The Rock and Worship Roadshow thus far

Soooo.... we've been on tour for 2 weeks now. There was a lot of anticipation going into this tour, a lot of expectations, and a lot of questions. This is by far the biggest tour we have done to date, 6 tour busses, 2 semi trucks packed with gear, a bunch of great crew guys, and 6 bands. Last minute I got a call to play guitar for one of the opening bands, Anthem Lights. I literally had 10 hours before soundcheck the next morning to learn the tunes. But I love a challenge. I am also playing guitar with my usual gig, Matt Maher. We have been sharing a bus with Jars of Clay, who has been one of my favorite bands in Christian music ever. If I had told myself a few years ago what I would be doing I probably wouldn't have believed it. That's what I keep trying to remind myself of. God leads us to places we don't expect. Its never by our own doings that we end up where we are. We can try and plan for our future, make the right connections, and hope for the best, but those things never seem to make things happen the way we like. The really good things just surprise us. That helps me remain grounded and focused. It brings me back to my humanity, and reminds me of the humanity of others. I never want to take for granted what I get to do for a living. I walked out of the arena on the third night, and freaked out for a second. Even though I have been touring for a while now, it hit me again, how blessed I was to be doing this. I know there are tons of other people who wish they could be doing this, and I remember its not from my own doing that I am here. I hope to always hold onto that moment of gratitude I experienced, especially when the road makes me weary, and I want to complain about this, that, and the other. So, I look forward to the 4 more weeks on the road with this tour, and know I will enjoy the friendships I am making now, for a long time to come. See you soon!

Memento Mori

This is an experience I had while on tour this fall. It altered my perspective. It changed me.

I'm sitting on the beach, overlooking the surf as it crashes into the rocks, pushing to shore seaweed, shells, and all sorts of things from the deep. The air is cool and moving, the sound around me is peaceful. The sky, blue, specked with clouds ranging from white to grey to purple to green. This moment is perfect. Everything seems right. I want to become part of the great vastness that is before me, to become one with it. I want to contain it all within me, and be contained with in it. Everything is perfect. Except I am alone. The one person I want to share this moment with is not here. She is a thousand miles away. The moment turns bittersweet. It is so close to perfect, but will never get there. All I want is heaven on earth. All I want is that moment of perfection. It will never come. I am climbing a latter that has no final height. There is no finish to the race I run. There is no great supreme moment. Not until I die. Why can't I just die, right here, right now, and be done with the struggles of life? I think about my own death a lot, not in a morbid way, but I think about it. If that perfect moment is just around the corner, why am I not there? So close and yet beyond me. Why must I go through life, with all its joys and sorrows? I know that pure joy awaits me when I die. But I suppose I can't know the joy without the sorrow. There is no black without white, there is no noise without quiet. So I will wait, and until that day, when all my tears are wiped away I will struggle, and feel the joy of overcoming the struggle.

i went crazy with pedal mods...

So despite my better judgement I opened up my DL4 and broke out my soldering iron and went crazy. And the pedal still works. I spent some time doing some research and found a couple of cool ideas.

1st mod- expression switch mod. Added a foot switch top left of the pedal which switches a LED in and out of a circuit connected to the expression pedal input. It tricks the input into seeing two different resistances and it recognizes it as the toe up position and heel down position. I saved a preset for each position and now I have 6 saved presets. Pretty sweet, and so far pretty useful.

2nd mod- new LEDs, as basic as it sounds. super easy. looks cool now, and is nice and bright on stage! no more bored red LEDs, but blue, purple and green... :) doesn't change the sound at all though... just cosmetic.

3rd mod- new foot switches. I replaced all the switches with more reliable momentary "soft-touch" foot switches. they are now wired to the board but not wired ON the board like the other switches. They feel great too.

4th mod- Volume Drop Fix. I replaced two 24k resistors with 22k resistors. It actually made the pedal a bit louder when on verses off while in "true bypass" mode. In "alternate bypass" mode it made everything sound cleaner and stronger. It cuts through a bit more and probably buffers my signal a bit. Not sure if its the same mod that Keely and other guys do but it can't be much different. It was a bit scary to attempt, putting a hot iron to the tiny PCB but I din't ruin it! Really cheap as well, maybe 1$ for the resistors. WHY do these mods cost so much from other guys?!?!

5th mod- Universal Tap Tempo. I met a guy who had a tap tempo footswitch that feed 2 delays on his board. WOW! sync the delays with one tap! I had to have this. I have a tap for the DD20 on my board but the DL4 doesn't have a tap tempo INput. Then I saw this on a blog somewhere...I put the tap tempo footswitch ON the DL4 (top right) and installed an output jack on the side of the pedal. That feeds the DD20. But then I added a switch that determines where the new tap tempo switch gets sent. Down position it feeds the DD20 only. Up position and it is routed to the DD20 AND the DL4, and when tapped perfectly syncs the two delays. This is amazing for dotted eighth note delays with quarter note delays... perfectly synced up every time.

Over all the Tap tempo mod and the expression switch mod are so cool. The others are great but don't add to the versatility of the pedal. With any luck my 5 year old DL4 will last another 5 years, but as soon as it breaks I'm getting a new one and doing these mods to it.

Fingers to strings, strings to pedals, pedals to amp, amp to ears: How I get from what's in my head to your ears

WARNING: This is a total geek blog about guitars and gear, not for your average reader. so ENJOY!

Lets start off with the basic elements.

An electric guitar and an amp -- this is what started rock n' roll.

Fingers, combined with your guitar and amp is where "your" sound lies. 2 people can play the same riff the exact same way and each one will sound different because of a million tiny details. This is what makes The Edge sound like The Edge, John Mayer sound like John Mayer, and Buddy Guy like Buddy Guy. I don't compare myself to them but I have my own unique sound. I use various ways to pick my strings, from fingers, to my finger nails, to my thumb, and picks. Picks I generally like pretty heavy. at least .80mm so I can have more control over the attack. I find with that thickness of pick I can dig in and the strings respond and I can lay back and play as light as I want. Different then picks, fingers have the ability to generate tones a pick could never, from warm and thumpy, to elusive and ghostly.

Guitars

For guitars I travel with a Gibson Les Paul Classic Gold Top, with PAFs made by CustomWound, and a Fender Nashville Telecaster. I can achieve almost anything I need from these guitars. The volume and tone knobs on the tele are usually all the way up but on the les Paul I use them to generate punchy rock tones on the bridge pick up, to warm lead lines on the neck and a chimey but mellow tone combining the two. Usually when I use both pickups I roll the volume back on the neck pickup and it greats a nice wide tone. Les Pauls are notorious for being rather focused and midrange heavy and this widens the sound a bit. When you have two guitar players it helps when one person has a single coil guitar and the other has humbuckers. This is because humbuckers have a focused midrange but single coils really get nice highs and richer lows .

Amps

On the road I am play through either a Fender Twin Reverb or a Vox AC30. Here is a little trick I use with the twin: I usually pull 2 of the power tubes to bring the 80 Watt amp down to 40 watts. Don't do this unless you know which ones to remove because you could fry your amp. I love the sound of the twin but it so freaking loud I usually can't get it to where I like it on smaller gigs. Bass and Treble are all the way up and the mid is at 7 or 8. I put the treble and bass so high to hit the preamp tubes in the EQ a bit harder driving them into breakup. It's not much but it makes a difference. On the AC30 I set the tone for clean with the tele, which gives me slight break up with the les Paul, since it has a hotter output.

PEDALS -- Overdrives and Delay

This is the other part of tone, that most people spend too much time on, thinking its gonna make them sound amazing. For the purpose of this I am only really going to talk about overdrives and delay. I don't really include modulation effects in this because generally they are not the basis for your sound, unless you live in the 80s and want a sine wave chorus on EVERYTHING. Modulation effects are like icing on the cake. Not the cake itself. They are used for a bit of flavor as opposed to the main course.

Overdrives- these are the dynamic tools.

In this category I put compressors, boosters, overdrives, distortions, and fuzz pedals. I use these all in a very similar way. A boost can put your amp into some nice natural overdrive, which has a unique tone. But an overdrive or distortion has its own sound, although they all achieve the same goal. Compressors can add a nice fullness to single coil guitars and help single notes to stand out. But once the band really gets going an overly compressed guitar is gonna get lost in the mix. Mixing a compressor with a boost pedal can give you a nice country twang tone. Fuzz pedals are great for adding a bit of a unique sound to solos but can often be muddy when using them for chord work. You have to be much more picky with fuzz pedals then overdrive pedals because they are much more variable and can have a unique set of characteristics that might take some getting used to. When you first start playing with a fuzz pedal you will probably sound like a much worse guitar player because you are not used to the way your playing reacts with a fuzz. It's really a strange thing. When using overdrive pedals I try to keep my drive set pretty low and the output above unity. This hits the front of the amp a bit harder and makes each string stand out. The more drive you use the less your guitar stands out and the thinner it sounds. So for the sake of everyone, turn down your gain! I like to have 4 sounds. A fairly clean sound, a slightly gritty tone, a solid overdrive that has a bit of a midrange hump, and then another overdrive with a much more flat EQ. Thats why I like pairing a tubescreamer like pedal with the Zvex Box of Rock. The BOR is flat and transparent but can add some real rock. A tube screamer, having a midrange hump, is going to cut through the mix and is great for lead lines.

Delay

This is the space section. Delay and reverb are the second part of the pedal section. I use them to add depth to single notes and make my sound a bit bigger. Too much reverb and your tone gets lost, just enough and it can add a lot, without people really even knowing its there. Delay can be really effective in single note lines and I usually like to have a little bit on most of the time. I put a volume pedal after overdrives and before delays so I can swell into a note and let the delays take it and sustain it. Adding a really long analog delay with some reverb can create some nice layering sounds. I just practiced till I found sounds I really liked. When the delay is central to the guitar tone I usually like to find a note value that works well, (quarter note, eighth, dotted eighth, ect) and tap in the tempo so it matches the song. Like millions of other guitar players out there sometimes I pair a quarter note delay with a dotted eighth delay to get some nice rhythmic sounds. Looping sounds can add a lot too. For pad sounds and large ambient soundscapes I will swell into a note, add some delay and modulated reverb and loop that over and over. Then when I back off on the volume pedal the sound is still there and I can layer on top of that.

Then the extra stuff, tremolo, octave pedals, and modulation pedals. These are really specific pedals used for specific parts in a song, as opposed to the basis of my guitar sound. I add them in and take them out as necessary for the song. A little thing I like to do is use a slight octave mixed in with my dry signal and then adding lots of delay and a bit of reverb for some single note lines. It is such a cool effect and can catch the listeners ear, especially when they have heard the same tones for so long.

Playing Music

These are all tools for creating music. That is what it comes down to. I found what works for me and I try to master it. When making music I need to let all the technical stuff go and begin to create. Making music is all about listening. Listen to the space. Listen to the band. Lastly, add your part.

To summarize my specific gear

D'addario Strings .11s

Planetwave Capos and Picks .80mm

Gibson Les Paul Classic

Fender Nashville Telecaster

lots of random brass and glass slides

Fender Twin Reverb or AC30

Pedalboard-

All cables are Planetwaves cables, I made custom cables for my pedalboard and I love them because they don't short out like george L's sometimes do after a lot of pulling and tugging on them.

Analog Man mini BiComp

Overdirve (anything of the following, AnalogMan King Of Tone (the true king of tone, thanks Analog Mike for this pedal), tube screamer, HBE Powerscreamer, Fulltone Fulldrive 2)

RC Booster (can add a bit of grit on top of a boost, goes well with the compressor on)

Volume Pedal - Planetwaves true-strobe tuner (VERY accurate)

ZVex Box of Rocks, (it also has a boost side to the pedal, really useful)

Boss PS5, just for octave up effect

Boss DD20

Line 6 DL4 with some cool mods I did :)

Boss RV5, (level set low, tone set low, dwell set long, modulate setting, sounds beautiful)

Its all on a Pedaltrain PT2 pedalboard, I power it all with a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2.

This covers almost any sound I have ever needed, it just takes a bit of tap dancing to find it. If you got questions feel free to ask away, here or on twitter, @kennywouldgo.

Good luck on finding tone you like, guitar players, because next week you are gonna hate it and start searching again. Just don't obsess about it. Obsess about something more important in life. I have to remind myself of that all too often.

rock on readers.

the deep blue sea

Been doing some thinking lately. Thinking about the world around me, and again am amazed at the glory of God evident in nature. I watched a TV program the on the Science Chanel the other night. It was about the deepest parts of the ocean, or at least as deep as man has gone. They brought cameras down there and filmed these creatures for the first time. Step back a month ago. I just waled out of the movie AVATAR, which was the most visually stunning movie I have ever scene. (didn't love the storyline though) I walked out and was almost bored with the world around me. Here I was in this sterile concrete parking lot filled with people trying to find there cars, bags of new clothes, shoes and other things in their arms. People checking their phones, grabbing some fast food, and getting in their cars and driving away. I thought to myself, "where is the beauty in the world? where is the majesty of God in the mountains, or the rivers?" I almost wished God had created better creatures and animals, and a more magical world. Sad, I know, and I had to readjust my orientation. Fast forward to the other night when I was watching that show on the deep ocean. My jaw was on the floor for about an hour and a half as I sat there looking at these creatures, seeing the geography of the ocean, and the movement and behaviors of these wild sea animals. What was I thinking being bored with the world around me! I could not have even imagined what was down there, and how the deep sea creatures survived in that hostile environment. I often forget how God has created all this for his glory and we haven't even seen the half of it. It is not even necessary for man to see it for God to be glorified. Its simple, fantastic existence is what glorifies God, and by some great grace, when we happen to bump into something so mysterious and otherworldly we are blessed with a glimpse of the depth of God, or rather a glimpse at our inability to quantify and qualify God. How far from my understanding is this great Lover of Humanity, the one who chose to give us free will so that we may love him more honestly. Thank you for that my Lord.

I am REALLY terrible at PingPong

So I just lost dramatically at PingPong. I was playing Michael Olson, the drummer for Michael W. Smith, and I couldn't score a point on him, not because he is radically good at pingpong but because I am terribly bad at it. It was fun while it lasted, the whole 3 minuets of it. Needless to say I won't be playing again any time soon. After I lost I quickly long boarded across the parking lot to our bus to cry alone. Lucky for me X-Men was on TV and I forgot all my troubles...

The first day of school, or something like it

Big day today. We started and finished pre-production for our fall tour. Matt has been busy in Boston at a LifeTeen conference so we had to hold down the fort in Nashville. We are playing with a new drummer for this tour, Paul Mabury, who rocks. Kemi and I are also backing up two other artists, Phil Stacey, who was on American Idol, Season 6, and Meredith Andrews, a gifted singer and songwriter. Today was actually a bit like the first day of school. We showed up at the rehearsal space, a bit unsure of which room to head to. Then we had to meet a bunch of new people that we were going to be spending lots of time with. And I wasn't sure where the bathrooms were. It turns out we figured out where to go, we made lots of new friends, and I never had to go to the bathroom. Great day if you ask me. We have the day off tomorrow then our bus heads out. I am definitely feeling pumped for this tour, and it is cool to see it all come together....

Ok. 3 things I am looking forward to---

1. Traveling by bus. (Not for those of you who really need a lot of personal space though!

2. Being able to sleep in past 9am. (I never do when I am home, and we never do when we have to fly into shows)

3. The weird things that always happen on tour. Hopefully lots of video footage to follow!

Thats all for now...

Kenny