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A little about The Edge's guitars...

The Edge's and all of those guitars! He's used many over the years. He seems to go in phases when it comes to guitar use; preferring one model more than another on various tours. An example would be the 1989/90 Love Town tour. During this period, The Edge seemed to favour Fender "Eric Clapton" model Stratocaster guitars with Fender Golden Lace Sensor pickups.

And while many of The Edge's guitars may have come 'off the rack', some have been modified in one way or another. Some modifications are more noticable than others. Some modifications make 'vintage' indentification a bit rougher to figure out. While it's easier to tell if a pick guard has been swapped for another colour (etc), And while one might be able to see that the stock pickups have been replaced, it is more difficult to know 100% what modifications have been made to pickups. The September 2005 Guitar World is one example, as it tells of various guitars with the bridge pickups being custom /custom-installed bridge pickups.

So through looking at stacks of magazines, videos, interviews... I will attempt to get the information as accurate as possible.

Another thing to keep in mind is guest appearances and promo spots. It is not always the 'given' that The Edge will be using his own guitar. He has been known to borrow Bono's guitars for video shoots. That is Bono's Gretch Tennessean that The Edge has in the "Night And Day" video and Bono's sparkle blue Gibson ES-175 that The Edge is performing with in the "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" video. There have been some performances in which Bono has been seen with a guitar and not seen with it again. This does not mean 100% that it was a loaner or rented for the occasion but it does leave this as a possibility. Examples? One example would be the Gretsch Silver Jet that The Edge is seen with in the "Lemon" video. I've not seen The Edge with that guitar before or since. Some have mistakenly thought that he used this guitar live in 1998 when U2 played with Ash in Belfast. In fact, THAT particular SIlver Jet that The Edge used that day belongs to Ash (singer/guitarish) Tim Wheeler. [It states as such in the book "A Concert Documentary]. A second example would be the "I Will Follow" video. In this video, The Edge is seen performing with a dark coloured (brown or burgundy?] Gibson Les Paul Standard. I have not seen The Edge with this guitar before or since said video.

That said, there are other cases where I have seen guitars that I know that The Edge owns, that I have seen or seen pictures of at thier studio but I've not seen him use in a live context or video performance. One example would be the white 1960's era Fender Jaguar and a mahogany natural finish Les Paul Junior that can bee seen with a number of other guitars in the back pages of the "U2 Show" book.

So there you have it... a bit of background... enjoy!

The Edge-Rickenbacker 330/12 mapleglo-Philly-May 22, 2005

Mysterious Ways-Philadelphia-May 22, 2005