Are you looking to become closer to Christ through worship music?
Worship music has become more exciting over the last 20 years, with an emphasis on guitars and other band-related instruments.
If you’re writing or performing worship music, it’s essential that your electric guitar produces the right sound quality for your songs.
Mainstream worship music hinges on powerful instruments that tell the story of Christ and His passion for togetherness through music.
So, in this article, we’ll provide you with the 7 best electric guitars for worship music as picked by experts.
We’ll also discuss the reasons behind each choice and answer some frequently asked questions.
By the end of this review, you should feel ready to pick your favorite and begin strumming to your favorite worship tunes. Let’s make some music!
Best electric guitar for worship in our tests
- Our Pick
- How to Choose the right electric guitar for worship?
- FAQs
- Conclusion – The best worship guitar is…
7 best electric guitars for worship reviewed in detail.
In each review, we look at the tone, price, versatility, and player satisfaction of each guitar.
Additionally, you’ll find a pro and con list accompanying each review to give you a brief synopsis of the guitar’s specs.
#1 Gretsch Guitars Players Edition G6136T Falcon Hollowbody with String-Thru Bigsby
Product info
The Gretsch White Falcon is undeniably one of the most beautiful-looking guitars around. It has the sound to match.
This premium hollow body guitar is a sacred model in the guitar community, only used by the worthy.
With a maple neck, laminated maple body, and 24.75” scale length, this guitar feels as good as it looks. This glorious instrument is graced with Two Filter’Tron humbucking pickups with high sensitivity. These provide a crystalline high end with a defined midrange. The low end is perfectly balanced, rich, and full. The complex, deep sound of this guitar is truly one of a kind and is perfect for playing worship songs.
The price tag of this guitar makes it for professionals only. Ideal for large church musicians and professional worship guitarists. This is one of the most classic-looking and sounding guitars ever made and is reserved for the most talented artists.
This instrument feels like the “LaFerrari” of the guitar world. Uncompromising, excessive, and stunningly refined. You really won’t find a better instrument for worship (if you can afford it!)
Pros and Cons
- Supreme Gretsch build quality.
- Extremely attractive aesthetic – pure beauty.
- Versatile sound and unrivaled feel.
- Handcrafted in the USA.
- Single cutaway body for easy access to the upper frets.
- Laminated maple top with a gloss urethane finish.
- Maple neck, 22 medium jumbo frets, and a 25″ scale length.
What Customers Say about Gretsch Guitars Players Edition G6136T Falcon Hollowbody with String-Thru Bigsby
Customers praise this guitar for its sleek look. According to customer reviews and other sources, this guitar has 5 stars among musicians who say that its hollowbody tone is ‘killer’ and it is ‘brilliantly constructed.’
Many well-renowned guitarists have sworn by this instrument, including Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones.
Although this guitar has a big price tag, it is not deterring musicians from purchasing, as it’s the ultimate class act among all electric guitars for worship.
#2 Fender American Original '50s Stratocaster Electric Guitar
Product info
Fender Stratocasters are excellent all-around guitars, and perform well in any situation you throw at them. Fender Guitars are known to be some of the most reliable, and best feeling and sounding guitars around. Everybody wants to own a fender, and for a good reason, these things are exquisite! There are also known to be some of the most versatile guitars on the market too, and are cherished by many guitar players!
We recommend the Fender Original Stratocaster range for Worship guitarists. These are about 1/3rd the price of the above Gretsch White Falcon but come made with a similar level of professionalism and quality. Thanks to the 3 single-coil pickups, volume knob, tone knob, and selector switch, this guitar can achieve a huge variety of tones. From warm and full, to thin and piercing, this guitar works for both lead and rhythm positions and is suitable for all kinds of worship music.
Fender guitars never feel unfinished, unpolished, or like they’ve had corners cut. In whatever situation they are found in, they just work. We think these are great electric guitars for worship because of their versatile sound, and familiar, comfortable feel. Whether it’s being purchased independently, or as a shared church instrument, a Fender Stratocaster is a sign of success. These are some of the best electric guitars in the industry, and using one shows your level of professionalism. It shows how serious and committed you are to music.
Overall the Fender Stratocaster makes an excellent worship guitar. These solid-body instruments have all the features and quality needed to perform top-tier worship music.
Pros and Cons
- Fantastic all-rounder.
- High build quality.
- An industry standard for professional guitarists.
- Super-versatile thanks to electronic design.
- Smooth, refined neck.
- Plain aesthetic.
What Customers Say about Fender American Original ’50s Stratocaster Electric Guitar
Fender has been making timeless guitars since 1946. Since the Fender guitar debut, guitarists have been steadfast in their love for these electric and acoustic beauties.
As far as the Fender ‘50s Stratocaster is concerned, customers report that the sound produced by the guitar is incredible.
All-in-all, the Fender ’50s stereocaster is a classic in the electric guitar space – providing a great starting point for beginners and a reliable instrument for seasoned professionals.
#3 Epiphone Les Paul Custom Classic Pro
Product info
The Epiphone Les Paul is both heavier and more affordable than the previous worship guitars on this list.
The Les Paul is another classic guitar model that’s been loved for many years. You can pick up Les Paul guitars from several manufacturers. We chose this Epiphone model as the perfect balance between affordability and quality. It isn’t as high-end as a Fender or Gretsch, but the price is also considerably lower. These still have excellent quality but are placed in the intermediate price range.
The solid mahogany body and neck design of the Les Paul is generally pretty good for the worship guitar player.
The mahogany set neck feels comfortable and is paired with a well-carved neck profile.
The Les Paul is one of the few guitars to use single cutaway and dual humbucker pickups.
The single-cutaway helps with reaching the upper frets but has a better resonance in comparison to a double-cutaway.
The humbuckers create a warmer, punchier tone than single coils. They also have the added advantage of hum and noise cancellation, creating a clean tone with less noise. These pickups have a smooth sound, which is enhanced by the choice of tonewood used throughout the guitar. The guitar features 4 controls knobs, a volume, and tone for each pickup.
This humbucker guitar is great for both lead and rhythm guitarists in worship sessions. Even the worship leader could use one. This is a midrange instrument from Epiphone, so if you’re looking for something more refined, have a look at some of the Gibson Les Paul models.
Pros and Cons
- Affordable Les Paul Sound.
- Warm, punchy humbuckers.
- Fat, full sound.
- Great for lead and rhythm.
- Keeps tuning well.
- Light, smaller body.
What Customers Say about Epiphone Les Paul Custom Classic Pro
Customers are in awe of how dazzling this guitar is. Although some report that it is quite a fragile instrument, that is expected, given the detailed craftsmanship.
As per Amazon Reviews, the guitar is ‘simply marvelous’ and is worth the price. The depth of sound that is produced by Les Paul guitars is unmatched by others like it. Overall, this is quite a mesmerizing electric guitar!
#4 Gretsch G5622T Electromatic
Product info
This gorgeous guitar has a semi-hollow body and will leave you as the envy of your worship group.
The Gretsch Electromatic is a hollow body guitar with a retro style and vintage finish. These guitars have a dazzling look, thanks to their bright paint, unique body shape, and sparkling hardware including a Bigsby tremolo.
The sound of this instrument makes it a great choice of worship guitar. The sound sits in between an electric and acoustic guitar, making it suitable for a wide variety of worship music.
Hollow body guitars are often regarded as some of the best electric guitars for worship and country music because of their clean tones, long sustain, and bright, resonant pickups. This is a great guitar for playing Christian music and other worship songs because of its sound and feel.
The neck position pickup is a little mellower than the twangy bridge pickup, and the combination of the two has created a rich, shimmering sound. This guitar also uses a mahogany neck, which is smooth and feels well refined. The vintage-style tuners held their tune surprisingly well and had no slippage or inaccuracies.
We recommend this guitar for guitar players who love hollow body guitars as much as they love to worship. This is effectively a more budget-friendly version of the White Falcon, so you can get the perfect praise and worship sounds of a Gretsch Hollowbody guitar without destroying your wallet.
As this guitar is hollow, it’s more prone to feedback in loud situations, which is something that may not be OK for your worship environment. If you are playing guitar on a very loud stage, it might be worth using a solid body guitar instead.
Pros and Cons
- Full, Hollow body tone
- Eye-catching look
- Bigsby tremolo
What Customers Say about Gretsch G5622T Electromatic
The Gretsch G5622T is a tried-and-true electric guitar that could offer the perfect setup for worship music.
According to Amazon Reviews, this guitar can handle it all when plugged into a good amp – including low-end death metal!
The only notable concern is its strap buttons, which aren’t as secure as would be expected.
However, this can be overcome with different caps that will secure the strap to the guitar and prevent release. Overall, this guitar is the epitome of terrific value for quality.
#5 Squier by Fender 50's Telecaster
Product info
The Squier 50’s telecaster is a budget-friendly Tele model that’s perfect for worship scenarios.
With this instrument, electric guitar players can capture the classic Fender twang at a fraction of the cost!
Telecasters are perfect instruments for any stage, let alone praise and worship sessions. Telecasters make some of the best worship guitars for several reasons.
Primarily their simplicity. These are relatively simple guitars without complex knobs and switches. This means you are free to concentrate on playing the music, without unnecessary distractions.
Telecasters have a different shape, size, feel, and sound to Stratocasters. Typically Telecasters are a little brighter, thinner, and more cutting. The neck pickup has a warmer, more filled-out sound, with a higher concentration of low and mid frequencies. The coil bridge pickup is brighter, and more tuned towards a higher-pitched sound. The single-coil pickup models they use in the Squire instrument are fairly decent but could be replaced for a more professional sound.
It depends on your playing style, but a Telecaster is always a reliable instrument. These actually predated the Stratocaster, which explains some of the rudimentary design features. The Squire Tele uses an alder body, which is relatively light but still has strong resonant characteristics. It has a mostly clean tone, although these guitars also sound great with a bit of overdrive.
A Squire Telecaster would make for a good worship guitar. If you’re looking for more quality guitars, then a Fender model might be a better choice. (Although, it will cost a lot more.)
This could be an affordable choice to share around your church musicians as a communal instrument. For a higher-quality instrument, see the Fender Telecaster below!
Pros and Cons
- Affordable Classic Telecaster model.
- Decent sound for the price.
- Bright, cutting tone.
- Feels decent, smooth fretboard.
- No vibrato, but stronger pitch stability.
What Customers Say about Squier by Fender 50’s Telecaster
Are you a beginner to the worship music scene? Guitarists who play with the Squier by Fender 50’s Telecaster report that it’s a great starting guitar that can grow with your development as a musician.
The tone and the feel of this guitar keep users coming back to this model.
The only gripe that guitarists seem to have with this instrument is that some of the strings are set too high (namely, the E string).
This can definitely be adjusted or acclimated to, especially if you’re still learning to play the guitar.
#6 Fender Deluxe Telecaster Thinline
Product info
The Fender Deluxe Telecaster Thinline is a brilliant Hollowbody version of the classic Fender Telecaster. Everybody loves a telecaster, and this is a unique variation favoring a different body design and F-shaped soundhole.
The Thinline Telecaster is also one of the lightest full-sized guitars ever made, making guitar playing an effortless activity. No more neck pain with this axe!
Due to the hollow body, this guitar has a unique and distinctive tone. It’s noticeably different from the sound of a solid body Telecaster, with a richer low end, longer sustain, and more satisfying, harmonically enriched sound.
This guitar plays beautifully, it feels and sounds like a next-level, pro guitar. The maple neck and fretboard feel incredibly refined. The neck profile is fast and comfortable, the fretboard design is just perfect. It’s a humble guitar that’s been designed down to the T. It might not look as showy as the other guitars like the White Falcon, but the tone of this guitar is something else.
And for the player holding this instrument, they will know how well made it is. It just feels luxurious and refined.
Because this is a Thinline hollow body model, it’s more sensitive to feedback than a solid body. If the guitar is going to be played in louder venues with increased amplification, the guitar runs a larger risk of feeding back. This can be corrected with feedback reduction pedals or effects though. If you think the risks associated with a hollow body are worth it, you should definitely choose this guitar. If you think the feedback might be too dangerous, choose a solid body Telecaster instead. You could choose a Fender or Squire based on your budget.
Pros and Cons
- High-end Fender Sound.
- Unique Hollowbody telecaster design.
- Incredibly lightweight.
- Superior pickups & build quality.
- Can feedback when over-amplified.
What Customers Say about Fender Deluxe Telecaster Thinline
The Fender Deluxe Telecaster Thinline is a classic instrument with a natural look and feel. This guitar is inspired by the 70’s, so woods make up the majority of the guitar.
As such, guitarists that play 70’s style worship music love this instrument.
Some guitarists report that it’s a little expensive, but the perfect guitar is never too much money! The resonance and sustain elements of the guitar are great for church or worship performance gigs, which may be what you’re after.
#7 Epiphone Dot
Product info
The Epiphone Dot is an affordable hollow body guitar with great tones for church and worship music.
This is one of the most affordable hollow-body electric guitars on the market, with the best quality to price ratio. If you’re looking at hollow-body electrics at a cheaper price than this, chances are they won’t be very well-made instruments.
When choosing electric guitars for worship, you want something that sounds, looks, and feels up to standard. The Epiphone dot is an affordable and authentic hollow body guitar with a highly usable sound, and a snazzy aesthetic to match.
Using chrome-plated humbuckers for a full, punchy sound, this worship guitar has a unique and interesting sound. It’s brighter than a lot of guitars but has a significant amount of extra low-end weight, which brings a nice resonance to the sound. Overall this guitar tone is pretty versatile, although would be better suited to lighter styles of music with clean tones, rather than anything overly distorted.
For the price, the quality of these guitars is actually pretty good. Everything feels well made. It isn’t as exquisitely crafted as a Fender or the White Falcon, but these are up to standard. Nothing feels low quality or like a cut corner. This is an ideal choice of worship guitar for the beginner and intermediate players.
If you’re looking for something a bit more exciting than the standard Squire Strat or cheap Telecaster, Epiphone Dots make for excellent worship guitars. You can pick up more well-crafted instruments with similar designs for the Ibanez Artcore range, or the vastly more expensive Gibson Hollow-body electric guitars.
Pros and Cons
- Affordable Hollow Body.
- Warm, full, and clear humbuckers.
- Fantastic resonate tone, unique sound.
- Thin, light, and comfortable.
- Prone to feedback.
What Customers Say about Epiphone Dot
This guitar is a semi-hollowbody that is ideal for blues, rock, and jazz music. Many customers say that this guitar is excellent for its price, especially considering its musical versatility. On Sweetwater, this guitar has nearly five stars.
If you’re a performer of worship music, this guitar looks great. So, you should definitely consider taking her up on stage if this ends up being the electric guitar for you!
How to Choose the right electric guitar for worship?
When choosing a new electric guitar for worship, there are a few important factors to be considered. Thinking about these topics properly will help you to find the perfect guitar for your needs!
Features
Pickups: The type of pickups installed have a large impact on the guitar’s sound. The main choice here is either single-coil or humbucker. Single coil pickups have a clearer, more defined sound, where humbuckers are warmer and thicker. Single coils are prone to picking up some hiss, noise, and hum, but humbuckers cancel this out.
The general rule of thumb is single coils for lead guitarists, humbuckers for rhythm players. Although ultimately it’s a matter of personal tastes. You should try both pickup styles out and listen for your favorite tone
Body type: Another big choice is hollow body vs solid body. Again, this will mostly be down to personal preferences, both types sound very different to one another. Hollow guitars have a longer sustain with a more resonant sound. Solid bodies are more controlled. Hollow bodies are more prone to feedback, solid bodies are not. Try out both styles to get a taste for each!
Versatility: Worship music has a broad sonic palette, and a guitar needs to be able to keep up with the different colors and sounds. Some guitars are far more versatile than others. Certain types of guitars are almost pigeonholed to be used by a particular style of musician. For example, many Ibanez guitars are tuned to work with Metal and heavy music.
Go for a guitar that can do it all. Versatile guitars like Stratocasters, Telecasters, and Les Pauls can achieve a wide variety of tones. These guitars can easily be blended to fit with the rest of the band.
Aesthetic: Just a small note on this. Depending on how strict your house of worship is, you may be advised to avoid certain guitar aesthetics. You’ll probably have a better idea of what is and isn’t suitable for your church. There are a lot of guitars out there with satanic imagery that I would recommend avoiding!
Problems
Volume: How loud does the guitar need to be? You don’t want it to be too loud!
This will vary from venue to venue, but the volume level of your instrument needs to be suitable for the size of the worship congregation. Don’t use a super loud guitar and amp for a small congregation. But make sure your guitar is loud enough to be heard.
This will mostly come from amp settings, but there is a surprising amount of volume variation between guitar and pickup designs.
FAQs
Is it possible to lead worship with an electric guitar?
Typically worship leaders play the piano/keyboard, or a guitar, so an electric guitar is good.
The debate comes from the fact that some people believe that electric guitars have a very specific sound, which does not fit well with worshipping songs or praising God. Some feel that acoustic guitars are more appropriate because they have a softer sound and they represent the natural world better than an electric one, which looks like technology.
Overall, I think electric guitars can be a great instrument to lead worship with, depending on the style of your place of worship. In more contemporary settings, electric guitars are fine, even normal. However, in traditional settings, sometimes more traditional instruments are advised, such as an acoustic guitar.
The practicality of using an electric guitar as a worship leader is good. Using an electric guitar can help worship leaders in many ways. They are free to move around the stage, engaging with different sections of the audience. This is unlike a piano where the leader is fixed to one position.
It also lets the leader use their hands easily, to conduct other musicians, or to make performative gestures, or change sheet music. Electric guitars are also versatile, so they can quickly change their tone to suit a new style of music. Most importantly, you can still sing easily whilst holding an electric guitar.
In short, electric guitars are great for worship leaders, depending on their place of worship.
What guitars do worship leaders use?
The tone is possibly the most important feature of any instrument. It helps determine what kind of sound the instrument produces, and this type of sound is typically ideal for both electric and acoustic guitars in different genres. For worship leaders, they want to find an electric or acoustic guitar that has a warm tone with a strong bass response.
The most popular guitars for worship are acoustics but some people prefer an electric guitar for its versatility in tone and volume control. Also, some people like to use effects pedals to make their sound more unique.
Are semi-hollow electric guitars good for worship?
One reason is their sound. Semi-hollow guitars have a different sound to solid-body guitars, somewhat closer to the sound of an acoustic guitar. This unique tone is preferred by many worship guitarists thanks to its “worship sound”.
Another useful feature of hollow guitars is their unplugged sound. When unplugged, they have a loud sound for an electric guitar. This can be useful for rehearsals and low-volume practice sessions.
What features are most important in an electric guitar for worship?
Conclusion – The best worship guitar is…
Overall the Best Electric Guitar for Worship was the Gretsch Guitars Players.
This is easily one of the best worship guitars around, if not one of the best electric guitars in general. The only real issue is the price, which is justifiably high.
With 22 medium jumbo frets and 2 incredible FIlter’Tron humbuckers, this guitar feels and sounds holy. It’s surprisingly light given its size, due to the hollow body. A White Falcon guitar is a sign that a guitarist really knows what they are doing. You don’t see amateurs playing these.
If this is too expensive, we recommend the Gretsch Electromatic as a more affordable hollow-body guitar, or the Fender Stratocaster for a solid body.
Check out the Gretsch White Falcon guitar online here!
Need a lighter guitar? Check out our post about the best lightweight electric guitars!
Noah is an accomplished audio engineer with several years of experience producing music for major companies and independent artists. He enjoys sharing his vast knowledge of audio engineering topics to help musicians and music producers create great music.