Gear Talk – Alex Nifong
Lately, the “worship tone” has been defined by a few guys’ tone. Alex Nifong is definitely is one of the top players who have greatly contributed to inspiring the sound of worship music right now. On top of writing the powerful chorus to “Jesus Paid It All” and “Faithful,” Alex has played guitar with many people including Matt Redman, Tim Hughes and Kristian Stanfill.
Here’s a look at his pedalboard:
Alex typically runs these pedals with a Gibson Firebird, Fender American Telecaster, an old Gibson 335 (or some other hollowbody), or a Rickenbacker guitar (he just got it the other day actually). He usually plays through a Vox AC30TBX, but occasionally with use a Goodsell Super 17.
The signal chain goes: Boss TU-2 Tuner, Digitech Whammy IV, Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, Boss DD-5 Digital Delay (with external tap), and a Line 6 DL4, all powered by a PedalGear.net Juicebox. Although Alex will occasionally use a few others pedals (like the one not plugged in to the right), but those are the consistent ones.
But don’t let him fool you; just because Alex doesn’t use a ton of pedals, his sounds aren’t always easy to figure out. He knows these pedals inside and out and gets some great sounds through them.
Lesson of the Day: Learn your pedals…you don’t need a billion pedals to get some great sounds! Learn how pickup selection and messing with tone knobs can give you some different stuff, as well as trying all kinds different settings on your pedals.
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About Nathan
I live in Atlanta. I like music a lot. I play guitar at different churches, shows and events as a contract musician and play with a few bands (see Links page). Over the years I’ve had this blog, it’s slowly morphed into becoming a place for guitar players to come and hang out, particularly those who play at churches or in worship music. While I believe this is a ministry for me to be a resource to guitar players, it’s important to understand that there is more to my life than talking gear and guitar and there will be blogs about other stuff here as well.
I am on the Facebook world as well as Twitter and Tumblr, and very rarely on MySpace.
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I like all those pedal’s a lot. but i think the Juice Box is expensive but good! i like the Visual Sound 1Spot a whole lot and it’s cheap. + all the Hillsong Guys use it. so thats what i go with for now.
The fact that ‘Hillsong Guys’ use anything would be enough to drive me a long way from it…I’m afraid Aussies have never really produced good tone…sorry but no serious guitarist would use them as a tone-reference. We should develop our own unique voice and stop copying Hillsong…you’re far more important than that. If I see another Telecaster swung just low enough to prevent a correctly angled wrist…I may not be responsible for my actions…the same goes for AC30s which are made from old WW2 aeroplane parts…can we move on please? In comparison a Cornford would make an AC30 look a bit silly.
actually coty idk how much you obsses cough cough i mean look at their gear but they are using a diago power supply. they state that they can run 30 pedals with out hum! pretty affordable vs my dang voodoo labs power supply.. that i wish i didnt have now.. just to much money for not enough power. But i still love it!
Where is Alex now? Is he still playing with Kristian Stanfill? The last time I’ve seen him play was with Tim Hughes? Did he move to England? I bet he’s still playing the same gear too, anybody have an update on his gear?
He’s playing with Tim and a few other guys here and there, but he’s actually starting to lead a lot. Still living in Atlanta and his gear is basically the same…a lot cleaner of a board now with a few additions, most of which he doesn’t even use. I’ll snap a shot this week or next and post for y’all.