The Edge
U2 guitarist David Evans
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The Edge's Effects Pedals
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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:
- 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:
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.
Popmart Rig
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.
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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.
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In this mini documentary about the making of Edge's signature Fender Stratocaster and Deluxe amplifier, we see him testing the pieces together with the aid of a Carbon Copy delay.
(Edit: Note that this clip is from a visit to the Fender development facility, and the MXR may be a pedal which was on loan for the shoot. It is possible that the Edge neither owns nor uses one of these units.)
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Visible in this Instagram post by U2. The Edge's use of the Color Box has been attested to by JHS owner Josh Scott.
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In this Rig Rundown feature for Premier Guitar magazine, longtime U2 guitar tech Dallas Schoo shows off Edge's 2018 touring rig, which includes a Crayon overdrive.
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Music Radar talked with The Edge's guitar tech, Dallas Schoo about this pedal, to which Dallas replied "Oh, they're great! We're using the Supersonic Fuzz Gun and the Harmonic Transformer. This guy, Ben Curtis - great guy - he makes these different distortion pedals and he turned us on to them...The Fuzz Gun is on No Line On The Horizon, that big intro sound. It's on Ultra-Violet, too - it's fantastic. The guy is always looking for something new that can create music, and he'll tinker with a pedal or a device for days until he can make it do something he wants."
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The Edge uses the Boss OD-2 Turbo OverDrive, as seen in the photo where it is placed beneath the SD-1.
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In this live image, we see the Edge using an M9 unit for effects on his keyboard.
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Located between the Lovetone and the Tube Screamer, The Edge had this on his rack during the Elevation Tour (as seen in AudioFile's feature "U2 - Wired for Sound") and the Vertigo Tour (as is visible in this Guitar World feature at 2:07). It was used in the studio for the solo on "Kite", as stated in this January 2001 Guitar Player interview.
Guitar Player, January 2001, "Basic Instincts"
GP: So the songs that have solos were just begging for them?
Edge: I think they were. For instance, "Kite" originally didn't have a solo. We had the tune almost finished, but we weren't quite happy with it--it needed a twist. So we edited in a section, I plugged my '64 Gretsch Coutnry Gentleman into a cool fuzzbox--and Ampeg Scrambler--and a Vox AC30, and I came up with a solo for it. It really made that part of the song come alive. that's a case-in-point where the decision to do a solo came from the sense that something was missing in the tune.
(...) GP: What were your main fuzzboxes?
Edge: The Ampeg, a Tube Screamer for a good general distortion without being too in-your-face, and an old Manny's Fuzz--which is really extreme. I also used this really obscure Japanese pedal called the Sobart [sic] for the heavy sections of "New York." That pedal is so extreme. You step on it and all hell breaks loose. On "When I Look at the World", I'm using an Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer for that mad distorted tone.
AudioFile, "U2 - Wired for Sound"
[tapping the Ampeg Scrambler] This was used on the "All You Can't Leave Behind" album.
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" replaced the Boss SD-1 during the Elevation Tour"
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In this Music Radar article, the gear used by The Edge during U2's 360 tour is detailed. The Edge's guitar tech, Dallas Schoo details his complex setup and pedalboards. The Edge's GE-7 is one of his "Outboard pedals", meaning it is not on his main stage pedalboard.
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A "1970 Electro-Harmonix Big Muff silicon fuzz" is specified in an Australian Guitar interview with The Edge's guitar tech, Dallas Schoo, on page 27 of the issue. Despite the year given, various images of The Edge's Big Muff Pi show it to have the exterior of a V5 or V6 Big Muff, which were only produced as early as 1978. Given that the V5 used op-amps and the V6 used silicon transistors, it can be deduced that The Edge utilized a V6. It can be seen as early as the Joshua Tree Tour, with the earliest mention being this ca. 1986 interview with "J.B.".
Let's see, I also use the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, and then there's the Yamaha SPX90, which I've been using alot. The yamaha REV7 is also something - I've been getting into using reverbs live.
As compiled by U2 Guitar Tutorials forum member kultschar in this forum post, photos from the Joshua Tree Tour, the Zoo TV Tour and the PopMart tour show the Big Muff being used live. It is also mentioned by Shoo in this 1997 Guitar World interview and page 179 of Live and Kicking: The Rock Concert Industry in the Nineties by Mark E. Cunningham.
U2 Guitar Tutorials
Joshua / Lovetown Rig:
- Big Muff - Big Muff - Note the Big Muff is not in the pedal tray but on the next rack with the Tape Player. Over the years its been said the Muff was used in his B signal which in those days went to the solid star Randall amps.
(...) ZooTV Rig:
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. The TC2290 loops idea I believe were scrapped and they ended up in Rocktron Patch Mate switchers. 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. This was in the days before eBay and Internet so probably difficult back then to find another FA-1 and Pearl etc which of course we now take for granted (I remember when it was near impossible to find these pedals but now everyday on eBay!!!!)
Popmart Rig
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.
Next to his Zoo Pedals he has taken away the spare duplicates and added his new Lovetone Pedals for the new Pop songs to be played live:
On this tour he still used his ZooTV Bradshaw MIDI controller (most the same labels)
As you can see from his MIDI controller the Bottom Row appears to be his main signal path and not only has he labelled the effects from Loop 1 - 8
The top row appears to be his split signal path
I have a better labelled picture from this tour and you can see he has another controller incorporating the Lovetone FX and Amps for switching that I have labelled (anybody have the original of this picture BTW? I only have my labelled version)
Guitar World, 1997, "Close to The Edge"
One irreplaceable effect is the Edge's Korg SDD-3000 digital delay. "That's one of his favorites because it has so much warmth," says Schoo. "Most of the albums were made with that delay." Other processors in the Edge's rack include a Roland SDE-3000 digital delay and Yamaha SPX90, Korg A3, Rocktron Replifex, DigiTech 2112 and Eventide H3000 multi-effectors. He also carries a full array of pedals, including Dunlop Fuzz Face, Dunlop and Bradshaw multiple-wah systems, several Boss distortion units, an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, and Lovetone's Big Cheese distortion Doppelganger phaser and Meatball envelope follower.
Live and Kicking: The Rock Concert Industry in the Nineties by Mark E. Cunningham (1999)
"For the new songs, Edge uses a Lovetone Big Cheese overdrive which delivers a very broken sound, but for his really big distortion he still uses the smal FET pre-amp and his Electrop-Harmonix Big Muff."
Use on the Elevation Tour is confirmed by the AudioFile feature "U2 - Wired for Sound" (pictured) and a 2001 Guitar One feature (as scanned by fansite U2 Atomic: Edge Gear). Use on the Vertigo Tour is confirmed by this Guitar World feature at 1:55, this photo and It Might Get Loud (as observed by Kit Rae here and here). Custom Audio Electronics also released a 2015 picture of The Edge's rack gear, which includes the Big Muff.
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In this Rig Rundown feature for Premier Guitar magazine, longtime U2 guitar tech Dallas Schoo shows off Edge's 2018 touring rig, which includes an M5 pedal.
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Used for the Vertigo Tour, as seen and specified in this Guitar World feature at 2:06.
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The Edge acquired a vintage MXR M102 Dyna Comp, identifiable by its block logo, in the early 1980s, as seen in a user-uploaded photo from A2athot.
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In this Rig Rundown feature for Premier Guitar magazine, longtime U2 guitar tech Dallas Schoo shows off Edge's 2018 touring rig, which includes an FV500-H (mistakenly identified as an "500V" in the caption) to control his Custom Audio remote wah.
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In this still image from U2's historic performance at 1985's Live Aid concert, we can see the Edge's SCC-700F foot controller on the stage in front of him. This was part of the larger SCC-700 effects switching system, and also included the SCC-700C (the board onto which pedals were mounted and routed through--not visible here, although present by implication). This website also includes a transcription of a profile in the (January 1985 issue of Musician magazine)[http://u2-atomic-edge.tripod.com/id54.html] which lists the SCC-700 among Edge's rig at the time.
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Mentioned by Mike Matthews in this November 17, 2017 Guitarist interview.
The Edge uses our Deluxe Memory Man; in fact, he just called up and got a special version - our 1,100-millisecond Memory Man [1100- TT].
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In the early 1980s, The Edge briefly used the Guyatone PS-102 Zoom Box, as detailed in the 1983 rig overview on Guitar.com.
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In this Music Radar article, the Edge's guitar tech (Dallas Schoo) details The Edge's setup during the 360 tour. His Boss CS-3 is listed among his outboard pedals.
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He used that effect in his chain in November 2009.
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Music Radar interviews Edge's guitar tech Dallas Schoo in this article, and details his touring rig for 2009's "360° Tour." It lists the Bufferooster among his effects.
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In this interview from the March 2015 issue of Premier Guitar magazine, Death by Audio pedal builder Oliver Ackermann indicates that the Edge owns a Total Sonic Annihilation unit.
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The Edge used the TC Electronic Dual Parametric Equalizer during the Zoo TV tour, as shown in the user-uploaded photo from A2athot. Other members have noted that he has used this in the 80's also.
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The Edge is using this along with his rack gear
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In this video that shows longtime U2 guitar tech Dallas Schoo inspecting Edge's Bob Bradshaw-designed rig prior to 1997's PopMart Tour, a Deluxe Electric Mistress pedal is visible at the 15-minute 31-second mark.
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In this MusicRadar article, the Edge's tech, Dallas Schoo, discusses Edge's rig for the 360 tour. The WH-1 is listed on among the pedals on the Edge's main pedalboard.
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The Edge has utilized the Lovetone Meatball filter effects pedal since the Pop era, as evidenced by a photo of his Elevation Tour rig on Photobucket.
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The Edge has been using the Boss CS-2 Compression Sustainer since the 1990s, as shown in images of his rig available through Google.
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This is a community-built gear list for The Edge.
- Find relevant music gear like Guitars, Amplifiers, Effects Pedals, and other instruments and add it to The Edge.
- The best places to look for gear usage are typically on the artist's social media, YouTube, live performance images, and interviews.
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Discography
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