Precision Bass -> Shin Ei Companion Fuzz -> (A) Amp + (B) SansAmp -> PA.

If you look closely at 1:28, you can see Nigel adjusting the Korg SE300 Stage Echo while Thom sings, which is what creates the changing delay sounds which only occur at certain points.

Precision Bass -> Shin Ei Companion Fuzz -> (A) Amp + (B) SansAmp -> PA.

I do not know where they come from, but they definitely sound sampled from something. It might be the Mellotron, but it’s hard to say, and I would guess not.

It’s possible that those sounds were generated by a Kontakt instrument, but those strings sound a bit more realistic than what I’ve heard from Kontakt, and I use version five. If Thom made that track with Kontakt, it would have been version one…

More likely, it’s a sample of real strings. It’s not very good quality, but it doesn’t sound too much like synthesized strings, especially with how the sounds suddenly cut off - it’s as though the sample itself is being cut short, rather than simply a very fast envelope release. I’d guess that it’s a sample from an older recording. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone could get extremely close with a synth, and no question with a modern workstation with some effects, but the recording sounds like a sample of an old recording of real strings.

As you can read about on Nigel’s page, he plays the strings for Paperbag Writer (as well as Thom’s other pre-Atoms for Peace tracks) on a M-Audio Midi Keyboard in 2010, and on a Roland A500 PRO in 2013. Those are both triggering samples of the original synth part which are stored on Nigel’s computer.

A photo of Colin and his Ampeg SVT Classic Bass Head from The King of Limbs From The Basement.

The Settings look to be the following:
Input: 0dB.
Gain: 3.5.
Ultra Hi Switch: On.
Bass: 6.
Midrange: 8.
Frequency: 4.
Treble: 9.
Master: 3.5.

He also has a BSS Audio AR-133 Active DI Box on top of the head which is possibly running from one of the Ampeg’s outputs, though it could also be used with the mic for his Ampeg SVT 8x10 Cab.

All of the members of Radiohead have used a variety of different processes to write different songs. It really just depends on the track. Some songs (most, to be honest) are written by Thom on a guitar or piano along with vocals and lyrics. Sometimes, he would then play it for the rest of the band, who would play along and come up with their own parts. Eventually the original guitar or piano part might be discarded, new sections added, and it evolves into something totally new. For some other songs, Thom would sketch them on some sort of rhythm box, like his old Boss Doctor Rhythm Drum Machine and especially the Yamaha QY70 (the original demo of There, There is a good example of the Yamaha). Sometimes songs, such as And It Rained All Night and Honey Pot, are remixes of other songs (The Gloaming and All I Need in those cases) which then turned into songs of their own, or from parts of old songs which are reused (like the beat of the old version of Killer Cars being used for Planet Telex). Some grow from a short samples of demos by another member of the band (The Eraser), or from heavy modifications of recordings of another member (Treefingers). Other songs, such as Idioteque and 15 Step, are born largely out of beats and/or samples (and/or beats made out of samples), rather than a premeditated chord structure or riff, many of which (such as Idioteque) aren’t even written by Thom. Some tracks, like Dollars and Cents, were originally recorded “live jams” (live meaning the whole band playing together, not meaning live performance) which were then cut up and shorted to work as a song. Some tracks are deliberately styled after other artists, such as Subterranean Homesick Alien (inspired Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew). Some songs are written in a hotel bathroom on tour, some are written at a band member’s home, and others are written in studio.

In short, there are about as many songwriting techniques used as there are songs. Radiohead don’t follow any sort of premeditated formula - they work forward from whatever inspiration they have!

Jonny recently posed a video on his Vine account which included his lovely little dog!

Electric Counterpoint is a piece written by Steve Reich to be played by an ensemble of electric guitars, or by a soloist over a prerecorded backing track. When Jonny performs the piece, he plays along to a backing track that he recorded himself prior to the performance (no looping is involved). Possibly out of a desire to make each performance unique, but likely also because he feels that he wants to improve the backing track, Jonny at least initially rerecorded the backing track prior to every performance of the piece.

Today, Jonny posted a video of himself rerecording the backing track yet again. The video included footage of his recording notes, which list all of the gear used for each of the individual guitar tracks for each movement. The notes were written with a software called OmniOutliner Pro 4. Next to the original notes, I have posted a simple transcription for the sake of readability.

The guitars used, the number of times used, and the amps used with were as follows:
(Note that since some of the tracks are not yet finished, and others are using track recordings from his previous recordings of the backing track, these will not serve as absolute.)

• Gold Les Paul(5) - Vox AC30 (4), New Tweed (1)
• Starcaster (4) - Old Tweed (2), Old Small Tweed (1), Super Reverb (1)
  
• Burnt Telecaster (4) - Fender Super Reverb (3), New Small Tweed (1)
• Grey Telecaster (2) NEW- New Tweed, Fender Super Reverb
• (Candy) Apple Telecaster (2) NEW- Vox AC30, Fender Super Reverb
• Macca Les Paul (1) NEW - Mesa Boogie
• Black Telecaster (1) NEW - Fender Vibro King

"Burnt Telecaster" likely refers to his Tobacco Burst Telecaster Plus. The AC30 is probably Jonny’s Vox AC30TBX, which the Super Reverb is surely Jonny’s Silverface Fender Super Reverb which was used for a performance of Electric Counterpoint in 2013. The Mesa Boogie and Vibro King are interesting additions, and I wonder if Jonny borrowed them from Ed, much as Thom borrowed Ed’s Epiphone Casino. The "Old Tweed" and the "Old Small Tweed" may be the same amp refereed to differently, considering that both are only used with the Fender Starcaster, both are mic’d with the same mic, and that the use of "small" only occurs in the second track, in which Jonny also shortens "super reverb" to "super rev." If this is the case, the "new tweed" and"new small tweed" might well be the same amps as well. (This whole spelling discrepancy makes me wonder if the second track was recorded after the first and third, as spelling/capitalization between those is consistent).

The amps used, the number of times used, and the mics used with were as follows:
(Note that I have interpreted the “old small tweed” as Jonny’s Fender Champ 5C1, one of his favorite amps during the recording of In Rainbows.)

• Fender Super Reverb (6) - (Sennheiser MD) 421 (4) - (Beyerdynamic) M88 (2)
• Vox AC30 (5) - (Neumann U)87 (4) - (Sennheiser MD) 421 (1)
• Fender Champ 5C1 (1) - (AKG) D12
  Old Tweed (2) NEW? - (AKG) D12 
• New Tweed (2) NEW- (Beyerdynamic) M88
  New Small Tweed (1) NEW - (Sennheiser MD) 421
• Mesa Boogie (1) NEW - (Neumann U)87
• Vibro king (1) NEW- (AKG) D12 

Jonny used a Neumann U87 as a room mic for all tracks.

Jonny’s single most used setup for the tracks was the Goldtop Les Paul into Vox AC30,close mic’d and room mic’d with Neumann U87's. The fact that this “most used” setup was only used three times just goes to further show the uniqueness and specificity of the sounds that Jonny wanted for each and every guitar track.

The following is gear (excluding the mic’s, all of which are new) which is totally new for Jonny:

• Grey Telecaster
• (Candy) Apple Telecaster
• Macca Les Paul
  
• Black Telecaster
• New Tweed
• Mesa Boogie
• Vibro King

To start, I will clarify that the Les Paul used by Thom and Jonny should not be confused with Ed’s 1957 Goldtop Les Paul which was lent to him by Johnny Marr of The Smiths during the recording of In Rainbows.

The Les Paul that has been used by Jonny since the recording of In Rainbows, and which was used by Thom during In Rainbows touring, seems to have been a single late 70’s or early 80’s Gibson Les Paul Standard. The finish of this particular guitar is the one which is suspect in this case.

I have been citing the finish of that guitar as “goldtop,” but as you mention, the grain is definitely visible on that guitar under some lighting. The fact that it looks decidedly golden in certain circumstances is what made me think that it was a goldtop - I just thought that the finish was an unusually light one, one through which the grain was sometimes visible.

However, on closer comparison to actual goldtop finishes, I have realized that you are certainly correct. The guitar is a natural finish, if one with a particularly golden finish - to the point where even Jonny himself seems to call it a “gold les.”

So thank you for making me reconsider this and realize that it is indeed a natural finish guitar!

~2006

~2009.

2010.

2014.

I am not quite sure what it is, but I think that it is simply a generic one which is meant to be used for a mic stand. Likely, there’s just a bit of velcro on the bottom to hold it in place. If that isn’t what Thom’s doing, it would sure be a quick solution. Considering that these holders seem to be made of rubber, you could also just cut off the bottom part meant to hold it to a mic stand and velcro the then-flat bottom wherever you need.

Depending on if you use a pedalboard, and then the type of pedalboard used, one of Thom’s older solutions (employed from 2006 to 2010) might work for you. As you can see in the image below, Thom simply clipped one of those pick holders made for a mic stand onto his pedalboard. This specific idea may not work with your setup, but perhaps something similar will.

What you’re looking for doesn’t seem to be out there, but one way or another you should be able to adapt some existing product to suite your needs!

That definitely looks like one! Very nice catch. It seems like the “stickers” are pieces of masking tape used to mark settings.

I think that for the most part, the settings on the units are not changed during live shows. They are, do, however, seem to be activated by the members of the band (at least in Ed’s case). Ed also, for the most part, switches presets on his Korg A2 by himself, and has used many different means to do so over the years.

As you can sort of see in this extremely blurry image, Ed initially used a Korg FC6 to control his Korg A2. The FC6 is the dedicated controller for the unit. It was used until circa 1997.

I suspect that for songs such as Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong, on which one of Boss Delay rack units was likely used, the delay used on the song was kept at a single setting, and manually activated by a tech prior to the start of the song.

By the OK Computer tour, Ed had switched to using some sort of dual footswitch controller, which is the black and white unit in the photo above. This was likely used to cycle presets on the Korg A2.

I am unsure of what was used for the following years, and I suspect that a tech likely took a more prominent role in controlling the rack units.

In 2006 and 2007, Ed used a Roland FC200 to control his rackunits. This was used in conjunction with a Sound Sculpture Switchblade. The switchblade continues to be used to the present.

By 2009, he had switched to using a Voodoo Lab Commander for the purpose. You can see that the footswitches are labeled things such as “A2 5,” A2 2,” and “TC ST,” which likely respectively refer to presets on his Korg A2 and probably on a TC Electronics rack unit.

Finally, in 2012, Ed began using the Tech 21 MIDI Mouse himself to switch presets on the Korg A2, and sent his signal through the rack unit (which is therefore always active) with a footswitch on one of his bypass units.

However, it should be noted that at some point in the late 2000’s, the Korg A2 was controlled by a Tech 21 MIDI by a tech who also controlled the mixer for Ed’s setup. This seems to have been used alongside some of the other switcher units, but perhaps was preferred for live performance, whereas Ed might switch on his own during recording sessions.

The mic’s that have been used with Jonny’s AC30’s are discussed in detail under the “Vox AC30 Overview" section of his page. To answer you specifically, his main live mic is an Audio-Technica AT3060, and he has so far never used a U47 for live performance.

That’s an interest point.

Colorblindness, at least the type that Jonny has, affects one’s ability to see reds/differentiate between “reds” and “greens.”

The Tobacco Burst and Ebony Frost Telecasters would still look noticeably different to Jonny, however. While the Ebony is basically a single brownish color that becomes darker towards the edges, the Tobacco is “colored” in the center. The color is a reddish one, which Jonny “cannot” see, but he would definitely still see color there - it just wouldn’t be the same one that we see.

I have used an application called “Color Oracle" to simulate red/green colorblindness. Here are the results. All were looked at under the same filter at the same time, I just cropped them into individual photos.

The guitars definitely do look different, even to Jonny.

I am not aware of the band using any dedicated buffers. However, most of the pedals that the band uses have built in buffers - in fact, all of Jonny’s pedals (aside from his passive volume pedals) are buffered. While Ed is not using any pedals as buffers in his latest setup (as all pedals are in bypass loops), he likely just uses his Voodoo Lab Pedal Switcher’s buffered input to retain his signal’s high-end. Thom’s signal path has some true-bypass pedals, but he has several buffered ones as well. Colin’s chain too has several pedals acting as buffers (I think his Lovetone Big Cheese is the only one that isn’t buffered). In addition, when playing live, the band also uses Boss tuners at various parts of their signal chains to troubleshoot (i.e. to detect if the guitar’s signal is reaching that far), and those pedals would also serve as buffers.

That would be original Fender Wide-Range pickups into a Fender Twin Reverb. I don’t think that the Marshall JMP-1 Pre-Amp was in use at the time of the recording, and even if it was I’m not sure if it was used. A Fender Twin is really the king of bright, clear, and powerful clean tones, and the CuNiFe Wide-Range pickups would only serve to increase that effect.

You should be able to get quite similar results with the same pickups into any classic-Fender type amp (remember that Thom’s main amp for OK Computer was one of the current reissue Twin Reverb’s, not a 60’s original), so long as you set it clean, so with a Deluxe or Princeton I think that such a tone would still be achievable, just at lower volume. It might not be ~quite~ as powerful sounding, as a loud Twin Reverb, but then again if you’re not at a Festival you probably aren’t going to be setting a Twin loud enough for it to matter (also note that you don’t want the Twin/Deluxe/Princeton/etc fully cranked because you don’t want any distortion whatsoever).

If you’re on a budget you could pick up some original Wide Range pickups, stick them in a Squier or other cheap (but well playing) guitar with a little rerouting, and run them into a used Princeton. You would get something very much like Thom’s amazing tone, but for far, far less than even an original Telecaster Custom on its own would cost you.

Edit: (As davevdb in the replies mentioned) Rather than buying an original Wide Range humbucker, you could instead pick up some very good copies from Curtis Novak or Lollar. Both of their offerings sound excellent and are generally cheaper than old Fender ones. The current “Wide Range” pickups made by Fender are nothing like the originals, simply being slightly revoiced Gibson PAF style humbuckers, while the ones offered by those companies are designed to exactly replicate the originals, including the CuNiFe magnets.

Submitted by David Sade

I just re watched the In Rainbows From The Basement session, I found a new guitar at 21:53 on the rack behind Colin… It isn’t written anywhere - I can’t recognize what it is…

It’s in this video: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BhzQzyJUJTQ

Very cool find, thank you for the submissions! It looks to be a SuperStrat of some kind. The headstock looks a lot like this one from Tom Anderson Guitarworks, but that could just be coincidence. I’m going to attribute it to Ed for the moment, as it seems like a guitar that he would play, even if the rack seems to have at least one of Thom’s guitars in it? (Though it’s not unusual for them to share racks.)

Submitted by Sam

Hi, 

The pic that was just posted of Ed’s other guitar on that rack is a Fernandes sustainer guitar. It’s a backup to his Fernandes Native Pro. I can try to find some other photos on Flickr that show it with the same stringing as the Native Pro (bottom 3 strings only).

Thank you for the submission, Sam. Yes, that definitely looks like a Fernandes guitar. It looks like their Retrorocket Pro model, save that it has a maple fretboard. Perhaps it’s just an older Retrorocket.

Submitted by Sam

These pics might help a little better to clear up the Fernandes.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/19345639@N00/2610988834/sizes/o/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ozmodiar/7370986196

Thank you for the pictures! These confirm it to be a Fernandes. However, the exact model is more difficult to know, as it doesn’t seem to be part of the company’s current lineup.