Last time we looked at Tubescreamer overdrive pedals as part of a very basic set up to get you going in a modern worship band setting.

Now let’s look at the delay side of things. A good delay pedal is the real secret to playing in many modern worship song styles. Delays can do so many jobs, they can add jangle to chords, thicken lead sounds, add short reverb type sounds, provide huge sound scapes a bit like a keyboard pad sound and of massive rhythmic textures like the classic U2 sound. So learning to get the most out of your delay takes time and you could almost view it as an instrument in itself as it radically advances what you can do with an electric guitar. Before we get into the pedals themselves there is one golden rule, so repeat after me (no pun intended) I MUST SET THE DELAY SPEED TO BE IN TIME WITH THE MUSIC!!

Basically whatever the speed is determines whether the repeats are going to layer on top of what you played or just come back at you out of time. Too slow and it can just sound like a wall of sound and too fast feels like the repeats are running away from you.

Now not all delay pedals are the same so it’s worth investing in a good one to start with. If you’re not familiar with the different options available in many modern pedals then here is an overview. First there are three flavours of delay.
• Digital, which sounds pristine and gives you the most repeats
• Analogue, which is more lo-fi and sounds sound degrades nicely with each repeat
• Tape, which is taken from the old tape machine delays. When those machines started to play up the repeated sound would warble and flutter which sounded pretty good so many of the modern pedals try to replicate this, with differing degrees of authenticity. Read More »