225ms Delay Base Tone (Short)
- Download Tone
For almost all the really old songs this should work well. I have a fairly crunchy base tone, more so than the 330 and 440 basic tones. The STOMP setting is quite over driven and best used just for solos.
These are the songs I use this tone for:
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Desire
For the solo at least, this delay is great. I think this is possibly the most difficult U2 song to really get the correct rhythm, its almost a Bo-Diddley beat. Its easier on acoustic than electric I have found. -
I Will Follow
For this classic just leave the delay on and you are good to go. Even works over the middle section. -
Out of Control
I sometimes turn the delay off for the verses to make it punchy, but you could leave it on throughout. Put the COMP and STOMP on for the solo to give it some extra ummph. -
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Recently I have been preferring to play this song with a shorter delay. It makes the main riff sound a little more urgent. -
God Part Two
This is mostly bass and drums until the second verse. But with the delay on you get a good big sound, I sometimes also use the WAH on this track. -
Red Hill Mining Town
Delay on throughout. I have to play very lightly on the intro to make it come through clean, but this delay works well for the verses, and I use the STOMP to play a solo in the vein of Atom Heart Mother Pink Floyd cause the chords are very similar to a few songs on that album. -
The Electric Co.
Delay on throughout, this one is a fast song! I use COMP to make the pre-solo section bigger, then hit STOMP for the actual solo which increases the gain but softens the actual tone a little.
440ms Delay Base Tone
This is the base tone for many of the others that I use. I use the AC30 Amp model for the clean, with a distortion and stereo delay of 440ms. Its probably the most common sound I use.
I have recently changed it to have a Cavernous reverb, but the Verbzilla Octo Effect if you have one is more authentic. The MOD features the Leslie simulator cause thats my favorite setting on that footswitch.
Here are the songs I use this tone for:
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All Because of You
I use the Wah on the lead riff with this song. Distortion on throughout. Turn the delays and reverbs off for the verses so that they are more punchy. Delays back on for the chorus. Turn the delays off for the Wah solo toward the end. -
Walk On
A lot of foot tapping with this song. Start with the delay on, distortion off. We play to a sequence so I just strum whole note chords over the piano intro. Distortion on for the riff, then off again for the verses. Distortion on for the bridge and chorus. Distortion off and MOD on for the middle piece (I stomp both pedals with a wide foot!), then as the build up comes in I turn off the MOD for one loop, then distortion on for one loop. Then COMP on for the outtro. I solo over the singing on the end of this song cause its a fun key to play in. -
Kite
Distortion on throughout. I play it with my fingers but its supposed to be played on the slide. Put the MOD on for the solo. -
Wild Horses
This is probably worth building into its own patch to be more Achtung Babyesque. Currently we play with the acoustic doing the main rhythm and I use the distortion and volume pedal to swell on the verses, then kick in for the chorus. -
All I Want Is You
This is one of my favorite songs by U2. I start with the distortion off for the first two verses, with delay on. I turn on the distortion for the start of the third verse and leave it on for the rest of the song. The Verbzilla is good for background “keys” texturing. At the end of this song we break from the original arrangements and I get to improvise a finger picked solo with the rest of the band vamping on the A - D chords. I try to add some Jeff Beck style riffs here and I will play it forever until the rest of the guys get bored and end the song! -
Hold Me, Thrill Me
Distortion on without delay for the intro chords, then I use Wah for the riff. I keep the wah on for most of the song, adding the delay for the chorus. On the chorus I emulate the strings by playing single notes with lots of delay and the wah. It works pretty well considering the studio version of this song is quite complex. -
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
For the intro I don’t use distortion, but then from the second verse on, distortion on. Delay on through out. We play this with a capo on 5th fret. This makes it easy for me to play the solos using big open chords while chunking on the low C (6th string, 8th fret). -
Sunday Bloody Sunday *
Delay on for the riff, off for the chords, on for the bridges. Crowds love this song. -
New York, New York
This song should probably have its own tone. I use the clean with delay for the verses and kick in distortion for the heavier sections. -
Acrobat
This is another of my favorites to play. Distortion on with delay the whole time. Most of the dynamics are played in the arrangement and fingering on this one, compared to the production work of the original. I’ll post one of our recordings at some point so you can see how we perform it. There are not many live U2 versions to compare to. -
Original of the Species
I keep the distortion and delay on pretty much whole way through and play very lightly during the verses to add dynamics. -
Sometimes You Can’t Make it on your Own
First verse, leave the delay off, then add it on the bridge. I add distortion for the start of the second verse and throughout the rest of the song. Use COMP for the solo section for extra boost. -
Stay
Clean no distortion for the first verse, I kick in distortion for the chorus and then back off for the second verse. I add the delay for the bridge to make the sound open out. For the later verses I have the distortion on and use the feedback from the amp/monitors to get the atmospheric wailing. -
Miracle Drug
Delay on throughout, I use clean tone for the first verse, kicking in distortion for the bridge and throughout. I sometimes use MOD for the solo to give it a different tone, turning it off half way through. -
The Electrical Storm
This arrangement takes a bit of pedalling. Clean tone for most of the verse work, Distortion for the chorus, I emulate the keyboards by playing harmonics on the guitar on the bridges. For the acoustic strumming turn the delay off to give it a tighter punch.
(* Sometimes I use 225ms setting for Sunday Bloody Sunday, at least for the riff. The harmonics on the bridge sound better with the longer delay, so one day I’ll probably spin that song off into its own special tone).
Typically when we learn a new song I start with this tone, and then over time I’ll relisten to the original recordings and live recordings and evolve a more specific tone for the song.
