Nice group. My church has a simpler setup - piano, lead guitar, bass, mic’d cajon. I’m backup for the cajon because of my drumming background. I need to audition for the backup bass role and I think B2B will get me ready by September. The leader (piano) selects songs appropriate for the group size and part. Also a 6 to 10 person choir.
It’s an evangelical church and I’m hoping I can influence them toward a little more jazzy gospel. It will be a tough boundary to cross but maybe I can sneak in a couple of licks. I’ll be low man on the totem so it’ll need to be very subtle. as a 77yo i need to be quick about it without raising suspicion. 
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Hmmm. the radial stage bug is interesting. I’m new to all this stuff. The bass at my church uses a fender rumble 100 and, in my opinion, it’s too much bass. I think it would be better if bass control was done at the sound board. My learning amp is a Fender Mustang lt25 (I know, it’s not a bass amp) it’s very cool since it has lots of software options I can control with Fender Tone. I just don’t think it will hold it’s own from the stage. Everything else in the group goes thru the sound board which may be the best option for me instead of spending a few hundred USD on another amp.
Is there anything i need to be aware of before asking the sound man to plug in?
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Hahaha. I’m a youngster at 72 but appreciate your quick wittiness…
Guess it would all depend on the size of the auditorium along with the speakers attached to the sound board…. When I play with my bands, I play through a Fender stack of two 2x10’s
at 800amps…. Not much really, but with bass, the sound should be checked mid room given the amount of air that bass speakers move…. Many times I’m only at 1/2-3/4 volume in a 200-300 seat auditorium and the bass mixes well without overpowering. Splitting into a mixing board also works well but the bass is very low and sometimes unheard, so having another on stage amp really helps but most church music directors that I’ve dealt with keep the bass frequencies to a low level in order to enhance the vocal frequencies in worship music…. The key is in balance, and a good ear on the board goes a long way to enhancing those deep bass notes in any mix…… Such a challenge at times…!!..
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This is interesting to me…… So, all Christians, yet different continents lean to different worship/praise songs/styles…??.. Curious…. Are we talking music style, lyric style/content, etc…??.. So curious about this….
Wow!! This is so cool!!
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@GGWAW very nice rig! Looks familiar- same exact tuner and Cali 76 to start- but then an Octave (never used) and SansAmp. All mounted to a Target brand spice shelf. I got a little complicated and used my Boss ME-90B last Sunday and it was too much work dialing it in- haha. I tried to dirty it up for “I Believe” by Phil Wickham.
And lets not forget the wavelength of a 30 Hz frequency is about 38 feet.
The church is small - 2 side by side rows of maybe 25 rows of pews plus a balcony of maybe 5 rows.
Interesting things to consider. Thanks Lanny.
Yes, yes, yes…… This is where things get interesting - especially in a church setting where the acoustics may not be optimal for lower frequencies…. This is what makes playing bass to praise/worship music challenging…… Playing the low notes might (probably will) get lost in the mix since most on the mixing board focus on the vocal frequencies of worship/praise songs. Sometimes playing that bass line high on the neck might bring out a bit more (your) bass tone, but it might get lost in the guitar rhythm frequencies…. This is where I use octave slides at times…… Very effective is used sparingly and at the right moment.
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We have many styles
-
Glorious is “pop louange” / “Pop Praise”
Glorious - Apple Music -
Mathieu Cossez - same style, maybe less known
Matthieu Cossiez - Apple Music -
Emmanuel - Praise
Emmanuel Music - Apple Music -
Taize - Medidation style
Taizé - Apple Music
And of course many others !
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I have an octave pedal but thought it won’t be useful in our context
The SansAmp was tempting but very expensive and introducing more “headache” in terms of finding the right sound
Funny enough, I just bought a used Rumble 100 to leave at the church - it sounds better than the guitar amp that was there. I’m planning to use it in // to church (very) small speakers
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Not in this church:
It’s the Kölner Dom, in fact a cathedral. I love it - my grandfather worked on the restauration of the painted windows after WW2, so I always feel his spirit when I’m there…
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thanks. I love Apple Music. Just some things I wish they’d fix with managing playlists but it’s a great resource.
Wow! I couldn’t agree more W. You clearly have given this some thought. Your analysis is quite deep for someone not churchy.
B
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Quick update here.
I created a small pedal board that I carry with me to the church - here it is !
On another topic, we have a session tonight and I’m wondering if I could try to bring the Dingwall 5 strings as one of the songs is in Eflat and I could benefit from the low B.
More broadly, when you have a 5 string, do you ply low C & D from time to time or it doesn’t sound good / make sense in the context
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I’ve been playing in southern Baptist churches all of my life, played five years at a Church of God church. The Church I play at now is somewhat reserved. I have a pedal board similar to yours that I use and also take my 5 string from time to time. So imo, absolutely use your 5 string. Thank you for making my mind up for tonight, it’s 5er we go.
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I play a 5 string at church most of the time and use the low C and D fairly often.
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I would use my 5 string to hit the Eb note at the B string 4th fret, and depending on the song being played, would not go below that note while playing. Going too low for many contemporary Cristian songs will add a certain flavor of darkness that may disrupt how the music is meant to be presented during worship. Besides, many songs played in Eb are for the benefit of the vocalist anyway. There are however some New Christian Contemporary/Rock/Heavy Rock that songs that play quite well using notes on the B string so again, it depends on the song being played and how the direction of worship is moving.
The one thing that I stay away from when playing in any worship team is “Swapping” bass’s. This might work fine on stage when playing gigs, but there is typically time between songs to make that change. Not so during worship since many songs lead into other songs with no breaks in between…
As for using a pedalboard during worship, if you have a music director and/or a person behind a mixer, you might wanna check with them first.
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Clear, the way we pray is song and then silence / testimony so swapping would’nt be an issue BUT it will feel like overkill for this type of “ceremony”
I don’t master my 5 as well as my 4 (or I’m even worse with my 5 than I am with my 4 
)
We are nowhere close to this, it is more DIY 
We don’t even have a stable team, we have a Whatsapp and available people join ; we don’t rehearse songs and we try to do balancing 2 min before the opening …
I’ll give it a try ; our priest is very direct and feedback oriented … if I screw up I’ll know 
Will do !
Thank you all for your help
Thank you all for your advices !
Went with the NG3 5 string and it was great
The priest was more or less in front of the speaker at one point of time (after accompanying me with the Cajun for 3 songs) so I decided to go low as a test in a very slow song where I basically do nothing but just one note per bar … no reaction … so I continued from time to time only feedback other songs and it felt great
only feedback from the group was that it was a great moment
Will probably go back with this bass regularly (I didn’t mess up due to the 5th string which is also good)
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I play a Dingwall JTS during worship and boy does it ever cut through the mix with its mids. I got rolling last night at rehearsal with some syncopated ghost 16ths and the MD told me to back it down, haha. Back to one note per bar:) Well, not quite- but saved the power for the ending chorus. Glad to have some fellow worship players to chat with here. And another Dingwall in worship:)
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