Ed O'Brien

In this Fender video interview with Ed O’Brien, Ed O’Brien talks about his first guitar, a 1986 Squier Stratocaster electric guitar, black finish with a white pickguard. He says, “I got my first Strat - it was a Squire Strat - and it was 1986. This Squier Strat was about £180 and I saved up, and I got it. It was black with a white pickguard, and I don’t think it was the nicest neck [laughs], but I loved it, I didn’t give a shit. And I had that [guitar] all the way through until 1995 when all our gear was nicked in the yellow Penske van. So I played it on Pablo Honey, and on The Bends…” (1:43)

Ed O' Brien can also be seen playing the guitar with On A Friday some time in the late eighties. http://piemerica.org/tired/88c.jpg

In this photo of Ed O'Brien's rig, his white Fender Jaguar can be seen. The guitar is incredibly similar to Johnny Marr's signature model, and a signature can be made out on the end of the guitar's headstock, surely meaning that Ed is playing the Johnny Marr Fender Jaguar.

If you look at the upper horn controls, standard Jaguars have a switch & two rollers where as this guitar has two switches faces different axis' from one another. Only the Johnny Marr signature model has this feature.

Acquired some time between OK Computer and Kid A, the Hotcake almost immediately became Ed’s main source of distortion for his Vox AC30. It served as a fundamental part of certain ambient sounds requiring distortion, such as his pseudo-Ondes Martenot. It is also used on its own on Myxomatosis.

When Ed switched to the Fender Vibro-Kings, the Hotcake was replaced by the Carl Martin AC Tone. Though initially part of Ed’s 2014 theGigRig board, Ed ultimately decided on the Wampler Euphoria instead.

Ed uses the Hot Cake overdrive from Crowther Audio. You can see it on his pedal board in this video.

-2014 Settings: Level 1, Presence 1, Drive 1.

Featured in this September 18, 2020 Instagram post.

This is my new baby ... a Yamaha SG1000.. it’s a beauty, plays fabulously and I’ve wanted one for a long long time. Thank you to @yamaha_guitars for sorting me out .. it’s so great to play.... been playing some of my favourite Siouxsie and the Banshees riffs on it. John McGeoch was the guitarist at the time of my favourite Banshees albums... the man responsible for some of the greatest riffs ever .. Spellbound, Christine, Happy House to name a few. He was also the guitar player in Magazine and PIL (for a while). A wonderful player.... his riffs are so elegant and once you learn how to play them there is almost a zen like quality to the sound and movement of your hands.. it reminds me of the beauty in @johnnymarrgram’s playing. Photo overleaf of McGeoch in his Armoury Show days. Stuart Adamson was another player of these @yamaha_guitars .. great musician too. Both missed. #yamahasg1000 #johnmcgeoch #siouxsieandthebanshees #stuartadamson #theskids #yamahaguitars

The '90s version of the Memory Man can be seen at the top of Ed's left pedalboard in this image. Source.

Ed used this Rickenbacker 360 12-String Electric Guitar for performances of "Staircase", as seen in this video. The best shot of guitar is at 0:15. This was performed on "Austin City Limits festival" on March 6, 2012.

Ed also used it for a song "How to disappear completely", on this peformance of Radiohead in Montreal, Bell Centre, on June 15, 2012. Since camera is focused only on Thom, and Jonny, and Phillip ocassionaly, best shot of him with this guitar was at 0:22.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM-Q9g0-7J8

Ed can be seen playing blonde Rickenbacker 360, at 1:15 in this video.

"A custom guitar built by Ed and the band’s guitar tech Plank. This original Plank had only one f-hole. Stolen along with the rest of Radiohead’s gear in the 90’s." - King of Gear. In this transcribed article from Guitar World, they also mention this guitar saying "Ed O'Brien's guitar setup includes a '67 Gibson ES-335, two Nineties Rickenbacker 360's (one six-string and one twelve-string) and a guitar handmade by Plank."

Here Ed can be seen playing with an Eric Clapton Signature Strat.

From 1964, acquired by Ed in May, 2007. Used live for Where I End and You Begin, Go Slowly from 2008-2010, Talk Show Host in 2008, and Weird Fishes/Arpeggi in 2010. Thom also borrowed the guitar live, in addition to using his own Casino, for some songs in 2012. Thom may have bought the guitar from Ed, as Thom also used it for the 2013 Atoms for Peace tour.

A Conversation With Ed O'Brien Of Radiohead – That Pedal Show

Ed uses a Fernandes Native Pro in this video of all "All I Need," by Radiohead. There is a clear view of him playing the guitar at 2:35.

Ed has the “Gold Horsie” version. Acquired some time around 2010-11. Used for touring in 2011 and 2012. -2012 Settings: Gain 2, Treble 12, Output 9. -2014 Settings: Gain 9 OR 1, Treble 12, Output 9:30.

"I got my first strat, it was a Squier strat. And it was 1986...I played it on Pablo Honey and The Bends," Ed O'Brien says, at 1:40 in this video. Ed is pictured here with his Squier Stratocaster.

Around 0:30, an Eventide H9 can be seen on Ed's pedalboard.

I used different guitars. I used my Sustainer Strat that I did with Fender. I used one acoustic a lot—this Martin 000-18 I've got, I think it's a 1959—all the acoustics are that. I had a really nice Custom Shop Tele and a really nice Custom Shop Les Paul, like mid-'90s, that I used. That's about it.

In this video, Ed O'Brien discusses his signature model Fender EOB Sustainer Stratocaster (EOB short for Ed O'Brien). The details appear to match, specifically the Fernandes Sustainer neck pickup.

In this video, TheGigRig details the build of Ed O’Brien’s pedalboard setup (video published on Jul 8, 2014). His choice in pedalboard is the Pedaltrain PT-Grande 42”. Details from the video: “Now the reason that we’ve gone for this board and not a twin-tier board is that Ed, when he plays, a large part of his sound is actually tweaking the knobs of all the pedals, so he can’t have anything that is not ridiculously easy to get at. So he wants everything laid out flat. So this is why we’ve gone for a Pedaltrain Grande.” (0:46)

Ed uses this guitar on "Scatterbrain" by Radiohead, which can be seen at 1:43 & 2:09.

In this photo, one can see O'Brien playing a Fender Stratocaster.

In this photo, Ed O'Brien can be seen playing through a Super-Sonic 112.

The EBow is frequently used by Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien in studio and for live performances of songs such as "Talk Show Host" and "Nude"[3] and "My Iron Lung", "Where I End and You Begin" and the live version of "Jigsaw Falling into Place" -wikipedia (EBow)

You can also see Ed using this EBow to play Nude in Live From The Basement video at 1:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHbHZOcpCZ0

This guitar is a semi-hollow body guitar made by Ed and Plank in 1994 to serve as a backup to the Plank-Ed #1. This one has two f-holes instead of the Plank-Ed #1 (which had only one f-hole; it was stolen in Denver in 1995) and it can be heard distinctly in the studio version of Climbing up the Walls as it is the only electric guitar played on that song.

Radiohead's Ed O'Brien – Second Pedalboard Build, That Pedal Show Special

In the video at ‘48:48’ while he’s demoing a riff from Paranoid Android he says:

“It’s not going to sound the same as I don’t have my DD-5”

"To whoever ends up with this Tele... It was bought in the summer of '98, just prior to us going into record the albums which came out as Kid A and Amnesiac. It was pretty much the only guitar I used at that time. It's also been gigged a lot, up until and including the In Rainbows tour. Hope you enjoy it - all the best," says Ed, in the description section of his Telecaster's eBay auction page.

A Tele was used by Ed for a few songs on Radiohead's 2012 The King of Limbs tour and the from the basement sessions, including "Morning Mr. Magpie". The guitar can be seen at 0:06.

In this video you can see Mooer Eleclady in his pedalboard.

Ed has used the Gretsch Panther for Creep, My Iron Lung, Karma Police, Climbing Up The Walls, Optimistic, You and Whose Army?, Nude, and The Daily Mail on Radiohead's 2016 tour.

In this Facebook post from TheGigRig, they shared the photo of pedalboard they made for Ed.

Wampler Tumnus is located under Boss DD5 Digital Delay. TheGigRig adds a little detail to one of the replies in comments column: :

Klon is on his studio board, he has the Wampler Tumnus in his live rig

Ed used a pair of Fender Pro Junior IV combos as his main amps for his 2020 solo tour. They were mounted on Fender Small Amp stands. You can see them at 0:20 in the video