The Edge

Listed among The Edge's live rig in this Music Radar article.

In this Rig Rundown feature for Premier Guitar magazine, longtime U2 guitar tech Dallas Schoo shows off Edge's 2018 touring rig, which includes four MIDI Solutions Mergers.

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 Korg Pitchblack tuner.

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."

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".

The Edge's guitar sound is usually shaped through pedals rather than at the mixing stage. An exception was the 'James Bond guitar' part, which was radically thinned with EQ.

An image of the settings can be found here.

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

The Edge's guitar sound is usually shaped through pedals rather than at the mixing stage. An exception was the 'James Bond guitar' part, which was radically thinned with EQ.

An image of the settings can be found here.

As stated by producer Declan Gaffney, the Phoenix 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.

Used for "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. (...) Edge's thick guitar sound is entirely from the live band session, recorded with two Royer 121s, one on his Fender Deluxe and the other on his AC30, and the mics went through the Neve and then an LA2A, though it's not doing anything, it was just there for the sound. When recording Edge's cabinets, it's almost always a 121, or a Sennheiser 409, occasionally a 57. I record completely flat, because Edge will have found a great guitar sound, and you just record it."

His rig rundown shows the Furman in his rack around 43:20. Under it is a korg pitchblack rack tuner, 4 Axe FX II XL's, and some other pedals.

Used for the U2 360° Tour, as is visible in and this photo from a November 20, 2009 Twitter post.

Used for the U2 360° Tour, as is visible in and this photo from a November 20, 2009 Twitter post.

Featured on Visual Sound's official website. The original and most complete version of the article can be found on U2 fansite U2 Edge Files.

[October 20, 2002]

U2 using Visual Sound pedals!

Fraser McAllister, guitar tech for U2, called us in March 2000, saying that Edge wanted to buy a Jekyll & Hyde and a Route 66. Apparently he had heard good things about them and wanted to give them a test drive. So we shipped off 2 pedals to Ireland and waited to hear the verdict.

A week later, Fraser called back to say that Edge liked both pedals a lot and was especially flipping over Route 66. He also said that Daniel Lanois, U2's producer, loved the Route 66 pedal and "would it be OK if we bought another one?" !! So off went another Route 66 pedal to Ireland. Rumor has it that the pedals ended up being used in several places on their Grammy Award-winning CD! Although Visual Sound does not have any official endorsers, we're honored to know that our pedals are being used by a world-class act like U2.

UPDATE: A reviewer on the Web recently posted the following: "Even the player The Edge of U2 loves his pedals! Saw one of the Visual Sound (H2O CHORUS) pedals on top of speaker-cab at the backround from The Edge when he was playing on the Elevation 2001 U2 Live from Boston DVD." I didn't know he had picked up an H2O, but I'm pleased he's using it! - Bob Weil

Guitar strap created in partnership with the charity Love Welcomes helping refugees in Greece.

Throughout this promotional video posted to Fender’s YouTube channel, The Edge appears with his Telecaster Deluxe, a guitar design he claims “changed the course of musical history”. Though not as synonymous with The Edge as the Stratocaster, the telecaster deluxe has made several appearances with the guitarist since the 1980s, most notably in the studio.

In this photo and video you can see the Edge of U2 playing a Martin d-35 w the white binding

A Universal Audio Ruby can clearly be seen as part of The Edge's rig on a table at 30m29s in "A Sort of Homecoming" with U2 and David Letterman on Disney+

EDIT: The Edge verified that he uses UAFX Woodrow in a statement to musicradar: https://www.musicradar.com/news/uafx-amp-pedals-the-edge-u2-Las-vegas-sphere

This thread on TheGearPage has pictures of The Edge's pedalboard and rack from U2's Las Vegas Sphere residency. HIs pedalboard shows UA Woodrow and Ruby buttons on the first row, Fractal on the second row, and black spaces on the third row where his amp switching used to be. A photo of his effects rack shows what looks to be a Woodrow, the copper colored pedal in a row of similar UA form factor pedals.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/u2s-the-edge-ua-amp-pedals.2503240/

In the YouTube video "U2 - Vertigo (Live)" by ShoutFactoryVEVO, The Edge can be seen using a Shure U2 SM58.

According to the Red Witch website "...The Fuzz God II has established itself on the pedal boards of Fuzz afficiandos around the world including The Edge (U2), Monte Pitman (Madonna), Peter Stroud (Sheryl Crowe) and the Arctic Monkeys..."

According to the article : The Edge has now confirmed to MusicRadar that he is using Universal Audio's UAFX Ruby '63, Dream '65 and Woodrow '55 amp modelling pedals for U2's Las Vegas Sphere shows.

"For various reasons at the Sphere I decided to switch from amplifiers to digital amp emulators," the U2 guitarist told MusicRadar when we reached out following speculation online. "I'm using UA Ruby, Dream and Woodrow amp pedals with some Fractal Axe-FX units handling additional amp emulation and FX.

During the 1980s and 1990s, The Edge, the guitarist for U2, used Rotosound R9 Roto Pinks Nickel-Steel Guitar Strings (9-42). This is supported by a Rotosound advertisement from 1991, which features both The Edge and Adam Clayton as Rotosound artists, highlighting the string choices they primarily used.

According to a blog post on Rotosound's website titled "How to Sound Like U2's The Edge," written by GuitarTricks.com, The Edge used Rotosound R10 Roto Yellows Nickel-Steel 10-46 strings during the 1980s and 1990s.

According to a blog post on the Rotosound Music Strings website, authored by GuitarTricks.com, The Edge was known to use Rotosound 10-46 Roto Yellows in the 1980s and 1990s.

In this Rig Rundown video, The Edge is confirmed to use the Fender Ed O'Brien Signature Stratocaster. His guitar tech speaks about the guitar at 33:25.

In an interview published in Guitar Player magazine (January 2001), The Edge confirmed the use of the Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth XO: "On 'When I Look at the World', I'm using an Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer for that mad distorted tone."

In a January 2001 article from Guitar Player, The Edge mentions using an "old Fender Bassman" for many of the clean tones on the album All That You Can't Leave Behind: "Well, I'm a fairly well established AC30 man, but lately, for a bit of variety, I've been moving away from the Vox. I used a 70s Hiwatt combo for a lot of the distortion tones, and for many of the clean tones, I used an old Fender Bassman."