Adam Clayton

Picture of Adam Clayton playing a ca. 1970s Gibson Les Paul Signature bass. Geddy Lee's recent book on the history of the Bass Guitar features a picture of Clayton playing the guitar, with an interview where Clayton discusses the model. see Geddy Lee. Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass. p. 175.

“We are incredibly excited to have Adam playing through our Tone Hammer ®500 head and SL 112 cabinets,” comments Dale Titus, Aguilar Amplification’s Sales & Marketing Manager.

On U2’s recent 3-year U2360° World Tour Adam was backed up by a full complement of Aguilar DB 751 heads and an impressive wall of Aguilar cabinets, bringing Aguilar’s sound to over 50 countries.

“To have Adam now playing through our Tone Hammer ® 500 is further validation that even though it only weighs four pounds,” adds Dale Titus, “the Tone Hammer ® 500 provides a massive sonic experience.

In this article at Bass Musician Magazine's website, it is explained that Adam played through a pair of DB 750 heads on U2's 360 Tour.

In this article from the Bass Musician Magazine website, it is explained that Adam used two DB 410 cabinets during U2's 360 Tour.

He's using this cab for the Innocence + Experience Tour, the mic is a Sennheiser MD 421.

Adam is using 2 of these in the rack during the innocence + experience tour.

Adam used one of these on the 360 Tour.

Adam is seen using this bass at 4:33 in this 2017 performance of Pride (in the Name of Love). He has used this bass live and has 4 versions. (White with black pickguard, white with white pickguard, gold with white pickguard, black with white pickguard.)

In a live performance of "Ordinary Love" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Adam Clayton of U2 plays a Dave Maize Single Cutout Acoustic Bass. This performance is featured on the U2VEVO YouTube channel.

According to this transcription of a February 1982 issue of U2 Magazine, "Adam uses two Ibanez Musician basses, one with an active pre-amp built in, the other standard, although he often seems to play the standard instrument throughout. This was fed direct into an Ampeg SVT400 watt 8x10 bass stack with no effects units or other gadgetry at all. This was both DI'ed and miked using a Sennheiser MD421."

Listed on Adam's official Ashdown artist page.

Used for the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour.

For in-ear monitors the band is trying something different—the JH Audio JH-16s for everyone except for The Edge and his engineer Richard Rainey, who opted for the JH Roxanne in-ears.

Producer Declan Gaffney stated the following about the recording of No Line On The Horizon:

"We wanted to keep the recording setup small, so we just had a few microphones, a Control 24, Pro Tools, and three drives, so we could move easily and quickly between different songs. Other than Pro Tools, the recording setups for most of the sessions were pretty similar. Edge's old Neve desk was pulled apart for on-location recording, and its 1091 and 1093 mic preamps were racked. Everything was going through these mic pres, or a small Neve sidecar, then through any required outboard, and monitoring was via two Mackie 24-channel desks."

As stated by producer Declan Gaffney, the L2007 was used for "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney's go-to processing for Adam Clayton's bass involves Digidesign's Digirack EQ, Cranesong's Phoenix Dark Essence (both top) and the Massey L2007 limiter (below). The Sansamp plug-in was used to dirty up the sound for four bars.

The same plug-in was also used to master the track.

Declan Gaffney incorporated extensive master processing into his mix. Dynamic control was provided by the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor and Massey L2007 limiter, while Waves' VEQ4 added tonal changes.

An image of the bass settings can be found here. An image of the mastering settings can be found here.

Used for No Line On the Horizon, particularly "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney's go-to processing for Adam Clayton's bass involves Digidesign's Digirack EQ, Cranesong's Phoenix Dark Essence (both top) and the Massey L2007 limiter (below). The Sansamp plug-in was used to dirty up the sound for four bars.

An image of the settings can be found here.

Used on No Line On the Horizon, as stated by producer Declan Gaffney.

"Most of 'Get On Your Boots' was recorded in Dublin by Richard Rainey, and the basic backing tracks were done live, by the whole band together. (...) The microphone on the bass cabinet was a Shure SM7 going into a Neve preamp into an LA2A; the DI wasn't used. The SM7 was the only bass mic that was used on the whole record, it's great for bass guitar!"

In this scan of an article from the January 2006 issue of Bass Player magazine, the "Signal Chain" section indicates that Adam was using two 900 EVO II heads at the time of recording and touring for U2's album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

Listed on Adam's official Ashdown artist page.

Used on "Get On Your Boots", as stated by producer Declan Gaffney.

"Most of 'Get On Your Boots' was recorded in Dublin by Richard Rainey, and the basic backing tracks were done live, by the whole band together. (...) The microphone on the bass cabinet was a Shure SM7 going into a Neve preamp into an LA2A; the DI wasn't used. The SM7 was the only bass mic that was used on the whole record, it's great for bass guitar!"

In this article from the Bass Musician Magazine website, it is explained that Adam played through two DB 115 cabinets during U2's 360 Tour.

In this scan of an article from the January 2006 issue of Bass Player magazine, the "Signal Chain" section lists the Bass POD Pro among Adam's gear.

Uses this on the innocence + experience tour

Used on the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour.

“The DiGiCo SD7 I’m using is extremely powerful and reliable. It can do anything we throw at it,” says Bono monitor engineer Alastair McMillan, pictured at left with monitor engineer CJ Eiriksson (Larry Mullen, Adam Clayton) and monitor engineer Richard Rainey (the Edge), each of whom also has an SD7. “We’re using all of the available processing power, which is quite impressive for a four piece band! I’m a big fan of the new classic EQ option and especially the multiband compressors. With those two features I have everything I need so I decided not to opt for the Waves grid. We’re all running at 96k. I am hooked up to Pro Tools via two Madi bridges which are able to sample convert in real time. This way we can run our Pro Tools sessions at 48k, making them a much more manageable size.”

Producer Declan Gaffney stated the following about the recording of No Line On The Horizon:

"We wanted to keep the recording setup small, so we just had a few microphones, a Control 24, Pro Tools, and three drives, so we could move easily and quickly between different songs. Other than Pro Tools, the recording setups for most of the sessions were pretty similar. Edge's old Neve desk was pulled apart for on-location recording, and its 1091 and 1093 mic preamps were racked. Everything was going through these mic pres, or a small Neve sidecar, then through any required outboard, and monitoring was via two Mackie 24-channel desks."

Used for No Line On the Horizon, particularly "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney's go-to processing for Adam Clayton's bass involves Digidesign's Digirack EQ, Cranesong's Phoenix Dark Essence (both top) and the Massey L2007 limiter (below). The Sansamp plug-in was used to dirty up the sound for four bars.

An image of the settings can be found here.

As stated by producer Declan Gaffney, the L2007 was used for "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney's go-to processing for Adam Clayton's bass involves Digidesign's Digirack EQ, Cranesong's Phoenix Dark Essence (both top) and the Massey L2007 limiter (below). The Sansamp plug-in was used to dirty up the sound for four bars.

The same plug-in was also used to master the track.

Declan Gaffney incorporated extensive master processing into his mix. Dynamic control was provided by the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor and Massey L2007 limiter, while Waves' VEQ4 added tonal changes.

An image of the bass settings can be found here. An image of the mastering settings can be found here.

As stated by producer Declan Gaffney, the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor was used for "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney incorporated extensive master processing into his mix. Dynamic control was provided by the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor and Massey L2007 limiter, while Waves' VEQ4 added tonal changes.

An image of the settings can be found here.

As stated by producer Declan Gaffney, the VEQ4 was used for "Get On Your Boots".

Declan Gaffney incorporated extensive master processing into his mix. Dynamic control was provided by the Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor and Massey L2007 limiter, while Waves' VEQ4 added tonal changes.

An image of the settings can be found here.

Listed under Clayton on the official Lakland artist page.

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.