U2 guitarist The Edge added new gear to his rig for the Sphere shows.
In an interview with MusicRadar, Tore Mogensen and James Santiago of Universal Audio spoke about the change the guitarist made. Santiago revealed that The Edge made a huge addition to his rig for the Sphere shows.
“I have not talked about it at all but I did see one of the last shows at Sphere,” he told MusicRadar. “And I did go under the stage to meet the guys right before showtime. They're like, ‘You're here, come under this.' The venue was packed [and] crowded all the way to the front. So they snuck me under the stage right there, about 20 minutes before they went on, to show me the setup.”
Let me in the sound
The setup itself was something to behold. However, Santiago was really intrigued by how it was used. He also noted how every one of his company's effect pedals were used during the show. The Edge was making tweaks well into U2's Sphere residency. Santiago recalls the band's guitar tech, Dallas Schoo, telling him that The Edge added in a new amp pedal that day.
“I know I can't share any pictures or anything, but they showed me this little rack that basically had shelves that just had Rubys, Lions, Dream — every one of our pedals was on a shelf,” he recalled. “Dallas was like, ‘We use every one of these and when you watch the show tonight, the opening song, which is the ‘Zoo Station' intro that Edge plays to start the concert — that's the Lion pedal.
“He's not even using the Ruby. He loves the Marshall sound right now. We just got it this morning. And he was into it. He put it in the rig today,” he continued.
Santiago then discussed how honored he was by having his pedals used. The change to the amp pedals also simplified life for Schoo.
“They were just so excited to have consistent tones and for Dallas it was he got to not be pummeled by the amps, because under the stage use to be where the amps were,” Santiago said. “He had to live in this world of just the amps hitting his head and the craziness of keeping a whole locker room full of amps under a stage running during a show. He was so happy, he said: ‘It's so great down here. Look at the shelves, and it works perfectly.'”
More compliments
U2's front-of-house engineer also expressed his gratitude for the change. The Edge is known for using various effects for his guitars.
“Then meeting the front-of-house engineer and then just seeing the show was great, because you saw what he had,” Santiago said. “And we talked about MIDI — Edge has a lot of programmed changes, a lot of timed delays. So he had this crazy amount of rack delays and post-effects stuff.
And he goes, ‘I'm using the pedals exactly like I use the amps,' because all he did was get rid of the amps[,] and that cable would have gone to multiple AC-30s and Tweed Deluxes just went into the pedals as a drop-in replacement for the rig. That's what we're doing,” he continued.
What was U2's Sphere residency?
On September 29, 2023, U2 kicked off their first Las Vegas residency. The Irish rock band was the inaugural act to play at the Sphere. From there, they played 40 nights at the high-tech venue through March 2, 2024.
U2's Sphere residency was centered around their 1991 album, Achtung Baby. For the first time, the band played the album in its entirety during these shows. Deep cuts such as “So Cruel” and “Love Is Blindness” were played for the first time in decades.
Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton of U2 were present for the residency. However, Larry Mullen Jr., the band's drummer, sat out of the Sphere shows. He was recovering from health issues, so Bram van den Berg sat in for the residency.
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