I have discovered my favorite setup for worship leading from guitar:

I really like using the Taylor T5. It allows me to play an acoustic song, or even an acoustic portion of a song and then with the flip of a switch, go to an overdriven electric sound with no guitar switching. I have a Les Paul and a Strat, but for most worship venues, the sounds I can get out of the T5 are close enough that I stay with it instead of taking the time (ie possibly adding distraction) to switch guitars.

When I first got the T5, I tried the A/B box switch directly from my pedal board for electric (all analog at the time) to a direct signal to the house for acoustic. This worked ok, but I missed the added color of chorus/reverb/delay etc on the acoustic sound. It just didn’t have that ’sound’ that I was looking for. So that meant adding more and more pedals with duplicate functions to an already large pedalboard (any guitar players know what I’m talking about? . So, one day I stumbled upon the item that makes the T5 really shine – the POD XT Live. With this setup I can flip a switch, click a pedal and I have moved from chimey chorus reverb delay acoustic to gritty rhythm electric sounds. PERFECT!

The other really cool note about this setup is the ability to plug directly into the house for both acoustic and electric (and have it sound good!). This way I am eliminating the need for an amp, and reducing stage volume, which is a constant problem in churches, large and small.

Depending on the church I also use an In Ear Monitor System. I use the Galaxy Audio AnySpot UHF wireless system with Shure E3’s with custom ear molds.