PRS In Church?

Love to see the growth! Hoping for a day when we'll have one, its been portable a few years. There's been talk, so we'll see. Ultimately, its just a building, what happens in and out of are what's important, and I'm just happy to be able to serve!
Here's one of the "roving" stories so to say. When covid hit we were no longer able to have service at the high school we were in. I think our new future church was purchased by then but as mentioned there was a lot of work to do. We were actually having service on the outside balcony of the building. People stayed in their cars in the parking lot and the service was broadcast over a local radio station so the folks could tune in on their car radios and here what was going on.

This was all fine and dandy until it started getting colder. I'll never forget that last balcony service in November of 2020. It was absolutly freezing outside. We left our guitars outside to try and keep the tuning as intact as possible while we were inside trying to keep warm. I remember as soon as I stepped out and grabbed my guitar.....it was over. My hands instantly froze, I had no dexterity at all and I made more flubs and mistakes than I care to admit! But I wasn't the only one so I took a bit of comfort in that! The balcony services were cancelled for the next two weeks due to the cold and our building was finally ready the following weekend.
Praise the Lord!!!!
 
Here's one of the "roving" stories so to say. When covid hit we were no longer able to have service at the high school we were in. I think our new future church was purchased by then but as mentioned there was a lot of work to do. We were actually having service on the outside balcony of the building. People stayed in their cars in the parking lot and the service was broadcast over a local radio station so the folks could tune in on their car radios and here what was going on.

This was all fine and dandy until it started getting colder. I'll never forget that last balcony service in November of 2020. It was absolutly freezing outside. We left our guitars outside to try and keep the tuning as intact as possible while we were inside trying to keep warm. I remember as soon as I stepped out and grabbed my guitar.....it was over. My hands instantly froze, I had no dexterity at all and I made more flubs and mistakes than I care to admit! But I wasn't the only one so I took a bit of comfort in that! The balcony services were cancelled for the next two weeks due to the cold and our building was finally ready the following weekend.
Praise the Lord!!!!
Can't imagine that! On the flip side, there was a service for us a few weeks that the AC went out before. Playing while sweating like crazy isnt a blast either! But I love the effort put into to keeping the services alive in that crazy unpredictable time! Our services were all done through streaming in the early stages of 2020. The band was to record our parts and film ourselves playing them in our home studios/homes. We sent that in to the main campus to have it edited together for a global stream between all of our campuses. I played in two of those, and while I like playing and recording at home, that wasn't that much fun!
 
Cool thread!!! So, at 63, I was raised heathen for 30 years and have been a believer in Christ for 33. Teach adult Sunday School, fill in for the pastor when he vacations, and run the sound room which has dove head first into Facebook Live streaming every service (Sunday morning and Wednesday eve). Been playing for 50 years now. More so some years than others. (I'm figuring you might as well know my testimony for Christ before I jump in...right? :)

We're a small church. Maybe 50 on a good Sunday morning. Our keyboard player is phenomenal. Now, he's 75 years old...West Point grad in the day...STILL runs full marathons. But, don't let numbers fill you. His rock days were Doobie Brothers, Allman Brothers...he's a Mississippi guy. My era was Led Zepp, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Skynyrd, etc. So we're both open to a LOT of new music. Our worship band has been going for 7 years now.

So, yes, I play my '09 Sunburst 22 most every week. Just got the '04 Singlecut 10 top and it will be worked into a rotation. The band plays 1, sometimes 2, worship songs a week....nothing lengthy. The keyboard player can read, but we all typically play by ear. We had a drummer & bass player. Drummer left, and the bassist is overcoming health issues. That said, the keyboard player is triggering midi drums and well acquainted with running 2 Korg Triton's doing 100+ gigs a year...he's versed on being a three piece solo act. :O

My setup is: Sunburst or Singlecut -> ElectroHarmonix C9...wet signal to volume pedal for swelled in B3 style organ...dry signal into a Strymon Riverside -> HXFX (loaded with DeLaune/Britt presets and some of Worship Tutorial presets...all tweaked to taste). The HXFX is pushed into a Peavey Studio Pro 40 (w/ Sheffield) and it fills the sanctuary. Keyboards go into a JBL Eon G2. Both face me and I match the level of the keyboard...that works great!

Mic setup...after the Mackie 1604VLZ died, I put a Yamaha board in that works fine. Amp is a QSC USA900 series STILL running fine into a quad of Cerwin Vega V152's and doing well after 23 years. No in-ear monitors...live mix works great for all and no stage monitors. That's our "house system".

That's the nuts & bolts of it. Well, for a song repertoire, we do 1-2 of the following every week...

Raise A Hallelujah
Above All
Agnus Dei
Revelation Song (Phillips, Craig & Dean version)
Old Church Choir
Give Thanks
Chain Breaker
God Of Wonders
Forever
Lord Reign Me In
Our God (Chris Tomlin)
10,000 Reasons
All The People Said Amen (Matt Maher)
One Name
Wonderful Merciful Savior (Selah version)
Here I Am To Worship
Way Maker (M.W. Smith version)
...and more, but you get the gist of it.

So far, so good. Not too taxing and no surprises. Keyboard player emails the song(s) selected on Tuesday. We vocally run through it Wed. eve after prayer service...then play it Sunday. Our Pastor keeps typically hands-off the music selection. (Keyboard player leads it, but we take a request a week prior...we're easy to get along with! I will say...if my HXFX broke...it will be immediately replaced. :)

Brad
 
Last edited:
Cool thread!!! So, at 63, I was raised heathen for 30 years and have been a believer in Christ for 33. Teach adult Sunday School, fill in for the pastor when he vacations, and run the sound room which has dove head first into Facebook Live streaming every service (Sunday morning and Wednesday eve). Been playing for 50 years now. More so some years than others. (I'm figuring you might as well know my testimony for Christ before I jump in...right? :)

We're a small church. Maybe 50 on a good Sunday morning. Our keyboard player is phenomenal. Now, he's 75 years old...West Point grad in the day...STILL runs full marathons. But, don't let numbers fill you. His rock days were Doobie Brothers, Allman Brothers...he's a Mississippi guy. My era was Led Zepp, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Skynyrd, etc. So we're both open to a LOT of new music. Our worship band has been going for 7 years now.

So, yes, I play my '09 Sunburst 22 most every week. Just got the '04 Singlecut 10 top and it will be worked into a rotation. The band plays 1, sometimes 2, worship songs a week....nothing lengthy. The keyboard player can read, but we all typically play by ear. We had a drummer & bass player. Drummer left, and the bassist is overcoming health issues. That said, the keyboard player is triggering midi drums and well acquainted with running 2 Korg Triton's doing 100+ gigs a year...he's versed on being a three piece solo act. :O

My setup is: Sunburst or Singlecut -> ElectroHarmonix C9...wet signal to volume pedal for swelled in B3 style organ...dry signal into a Strymon Riverside -> HXFX (loaded with DeLaune/Britt presets and some of Worship Tutorial presets...all tweaked to taste). The HXFX is pushed into a Peavey Studio Pro 40 (w/ Sheffield) and it fills the sanctuary. Keyboards go into a JBL Eon G2. Both face me and I match the level of the keyboard...that works great!

Mic setup...after the Mackie 1604VLZ died, I put a Yamaha board in that works fine. Amp is a QSC USA900 series STILL running fine into a quad of Cerwin Vega V152's and doing well after 23 years. No in-ear monitors...live mix works great for all and no stage monitors. That's our "house system".

That's the nuts & bolts of it. Well, for a song repertoire, we do 1-2 of the following every week...

Raise A Hallelujah
Above All
Agnus Dei
Revelation Song (Phillips, Craig & Dean version)
Old Church Choir
Give Thanks
Chain Breaker
God Of Wonders
Forever
Lord Reign Me In
Our God (Chris Tomlin)
10,000 Reasons
All The People Said Amen (Matt Maher)
One Name
Wonderful Merciful Savior (Selah version)
Here I Am To Worship
Way Maker (M.W. Smith version)
...and more, but you get the gist of it.

So far, so good. Not too taxing and no surprises. Keyboard player emails the song(s) selected on Tuesday. We vocally run through it Wed. eve after prayer service...then play it Sunday. Our Pastor keeps typically hands-off the music selection. (Keyboard player leads it, but we take a request a week prior...we're easy to get along with! I will say...if my HXFX broke...it will be immediately replaced. :)

Brad
Great to meet you.
We are kinda pic addicted. So post some when you can.
 
Great to meet you.
We are kinda pic addicted. So post some when you can.
Ok, Ok...for you pic addicts, here are the PRS' that get into a rotation...

IMG-3061.jpg



And the pedalboard



go ou FNLA n=bsf
 
Last edited:
Just joined the forum and found this thread! Been using a PRS in worship services for almost 20 years. Being a Marylander, it just seemed right. I use a PRS EGII with Mike Christian piezo saddles I modded years ago. Toggle just switches between piezos and magnetics. Still my favorite guitar. I run through a pedalboard that is uses a couple IRs (Iridium) and a few effects, one for acoustic and one electric tones, straight to a monitor and FOH. Just needed the flexibility to use one guitar and pedalboard for all the songs. Start a lot of them with an acoustic, and switch to electric. Speaking of songs, didn't play today, but last week the set list was:
Let Me Count the Ways
Fresh Wind
Humble
Set My Heart
What a Beautiful Name
Our God is Love

Blessings,
Ron
 
Last edited:
Just joined the forum and found this thread! Been using a PRS in worship services for almost 20 years. Being a Marylander, it just seemed right. I use a PRS EGII with Mike Christian piezo saddles I modded years ago. Toggle just switches between piezos and magnetics. Still my favorite guitar. I run through a pedalboard that is uses a couple IRs (Iridium) and a few effects, one for acoustic and one electric tones, straight to a monitor and FOH. Just needed the flexibility to use one guitar and pedalboard for all the songs. Start a lot of them with an acoustic, and switch to electric. Speaking of songs, didn't play today, but last week the set list was:
Let Me Count the Ways
Fresh Wind
Humble
Set My Heart
What a Beautiful Name
Our God is Love

Blessings,
Ron
Great to hear from you.
 
Our service went well. I laid one or two eggs. Not very noticeable. (But I know I’ll cringe when I listen to the video)
 
Last edited:
Our service went well. I laid one or two eggs. Not very noticeable. (But I know I’ll cringe when I listen to the video)
Good to hear! And you aren't alone in the laying eggs department ;). I'm no pro, so I always lay a few, I've gotten better at just moving on, but they do happen!

Had a few yesterday that stick with me; came in just a little late on a bridge riff part of Egypt that I have to start, luckily it didnt throw the band off and we stayed true to the click and guide somehow (I think haha). The other egg were the chords in the verse of What a Beautiful Name. Those ALWAYS cross me up, dont know why! So I just laid back and stayed out of the way while still trying to play something there in key at least.

But, all good. The ultimate goal was achieved, we were able to create a moment of worship for our community. I always go back out and sit with my wife and some friends during service until I go back on stage, and during the "greeting" where we all stand up and say good morning to those around us, there was a member of our church that came up to me and said she loves when I play, it brings everyone so much energy! And my wife said the last song (my forgotten verse chords song) gave her chills. So, that feels good to know I'm doing my job as a servant.
 
Just joined the forum and found this thread! Been using a PRS in worship services for almost 20 years. Being a Marylander, it just seemed right. I use a PRS EGII with Mike Christian piezo saddles I modded years ago. Toggle just switches between piezos and magnetics. Still my favorite guitar. I run through a pedalboard that is uses a couple IRs (Iridium) and a few effects, one for acoustic and one electric tones, straight to a monitor and FOH. Just needed the flexibility to use one guitar and pedalboard for all the songs. Start a lot of them with an acoustic, and switch to electric. Speaking of songs, didn't play today, but last week the set list was:
Let Me Count the Ways
Fresh Wind
Humble
Set My Heart
What a Beautiful Name
Our God is Love

Blessings,
Ron
Nice, welcome! I'm new here too within the last week or so, and also found this thread to be a cool one for us worship players!
 
We had a few technical problems yesterday. During our run through, one of the two short video's they were going to show wasn't working. I don't know what happened but it put the whammy on the signal between the computer and the mixing board, shutting the system down. We had our signals in our IEM's but that was it.

Finally got that going then there was problem with our lead singers vocal signal in his IEM. Kept getting a delay which was throwing him off beat. He wound up having to go with the house sound through his IEM's and he did fine with that.

Okay, showtime. During the second song we all heard the sound out front losing the "umph" factor. Turns out when the board went down some of the EQ settings were lost so the soundman was scrambling to get everything back in order.

(But wait, there's more!). During the last song the click went crazy. The song is in 4/4 and it came through in 3/4! The keyboard player and I were supposed to start the song with a fade in on a D chord. We looked at each other with a "this ain't right" look on our faces, I gave him a 4 count and we faded in. The singer (who controls the click) was just as taken as we were and turned the click off after we did our fade in.

We always have a prayer before we go on and during the prayer before the second services it was "God, once more we found out it is You who is in control, not us!" We asked again for His blessing to help us worship and to rise above any technical problems that may arise again. Luckily there were no more problems.

We played well but it was truly "one of those days!"
 
We had a few technical problems yesterday. During our run through, one of the two short video's they were going to show wasn't working. I don't know what happened but it put the whammy on the signal between the computer and the mixing board, shutting the system down. We had our signals in our IEM's but that was it.

Finally got that going then there was problem with our lead singers vocal signal in his IEM. Kept getting a delay which was throwing him off beat. He wound up having to go with the house sound through his IEM's and he did fine with that.

Okay, showtime. During the second song we all heard the sound out front losing the "umph" factor. Turns out when the board went down some of the EQ settings were lost so the soundman was scrambling to get everything back in order.

(But wait, there's more!). During the last song the click went crazy. The song is in 4/4 and it came through in 3/4! The keyboard player and I were supposed to start the song with a fade in on a D chord. We looked at each other with a "this ain't right" look on our faces, I gave him a 4 count and we faded in. The singer (who controls the click) was just as taken as we were and turned the click off after we did our fade in.

We always have a prayer before we go on and during the prayer before the second services it was "God, once more we found out it is You who is in control, not us!" We asked again for His blessing to help us worship and to rise above any technical problems that may arise again. Luckily there were no more problems.

We played well but it was truly "one of those days!"
Oh no! It definitely WAS one of those days! Sometimes, what seems like a big deal to the band doesnt come across as a big deal to the congregation. There's times where I'll talk to my wife after to see if any errors, either musically or technically, were apparent, and she most of the time says "no", or rarely says "yea I noticed something was different but it didn't bother me".

I guess thats where the powering through as well as possible comes into play.
 
Oh no! It definitely WAS one of those days! Sometimes, what seems like a big deal to the band doesnt come across as a big deal to the congregation. There's times where I'll talk to my wife after to see if any errors, either musically or technically, were apparent, and she most of the time says "no", or rarely says "yea I noticed something was different but it didn't bother me".

I guess thats where the powering through as well as possible comes into play.
I truly beli be in the “God filter”. I believe He takes what we give and molds into what He wants.
 
Back
Top