounds way cooler.)

Who’s ready for the first day of the rest of their lives?

Splendid.
Karl.

P.S. I know I just posted this video like, last week, but such is the devourocity (again, yes) of my joy. You’re gonna have to deal with it. (Which means…well…just not clicking on that little sideways arrow in the middle of the video. Means play.)