The Edge
U2 guitarist David Evans
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The Edge's Gear
The Edge can be seen using the Gretsch Duo Jet guitar in this performance of Invisible on The Tonight Show from February 2014.
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In the live performance of "Desire" from U2's "Rattle and Hum" (1988), The Edge is seen playing a Gretsch G6136DC White Falcon Double Cutaway.
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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.
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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."
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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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Edge bought this Randall-RG80-112 Amps during the late 80's from Def Leppards Joe Elliot. They were first used during the 1989/1990 Lovetown Tour for some heavy rock sounds like "God Part II". Also used for the recording for Achtung Baby and ZOOROPA and used live up to 1998 for ZOO TV and POPMART Tour. Used live for "Last Night On Earth" and "Zoo Station". The heavy intro sound you can hear on the record that is this Amp.
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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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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 PCM-70 among his effects.
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The Edge famously plays a Limited Edition 1976 Explorer. The link is an interesting article on the Edge's 1976 Explorer and how the tone of that guitar shaped the sound of U2. Worth a read, There are some really interesting points on the type of Explorers in production in '76 and also a bit from Dallas Schoo about his signal chain and how he gets his sound.
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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 Rig Rundown feature for Premier Guitar magazine, longtime U2 guitar tech Dallas Schoo shows off Edge's 2018 touring rig, which includes two Axe-FX II XL units.
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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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This is the famous black on black Fender Stratocaster used almost exclusively by the Edge during the Boy, October, War, and Unforgettable Fire (of course besides his Gibson Explorer). Probably the most famous performances using this guitar are Under a Blood Red Sky and Live Aid. Note on the big 70's headstock, it does not have the "original countour body" decal and has the serial number under the Fender logo, which clearly places the guitar post 1975, but before 1979 when the "Fender" logo was slightly altered to include a gold border.
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The Edge played this Fender Standard Telecaster in Lake Placid Blue at a Buffalo concert in 2005 for a cover of John Lennon's song "Instant Karma".
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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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The Edge's guitar tech, Dallas Schoo, discussed this rare amp in this Music Radar article.
"Take me through the amp setup you have here.
Well, of course we have the main AC30 from '64. Can't do a show without that. Then we have a '58 Fender Deluxe with a Vox speaker and a '57 Deluxe with a Jensen speaker. From there we go to a mid-'50s Fender Harvard - a very rare amp, by the way, and it sounds fantastic - and I put a Vox speaker in that. Plus, we have some early '70s Vox amps as backups."
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In this video The Edge explains his love of telecasters using his Telecaster Deluxe.
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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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The Edge is shown using a Gretsch 1963 Chet Atkins Walnut Country Gentleman in this user-uploaded photo from Photobucket, highlighting its role in his stage performances.
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Edge's new signature Fender Stratocaster has Fender Fat 50s single coil pickups in the neck and middle positions. The Fat 50s in his signature strat are unique because both have flat non staggered pole pieces (as does the DiMarzio FS-1 he has in the bridge position).
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This Music Radar article from the "360" tour details The Edge's full setup, and notes that the 2290 runs through his two AC30s.
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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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The Edge used 2 of these, according to Premier Guitar's interview with Dallas Schoo. They can also be seen in a photo of the recording of No Line On The Horizon from Sound On Sound magazine.
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He used that effect in his chain in November 2009.
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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.
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The Edge has been seen playing this Fender Jaguar in Lake Placid Blue with a painted matching headstock and gold hardware. It is believed to be a 1962 vintage.
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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."
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This is a community-built gear list for The Edge.
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Discography
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