Crayon Sky Music

Achieving the guitar tone the Edge uses on U2′s epic track “Where The Streets Have No Name” is not as complicated as the average guitar player may think. Basically what Edge is doing on this song is he’s using a modulated delay effect (or echoes)– his signature thing to do (which can be heard on almost all U2 songs). The delay unit used is a TC-2290, but any type of delay unit will obviously work since delay is delay. The delay setting is a dotted 8th note (3/16 of a measure) at 125 bpm or 360 ms in technical terms repeated about 3 times and fading. An interesting fact about this song is that it is in 6/8 time during the intro riff (6 beats per measure), and then changes to 4/4 when the band comes in. The riff played is a simple D arpeggio:

|-10—————————-|

|—–10—————-10—–|

|———-12–11–12———|

|——————————-|

|——————————-|

|——————————-|

The Edge also adds in some modulation, making this a “modulated delay effect”. The guitar used is a 1980s Fender Stratocaster employing the bridge-mid pickup (with the pickup switch positioned all the way down toward the floor, flip the switch one notch up). The amp Edges uses is his classic 1964 Vox AC-30 with Top Boost– used on about 90% of U2′s music.

One more interesting and important thing to note about the guitar tone on this song is that the Edge uses the textured grip part of a Herdim pick to pluck the strings, thus generating a “scratching” sound. This simple technique really helps bring out the delayed notes and can really get you much closer to sounding exactly like the guitar part on the recording.

-Doug Penta

Slap Funk – Fender Jazz Bass JAP 1989