I attended the Paul Baloche concert on Friday and the Leadworship workshop on Saturday.
Ben Gowell, Paul’s guitarist, was using my friend’s Suhr Badger 18 head through a Suhr 1-12 with a V30.
He played a Gibson Les Paul and a white Elliott Peter Stroud Signature Custom Tone Master (Jazzmaster type guitar with a fixed bridge).
In the first workshop, he covered some basics which you can see here. He ran through his pedalboard in the second workshop.
Pedals:
Keeley compressor (used to get sustain on clean guitar parts)
Ernie Ball VP Jr. with buffer mod
Boss tuner
Keeley Katana
Fulltone Supa-Trem
JHS Morning Glory (1st level of gain)
T-Rex Moller (2nd level of gain)
Rockbox Boiling Point (3rd level of gain)
Boss DD-20 (slapback on rhythm parts to make them bigger and modulated delay)
Eventide Timefactor
JHS tap tempo boxes
This is his main board but he has additional pedals that he brings on the road and in the studio. For recording, he can get his tone by turning up the amp but these pedals work well with most backline amps that he gets. When someone asked him about a specific chain that he used for a recording, he said that he used a Gretsch into a Vox AC-30 with a modulated delay. The amp was turned up so he didn’t need to use any overdrive pedals. He mentioned using a Matchless DC-30, Bogner Shiva, and Marshalls as well for recording. He demonstrated the looper on the DD-20 by playing parts of some John Mayer songs. The conference was sponsored by D’Addario so we got a pack of free strings (11 gauge). That is what I use on my guitar so that was nice surprise. I met a guy who is using a Axe-Fx II for worship and is really happy with the results. Another guy is planning to switch from a 20 space Mesa-based rack to the Axe-Fx.
I guess Devi Ever took down her video where she said that she was not going to pursue legal action against JHS pedals for cloning (allegedly 
) her Hyperion pedal. When you say allegedly, you have to sing the word allegedly like the Amy Poehler character, Kaitlin, from the SNL sketch. I thought it was funny that someone made this comment on Devi’s youtube video: Christian Hipster Douchebag Pedals. Add an Inc. to the end of that and you can start your own pedal company. 
I saw some Tom’s at the conference but no deep V-necks.
Tags: Ben Gowell, effects, JHS, Leadworship, Paul Baloche, pedalboard
October 10, 2011 at 4:18 am
i went to one of his sessions when they were in town, i think it was the first time he played for Paul at that time. props to him for being the most prepared guitarist i’ve seen on a worship conference. most just talks nothing about music nor worship … he even has a handout! great player yet very down to earth (and has great gear, too) hehe
LOL at the hipster video! is it really that bad nowadays?!?!
October 10, 2011 at 4:38 am
All in all, seems pretty standard for a worship workshop.
I’d love to hear the AxeFX II.
Have you gotten your M9 modified yet?
I just picked up an Echo Park for $60 and I’m floored by the tape mode, especially reverse-tape! What a novel idea! Sounds fantastic. Definitely a different tape algorithm from the DL4 and the M series – rivals the best out there. The analog/digital modes are just ok.
I have a second en route, I should post a video.
About the Devi drama, I was pretty suspicious about JHS for a while. Once that video came out and all the Billy C drama kicked off, I lost what little interest I ever held in all of those “Clone Wars.” I can’t really take overly dramatic people seriously. JHS pretty much kept their mouth shut and in the end, after all the blood and YouTube-tears, they seem like the victor. They might do seriously sloppy work on overpriced, non-original-ish (allegedly) pedals, but whatever.
I’m giving up on accusing anyone in these fights anymore since I probably won’t buy their pedals anyway.
Alex
October 19, 2011 at 9:48 am
OK made it back from Houston. Sorry for the late response.
Rhoy – he was very well prepared. I remember going to the Lincoln Brewster workshops at CMS 3 years ago and he didn’t have handouts. He was able to keep it interesting. I’m probably not going to any more of these because they’re geared for people just starting out.
Alex – I haven’t gotten the M9 modded yet. I got it off CL for $200 and one of the output jacks has a noise issue. No issue since i don’t run stereo but I’m either going to get it fixed then modded or just throw it back. Great score on the Echo Park! I actually was going to buy one used for $60 a couple years ago but it didn’t work out. It looked mint but when the guy went to plug it in, he couldn’t get it to work. Lots of troubleshooting and he apologized for it not working. I still check CL from time to time and would like to try the tape model. Does the buffer bother you? I bought a Verbzilla a few years ago but returned it because it seemed to dull my tone a bit. The JHS poor soldering stories in TGP are sad. I’m waiting for someone to make a correlation between MuteMath going downhill and them using JHS pedals.