TOOLS OF THE TRADE – Lead Guitar (feat. Jamie Cambers)

Hello readers (and listeners, for people who use that text reader function thingie). I’ve got an article to share with you from my buddy Jamie Cambers. Jamie is a fantastical practitioner of the electric guitar machine (and I don’t just say that cuz he’s been stage-left of me in JSB for many moons). He put together some thoughts on gear for you burgeoning axe-masters out there. I’m going to break them down into a couple of chunks and share them with you over the next little while. First up are some general thoughts and some talk about choosing a guitar (seems like a good place to start). – Jeff

FROM JAMIE: When I went to youth retreats or conferences when I was a youth, I wasn’t very interested in worship. Actually, let me rephrase that. I was interested in music as worship, but not worshiping. In fact, I was always far more interested in what gear the guitar players were using and watching contently on how they were using their instruments. After a service, I would often find myself at the front of the stage to get a closer look at a guitar players’ pedal board to see what they were using. Now, about 10 years later, I find myself on the other end of the spectrum. People often ask me what is on my pedal board, how I get my tone, or what I recommend using for certain sounds or effects. Some of those questions inspired me to share via this blog. Hope it helps in some way.

1) GUITAR: the first and most important tool in your arsenal is your guitar. You may have heard it said before that “good tone comes from your fingers”. I say, “Don’t believe it”. Good vibrato and dexterity come from your fingers, chops and tastefulness come from your head, but great tone comes from a good guitar. Let’s say you had $2000 to spend on a whole new rig from scratch. I’d consider spending at least 50% of your budget on a good guitar. After all, it’s most likely the piece of gear that will stick with you the longest.

a) When looking for a new guitar, play a lot of them and research the ones you like. If starting from scratch, I suggest starting out with the most familiar and popular guitars like Fender Strats and Teles, Gibson Les Pauls or ES-series hollow-bodies. These guitars all have familiar sounds, but have very different and unique tonal qualities so it’s important to play/hear them all. Moreover, try playing them in the same amp (or amp-type). This is the best way to hear their differences and sound qualities.
b) Next, you want to search out guitar that feels good in your hands and doesn’t go out of tune easily. If you’re trying out a guitar at your local guitar store, this is tough to judge because guitars hanging on a wall may have old strings, aren’t setup well, and have had many hands playing them. But you want to look for a neck-shape and fretboard scale that works well with your hands. Most Fender-style guitars have an all-around comfortable “C” shape to their necks and a longer fretboard scale while Gibson-style guitars have bulkier necks and a shorter fretboard scale. For example, I have small hands but long fingers, so I use a neck that has a “thin/wide” neck profile meaning the palm of my hand fits around the neck well but the frets are large enough for my fingers to stretch out. If you’ve got large hands, a Strat or Tele neck might feel like a broom handle so a Les Paul-style neck might fill out your hands a bit more giving your fingers more room to move around and not feel so cramped on a fretboard.
c) Quite possibly the most important aspect of a guitar’s overall tone is its pickups. While there’re only a handful of pickup types (like single coils, humbuckers, P90s, or PAFs), they all have different sounds and feels to them. If you want a quacky, chimey, or bell-like tone, you may want to look at a single-coil equipped guitar. If you like high-gain sounds or want a very meaty, full sounding pickup, try a humbucker. If you want a neutral-tone that often have a humped or flat midrange, try a P90 or PAF pickup. These pickups are most often found in hollow-body guitars like Gibson, Gretsch or Rickenbacker and are particularly great for rhythm playing.

And remember. It’s easy to get fooled by how “cool” a guitar looks or how many accouterments it has. Also, don’t buy a guitar because your favorite player plays it. You want something that you’ll like and want to shape your sound around. Make sure you’re buying a guitar you know you’re not going to want to sell a year later. That being said, here’re some examples of great worship players and what guitars they’re using.

Lincoln Brewster – Fender Strats
Daniel Carson (Chris Tomlin): Gibson Les Pauls
Leeland Mooring: Fender Tele
Jack Parker (David Crowder Band): PRSs and Tom Anderson gutiars
Charlie Hall: Fender Tele
Stu Garrard (Delirious): Fender Tele, Gibson ES135, Gibson Les Paul
Tim Neufeld: Gretsch 6120







Big thanks to Jamie for sharing his thoughts, and you can look for other “Tools of the Trade” entries coming soon. Also keep an eye out for a video series we recently shot with Jamie regarding some playing tips for you lead players out there.

You can follow Jamie on Twitter @jcambers