Sunday Bloody Sunday guitar tone

The rig U2 used

Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.

Signal chain

The order the original sound was built in. The exact settings get dialled for your own amp or modeller when you generate the tone.

1. Gibson Explorer

   1

   primary guitar

   guitar
2. Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man

   2

   compositional delay — the rhythmic engine of the part

   delay
3. Vox AC30 Top Boost

   3

   sole amplifier for the entire song

   amp
4. Vox AC30 2x12 Combo Speakers

   4

   combo speakers

   cab
5. Shure SM57 on 2x12

   5

   close mic

   mic
6. Neumann U67 Room Mic

   6

   room mic

   mic
7. Studio Plate Reverb

   7

   mix ambience

   reverb

Why we think this is right

This is the most solidly documented chain in the batch and the curated prior calls it a confirmed studio chain at confidence 90: Gibson Explorer into an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man into a Vox AC30 Top Boost. I accepted every curated claim without change. The Explorer was Edge's main guitar from Boy through War, the Deluxe Memory Man (in production from the late 1970s, so comfortably era-correct for a 1983 release) is the delay he has named repeatedly as the unit that built this style, and the AC30 Top Boost is the amplifier he has used continuously since the band started. The one era point worth stating explicitly, because it is the classic mistake with Edge records: the Korg SDD-3000 rack unit is NOT on this song — he did not adopt it until around 1984, a year after War, so it is anachronistic here and is not chained. Equally RULED OUT for this track: no TC Electronic 2290, which does not exist until 1985, no chorus pedal, no wah, no phaser and no compressor pedal; not one of those is documented for this recording. The gain is the AC30's own preamp being pushed by the guitar, and there is one amplifier for the whole song rather than a clean amp and a dirty amp.

Sources

• Curated prior (confidence 90, confirmed studio chain): Gibson Explorer > Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man > Vox AC30 > AC30 2x12, sourced to artist interview and guitar publication.
• The Edge's published interviews on the War-era rig and on the Deluxe Memory Man as the origin of his delay-composed style.
• Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man production history (late 1970s) and Korg SDD-3000 introduction (circa 1984) used for the era check against a February 1983 release.
• Own analysis of the released mix: single AC30 voice, dotted-eighth delay locked to roughly 102 BPM, no modulation or filter effects audible.

More example tones

• With or Without YouU2
• Where the Streets Have No NameU2
• OneMetallica
• BatteryMetallica
• Sad But TrueMetallica
• Summer of '69Bryan Adams