U2 – The Joshua Tree

The Edge can be seen using a Deluxe Memory Man in the documentary It Might Get Loud. It was his primary delay before The Joshua Tree, as mentioned in this ca. 1986 interview with "J.B.".

I'm looking into getting a TC Electronics delay, which gives you some of the same capabilities internally and has even more presets, which is interesting. I don't know whaat it'll sound like though. See, my first echo was a Memory Man, which was rather awful technically. It was analog, with all sorts of whines and hisses, but the actual sound of it was really quite musical. I didn't use it on this record, I used it pretty exclusively on Unforgettable Fire.

Known to have been used since U2's Boy. After a brief replacement by the Ibanez Tube Screamer (starting with the Elevation Tour), the SD-1 has made a return to The Edge's more recent rigs alongside its green rival. In this July 18, 2018 Premier Guitar Rig Rundown article for The Edge, it is shown that he uses the SD-1 in his rack system (visible in the bottom right corner of this photo).

The SD-1 is mentioned explicitly in this excerpt from the January 2001 issue of Guitar Player magazine in a list of then "projected" gear for the Elevation Tour.

On the stompbox front, he'll be using Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive and OD-2r Turbo Overdrive pedals, an FA-1 FET (for signal boost), three DigiTech Whammy pedals, three Dunlop Cry Baby's, and a trio of Lovetone pedals -- a Meatball (envelope filter), Doppelganger (phaser/vibrato), and Big Cheese (distortion). All of this will go through five pre-1966 Vox AC30s and two Randall 1x12 combos.

As compiled by U2 Guitar Tutorials forum member kultschar in this forum post, photos from the Joshua Tree Tour and the Zoo TV Tour (pictured) show that the SD-1 was used in a loop with a graphic equalizer labeled "Infinite Sustain", used for "With or Without You".

Joshua / Lovetown Rig:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i89/kultschar/U2%20Guitar%20Tutorials/Edge%20Rigs/PS3-6-00009_zpsbe7ae19f.jpg

• Boss SD1 As you can see there is the 3 triangular knobbed SD-1 at the back. Next to the SD-1 is the Pearl Graphic EQ. During the next tour it becomes apparent that the two are linked together for WOWY Infinite Sustain (thanks to Bradshaws later Zoo TV Rig photos which i will post further down)

(...) ZooTV Rig:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i89/kultschar/U2%20Guitar%20Tutorials/Edge%20Rigs/PS3-6-00019_zps59afb57a.jpg

Well its the same pedals as the tour before, only he added a crazy amount of rack units

This picture is from CAE during the actual building of the rig, note the pedals were put into the TC2290 loops and labelled TC1, TC2 etc If your eagle eyed you can see the Boss SD-1 and Pearl Graphic EQ labelled Infinite Sustain therefore both combined in one loop for WOWY tone. (...) Below is the rig during the early Zoo tour when they played the Achtung Baby songs pre Zooropa, note the pedals were duplicated. I believe they were duplicated for backup purposes, he did substitute the odd one e.g. Boss Graphic EQ was used instead of the Pearl EQ, TC FET Booster was used instead of another FA-1 and CS-2 was used instead of another Dynacomp.

(...) http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i89/kultschar/U2%20Guitar%20Tutorials/Edge%20Rigs/PS3-6-00023_zpsef9f4674.jpg

Popmart Rig

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i89/kultschar/U2%20Guitar%20Tutorials/Edge%20Rigs/PopmartPedals2_zps9c2b5ce3.jpg

As you can see his Zoo pedals (core sounds remain intact). Im positive the OD-2 is still his main overdrive as its still the first switch on his MIDI controller like the Zoo days labelled Turbo.

The Edge can be seen playing this guitar during "Helter Skelter", "Where The Streets Have No Name" in the Rattle And Hum film. It appears that The Edge used this guitar with regularity during the 1987 The Joshua tree tour but I have not seen him use it since.

In this Guitar World interview, The Edge mentions the Bond Electraglide, misprinted as "Electric Light." He says, "There's a revolutionary new guitar called a Bond Electric Light, which is a very finely-crafted guitar without proper frets. Instead it has little serrations. I tried to incorporate it into my playing armory and I found that it wasn't working, until I discovered the things you can do if you really sort of abused it! I got fantastic results. Like the sort of heavy fuzz guitar at the end of 'One Tree Hill,' and the last three tracks on the middle of side two — that sound is from the Bond."

The Edge used a standard Gretsch White Falcon to perform One Tree Hill on U2's The Joshua Tree 2017 tour. It can be seen on the screen at 5:12 in this video.

Infinite Guitar is a modified electric guitar created by Michael Brook, as a way of allowing a note to be held with infinite sustain, Brook produced two other Infinite Guitars. One belongs to Daniel Lanois, and the other belongs to The Edge, who used it to record "With or Without You" and use it during The Joshua Tree tour.

The Edge discussed this amp in an interview for Guitar World in 1987.

"And I've also acquired an old Fender Pro Reverb combo. It's real delicate. What I've been finding is that the old Fenders have this beautifully mellow distortion to them, the tubes have been worked just so, they're nice and clear."

Adam Clayton can be seen using his precison bass in this video of bad live on the rattle and hum/joshua tree tour at 6:50. He has said that this bass is the first bass he has ever owned

In this 1987 photo from the Joshua Tree (and Rattle & Hum) tour, Adam Clayton is seen playing a Fender Telecaster bass. It is one of the items listed in the Rattle & Hum tour book.

Adam used the Moog Taurus II on the Joshua Tree (Streets, Exit) and earlier tours (Bad). It appears he was the recipient of one of the 1000 limited edition remakes of the Moog Taurus III and will be using them on the upcoming Joshua Tree Tour in 2017.

Bono used a Gibson ES-335 from 1987-1990, during the Joshua Tree &Rattle and Hum tours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpozVvYe-h4

In this photo from an interview on stage during the Joshua Tree Tour, the Mesa Boogie Studio 22 amp used by Bono can be seen between Bono and Larry underneath the drum riser.

According to the website U2 Atomic, Larry Mullen, Jr. used a Shure Beta 52 to mike his B-stage bass drum during U2's Joshua Tree tour.

Larry Mullen, Jr can be seen using the Yamaha SD-493 14x3.5 Brass Piccolo Snare Drum on both the Joshua Tree Tour (1987) and the Lovetown Tour (1989-1990). He used it as a main snare rather than an auxiliary snare. It gets several features on many of the performances during the "Rattle And Hum" movie, notably on "With Or Without You". During 1:37 and 2:42, you get a shot of Larry playing the kit and the snare is able to be seen in use. During every concert on these tours he used this snare, so if you have footage of these concerts you'll be able to see the snare, depending on the angle and camera shot. I believe he used this snare on the recording of "The Joshua Tree" album as well, based on the similarities of the snare sound on the record and live. On "U2: Rattle And Hum, The Offical Book Of The U2 Movie", at the back it mentions the gear each of the band members used which includes the Yamaha SD-493.