Where The Streets Have No Name

And the repeats aren’t the same

player The Edge Al bum the Joshua Tr ee (1987)

We’ll stand on a box in a crowded room and boldly declare this is the most iconic use of delay ever; a guitarist using the effect to craft iconic parts. To hear The Edges’s cascading notes bouncing across the stands of a stadium is a rock rite of passage that has to be witnessed. But, boy, does he make us work to get it for ourselves. Yes

you’ll need two delays to nail it, and modulation too. The good news is TC Electronic’s Flashback delay models the exact TC unit the man himself uses onstage.

“They work together to become a part of one delay sound,” was The Edge’s reasoning to Guitar World for using two different delays at once. “When I use two delays, I like to mess with the pitch modulation of the delay signal. It increases the depth of the sound and gives it a tremendous 3-D sensation. But straight slapback echo with no modulation isn’t very inspiring; the shape of the sound doesn’t change.”

Parts of Streets... are composed with this deeper and wider delay in mind. Though The Edge sends his signal to two Vox AC30S, routing delays to separate amps for greater control over the mix is a luxury most of us won’t be able to afford, but there’s more going on here than just stereo repeats. The percussive shimmer needs single coils, preferably a Strat like the man himself, and some Tube Screamer drive will give just the right transparency to let your chime shine. If you can’t get access to two delays, try increasing the feedback repeats on one. Our delays are set to a dotted eighth note (360ms) and a quarter note (480ms), tying in with the track’s 125bpm tempo.