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  1. Looks like Edge is finally breaking out the 2009 Gretsch Black Falcon. Appears that is what he's using for "One Tree Hill" on this tour.



    Here's a piccy of Dallas with it, back during soundcheck on the U2:360 2009 dates:






    The Black Falcon was also listed in the October 2009 Music Radar interview / featrue with Dallas Schoo.
    http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/u2-exclusive-the-edges-stage-setup-revealed-223342/11


    Another video of One Tree Hill - You can see the Black Falcon really well on the video screen in the beginning.
  2. This is where I start to feel like Edge is being just a bit TOO picky with his sound. I'm sure he could get a decent sound with the Gretsch Country Gent, or the Casino, or even a Strat or a Les Paul for One Tree Hill. He seems to be using the Gretsch for most of the hollowbody-esque stuff, so why not just use that? Does a whole new guitar really need to be brought out just for one song for a few shows?
  3. If you can do it, why not?


  4. Pain in the ass for Dallas and Edge. Really Edge could go through a whole set with just an LP, a Strat, a Rickenbacker, a Tele, a Hollowbody, the Fernandes, and an acoustic. I've seen a soundcheck video of Dallas going through Edge's presets on his explorer, and all of the tones sounded pretty much there with ONE guitar. Why does he need 19? I'll never know. I guess it is the whole mentality "well I can! So why not?" The only thing I can think of besides "every guitar sounds different!!!" is the guitars losing their tuning during between songs. But that wouldn't take any more than 10 seconds to fix between songs. And Edge's gutiars are taken such good care of he would probably rarely need to anyway. I dunno, as a guitar player it gets to a point where you can only get so picky with tone, and then it's just ridiculous. I've been to bar gigs where the player has 5 different strats, each with the same pickups. What the hell is hte point? Stupid in my opinion.
  5. Suppose ya got a point. He's just a perfectionist. Although I wouldnt mind having different guitars whenever I need them
  6. Alex, I suppose it has a lot to do with the way the guitar feels as you're playing the songs. It might not sound any different, but it feels different to play. For example, I tried playing some Kings of Leon song on my PRS, and I got the tone down perfect. My style was on, and all that...but it just wasn't coming across the right way. I switched to a Les Paul, where the bridge was set just a bit higher and the action was just a hair slower, and in the feeling of playing that guitar, the emotion I put into it and the way I played it literally changed the sound. It may sound like a stretch, but I couldn't play Mr. Brightside by The Killers on that Les Paul - had to switch back to the PRS. For the same reason.

    Like I said, it may be a stretch, but a lot has to do with the way you feel when you're playing a song.
  7. Originally posted by EyesWithPrideB3:Alex, I suppose it has a lot to do with the way the guitar feels as you're playing the songs. It might not sound any different, but it feels different to play. For example, I tried playing some Kings of Leon song on my PRS, and I got the tone down perfect. My style was on, and all that...but it just wasn't coming across the right way. I switched to a Les Paul, where the bridge was set just a bit higher and the action was just a hair slower, and in the feeling of playing that guitar, the emotion I put into it and the way I played it literally changed the sound. It may sound like a stretch, but I couldn't play Mr. Brightside by The Killers on that Les Paul - had to switch back to the PRS. For the same reason.

    Like I said, it may be a stretch, but a lot has to do with the way you feel when you're playing a song.


    Fair enough I guess. I do know what you mean, my only counter-argument for that would be that I've never read or heard any instance of Edge saying that's why he uses as many guitars as he does, it's always been about the difference in sound as far as I know.

    In no way do I disrespect the fact that he uses that many guitars, in fact I think it's admirable in a certain way that he's THAT dedicated to his tone. What I meant was, I would NEVER do that, and I don't understand why anyone would. But I guess he does what he does for a reason.
  8. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..]

    Pain in the ass for Dallas and Edge. Really Edge could go through a whole set with just an LP, a Strat, a Rickenbacker, a Tele, a Hollowbody, the Fernandes, and an acoustic. I've seen a soundcheck video of Dallas going through Edge's presets on his explorer, and all of the tones sounded pretty much there with ONE guitar. Why does he need 19? I'll never know. I guess it is the whole mentality "well I can! So why not?" The only thing I can think of besides "every guitar sounds different!!!" is the guitars losing their tuning during between songs. But that wouldn't take any more than 10 seconds to fix between songs. And Edge's gutiars are taken such good care of he would probably rarely need to anyway. I dunno, as a guitar player it gets to a point where you can only get so picky with tone, and then it's just ridiculous. I've been to bar gigs where the player has 5 different strats, each with the same pickups. What the hell is hte point? Stupid in my opinion.

    Haha, you've just reminded me of when I saw Justin Hawkins (of Darkness fame) play a support act for Alter Bridge at my uni. back in Nov. 2008. His band at the time (they were called Hot Leg if anyone's interested) consisted of he and another guitarist with whom he rotated lead and rhythm roles, and sometimes dual lead plus a bassist and drummer; fairly standard stuff. However, he and the other guitarist must have had at least 6-7 Les Pauls each, and seemed to rotate their way through them for no discernible reason DURING songs, as well as in between. Unless they were constantly breaking strings or something, it seemed pointless, but again, I can't be sure.
    Originally posted by EyesWithPrideB3:Alex, I suppose it has a lot to do with the way the guitar feels as you're playing the songs. It might not sound any different, but it feels different to play. For example, I tried playing some Kings of Leon song on my PRS, and I got the tone down perfect. My style was on, and all that...but it just wasn't coming across the right way. I switched to a Les Paul, where the bridge was set just a bit higher and the action was just a hair slower, and in the feeling of playing that guitar, the emotion I put into it and the way I played it literally changed the sound. It may sound like a stretch, but I couldn't play Mr. Brightside by The Killers on that Les Paul - had to switch back to the PRS. For the same reason.

    Like I said, it may be a stretch, but a lot has to do with the way you feel when you're playing a song.

    I hear you. I can play Streets on my Explorer and get a pretty similar sound, but it doesn't 'feel' right to play it on said guitar. I guess it's almost like you build up repertoires in conjunction with certain guitars, although I can't imagine whether it's the same for Edge or not - for some reason, I can't imagine him these days, or in fact, most of the time, just sitting down and plinking through songs as I do with my guitars to pass the time (and imagine most people here do). Anyone else have that feeling?
  9. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:This is where I start to feel like Edge is being just a bit TOO picky with his sound. I'm sure he could get a decent sound with the Gretsch Country Gent, or the Casino, or even a Strat or a Les Paul for One Tree Hill. He seems to be using the Gretsch for most of the hollowbody-esque stuff, so why not just use that? Does a whole new guitar really need to be brought out just for one song for a few shows?



    Such an odd post. And tro be clear -- I'm not attacking the original poster. I will offer another side to the story:

    First: If you read my entire post. There is both a reference and a link to the Oct 2009 Music Radar article (Link included in orig post). Also, I posted pictures of Dallas with the guitar from the 2009 shows. (Dallas checking it at soundcheck). Fact is, it isn't something he's suddenly travelling with. The Edge has had that guitar the entire tour. So if anything, it's great that he's decided to use it.-1990

    Second: Unlike the (2) Country Gents, the Black Falcon has been modified with a Piezo pickup. He MIGHT be incorporating that pickup with the two filtertrons to get the tone he desires.

    Can he get a perfect tone with Strat, Tele, Casion or Les Paul? All of those have some variation from what he's used for "One Tree Hill" for every U2 performance so far. The two elements would be semi-hollow WITH humbuckers. (Filtertrons are humbuckers).

    That would leave out the Strat and Tele. Les Paul isn't semi-hollow and might be a bit too dark sounding for "One Tree Hill". And the Casino, isn't a semi-hollow (it's completely hollow) and it has single coil P-90 pickups.

    Joshua Tree he used a tobacco Gibson 335. You can see it in YouTube clips from the era and from the outtake that was on the Best of 1980 to 1990 VHS. And in that, THAT was the only song that he used the tobacco Gibson 335 for...

    PS:
    - Edge has been pulling out a Gibson SG for JUST "Elevation" for (3) tours now.
    - Edge has been using a black with grey marble pickguard Retro Rocket for WOWY for the last (2) tours. It is ALL he uses it for.
    - He's using a comepletely different RetroRocket for JUST "UltraViolet.

    Is it so wrong? Not at all. Just I just don't understand the argument or post about "why does he have to bring out the Black Falson JUST for one song + can't he do it with something else.

    This can change from time to time. Early in the tour, it was the Stereo Country Club for "Moment of Surrender". For the European dates he was using a Stratocaster. But in that, he also changed the part that he was playing and added some more effects.

    He's chosen the Black Falcon for this song for this tour. Or at least for this leg of the tour -- so far. Heaven knows, the boy changes his mind, experiments and tries other alternatives all the time.

    So that is a potpourri of info and history. The short story is, he chooses which guitars he feels will fit best.
  10. Well thanks for that. And as for the examples, such as the elevation SG, it's the same kind of deal. Nitpicking aside, an SG, an Explorer, and a Les Paul, all sound very very similar. Most humbucker guitars do.
    Didn't know he used two different retrorockets, thought it was just the one...

    I do understand that he likes to experiment and change. The Gretsch double anniversary for MOS to Strat is a pretty significant change, and that I can understand. There I can actually understand, okay he's going for a totally different sound. But to have as many guitars as he does to me seems a bit unnecessary at times. Why has he had the black falcon since 2009 anyway? What the hell is the point if he hasn't used it at ALL until now? Was he really thinking "Maybe I'll need it incase we play One Tree Hill or something!?" If that's the case can he really not comprimise and use a DIFFERENT guitar for a performance or two? Would 90% of the audience notice a difference? There's a really really good chance that they wouldn't. The only people that notice that kind of difference are guitar players/musicians. Think about it. Edge switched between about 3 or 4 strats during the Joshua Tree tour, and if you listen to bootlegs and watch videos, even though I'm a guitar player, they all sound the damn same to me. They all sound like Edge's strat sound, not different at all from one to the next.

    I brought up the soundcheck with the explorer because I found it interesting to note that most of his tones sounded great and very close to the normal tones with their respective guitars. It's hard to say "his LP1 and LP2 sounded the same on past tours" without actually comparing them, or "his explorer could be used for every song the LP is used for and it wouldn't make a difference" when we haven't heard that. The soundcheck video for me proved that he probably could do a gig with 4 or 5 guitars and the majority of the audience wouldn't make a difference. Why make it such a pain in the ass for himself and dallas to do what they do? Again, I can definitely agree with the whole "feel" of the song, and you need the right guitar to get the feeling down. But I've never heard them (edge or dallas) say that is the reason for the number of guitars. It's always been about the difference in sound. I'm just arguing that there probably isn't that much of a difference, not enough (this is entirely my opinion) to justify taking THAT many guitars on the road. I just don't see the point sometimes. Hence the black falcon being in his repotoire since 2009. Hence having 2 different retrorockets. Hence having 2 of the same les paul (aside from humbuckers maybe) for the longest time. Hence having 4 or 5 different strats at a time that sounded the same. They were all probably stock 70's strats as far as we know, and even if they weren't, they still sounded the same to me.

    If I was to have a conversation with Edge, this would definitely be one of the things I'd really love to understand! Again, this is all his choice of course, and I don't disrespect it! I don't want anyone here to think that I'm starting to doubt Edge's tone or anything like that, I'm just pointing out that I find it interesting that he needs all of the guitars. It also pains to me to see people that aspire to sound like Edge dumping out money to have the same tone as him, and buying guitars left right and centre. I've heard of tribute guys doing an amazing job with just 3 or 4 guitars, sometimes even 1 or 2.

    Alex.

    Kudos if you read that.
  11. I would REALLY like to "challenge" Edge and everyone that supports his idea of 'One guitar for Each song because they All sound Different'... I would like to play the exact same riff/chords/xxx with 8 or 9 of those guitars (obv. with the same amp and gear) and see if they can make out which is which. I'd eat my hat if they found out...
  12. Originally posted by LikeASong:I would REALLY like to "challenge" Edge and everyone that supports his idea of 'One guitar for Each song because they All sound Different'... I would like to play the exact same riff/chords/xxx with 8 or 9 of those guitars (obv. with the same amp and gear) and see if they can make out which is which. I'd eat my hat if they found out...


    +1 !!!!
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Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.
Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.