@amschwartz Thank you for your reply! If you have any pictures of Ed, we would appreciate if you could either submit them to the blog, or WeTransfer them to us at thekingofgear@gmail.com
Jonny is now using his new Ondomo as his touring ondes Martenot! They replace his 80’s student model Martenot, which he used for touring in 2000 and 2016. Jonny has one Ondomo on top of his keyboard stand, and another on its own separate keyboard stand which is brought closer to Thom during How To Disappear Completely. Jonny visited Japan to pick up his first Ondomo in 2016, and had three more Ondomo delivered earlier this year.
Jonny also revamped his modular setup, which now consists of two 9U eurorack cases on their own stand, as opposed to a single 9U rack kept underneath his laptop. The patches on both 9U racks seem to be identical, so the modular on the left (unused during Idioteque) is probably just a backup in case anything goes wrong.
Jonny seems to be trying to make his setup more “modular” in the traditional sense, since his laptop setup now also has its own independent stand. Its rolling table is wheeled closer to Thom’s piano for Videotape, when Jonny plays a Max/MSP drum machine patch.
Jonny is no longer using Nigel’s Crumar Multiman-S / Orchestrator – his keyboard setup now consists exclusively of the Ondomo and his Fatar Keys SL-161. Jonny’s new keyboard stand appears to have a sliding tray for the Fatar.
Thom used Nigel’s sunburst Fender Telecaster for Burn The Witch. Nigel had previously used the guitar with Atoms for Peace in 2013.
Ed switched back to a Fender-only amp setup, after using a Fender Vibro-King Custom and a Vox AC30 on the 2016 tour. The new setup consists of two 4x12 cabinets fed by a single Fender amp head, possible a Bassman. The two cabinets are slightly angled upwards, making it easier for Ed to hear them and safer for fans at the front of the crowd.
The Ondomo is visible on the right side of the image, on top of Jonny’s keyboard stand (@xkurzx). Jonny has a BOSS TU12H taped to the top of it.
Jonny playing an ondomo when he picked up his first one in Japan (@ygrrrrr).
Jonny playing his modular during Idioteque (godieinhell2).
Thom and Jonny during a performance of Videotape (@suryaf).
Thom playing Nigel’s Telecaster on Burn The Witch (godieinhell2).
Nigel’s Telecaster being carried offstage in Fairfax, VA in 2013 – original post with photo by Gio.
Ed’s new amp head is behind and to the side of his cabinets, suggesting that he doesn’t intend to adjust its settings much (@simone007).
Some further updates:
There’s a small screen mounted on the upright piano, just beneath the camera. The screen is showing the feed from the camera, so it’s probably there so that Thom can better align his eye for You and Whose Army? (see the above picture).
Burn The Witch has been rearranged a bit, with Thom entering with guitar (Nigel’s Tele) near the start and Jonny playing their DSI Prophet ‘08 as well as guitar. Jonny plays the Prophet during the first half of second verse, and during and the second half of the second chorus (godieinhell2). Jonny had previously played his ondes Martenot during the start of the second verse and guitar for the rest of the song.
On Climbing Up The Walls, the second Ondomo and another keyboard (possibly the Prophet ‘08) are brought out to Jonny (godieinhell2). It seems like Jonny’s setup has been rearranged such that, whenever possible, he’s closer to Thom and the rest of the band.
Thom is using his 60′s Gibson SG for The Tourist. When the band last played the song in 2008, Thom played Jonny’s natural finish Gibson Less Paul (allbearsrule).
Thom at the piano during the band’s performance of All I Need in Miami (allbearsrule).
Post-Atlanta Updates:
Audio Kitchen posted a photo on Flickr identifying Ed’s amplifiers as their own. The two amps are called ‘Emcee’ and 'Burly Chassis’, each running into one of Audio Kitchen’s standard 1x12″ cabinets. Steve from Audio Kitchen informed us that Ed’s amps use the Big Chopper as their basis, but have a special reverb modification which uses amp’s second channel as a reverb return. This allows Ed to change the tone of the reverb using the second channel’s Baxandall EQ. The cabinets are fitted with Celestion Blues.
Additional photos of Ed’s setup show us that in addition to the Audio Kitchen amp heads, he is also using a Fender amp head of some kind. This is very likely being used as a spare, since Ed only has two cabinets.
Jonny is now using his Ondomo on Desert Island Disk. He initially loops a note played on the Ondomo, then spends the rest of the song adjusting the settings of a BOSS RV5 reverb. The RV5 is kept on the music stand next to the Ondomo.
During the 2016 tour, Jonny had used his keyboard Akai Headrush E2 to loop a chord played on the Crumar Orchestrator / Multiman-S. He would then manipulate the volume of the Headrush throughout the song.
Thom is also playing Nigel’s sunburst Telecaster on My Iron Lung (godieinhell2). Thom had played his ‘64 Gibson SG on the song since 2007.
On Paranoid Android,How To Disappear Completely, and The Numbers, Thom seems to have switched to using a new Martin acoustic. The new instrument is far less worn than Thom’s main Martin 000-18, which has considerable wear from strumming. The old Martin was still used to performFake Plastic Trees, however.
In 2016, Thom used his Gibson B25 for Paranoid Android and How To Disappear Completely and his old Martin for The Numbers.
Jonny adjusting a BOSS RV5 during Desert Island Disk (peterhutchins). You can also see him do so briefly in this video.
Ed’s amp setup in Atlanta (@chrisimparato). His small rack setup is is also visible to the right of the amps.
Hello there! It’s actually a two-string capo. Since the first performances in 2012, Jonny has used a Woodies G-Band Two String Partial Capo at the twelfth fret on Ful Stop. It must have been used for the studio recording as well. You can see it pretty clearly in this video. The capo allowed him write a part which would be pretty awkward otherwise.
It looks like thoms new Martin is a 000-18 and the old beat up one is a 00-18 when me and my friend who knows martins well he seemed to think there was a clear size difference between the two
Thank you for the submission! The new Martin does indeed look larger, and it definitely isn’t a Dreadnought, so a 00-18 for the old one and a 000-18 for the new makes a lot of sense. Perhaps we haven’t noticed how small Thom’s old Martin was because of his stature.
Hello! We’re aware of no instances of this happening. This is probably because the curved body of the Starcaster makes it significantly easier to bow single strings. Bowing the low E-string on a Tele is doable, but the high E-string isn’t really feasible. A Telecaster is ok if you’re bowing all of the strings at once for noisy, distorted sounds (as Jónsi sometimes does, although he mainly bows specific melodies on the low-E string – which is where Jonny undoubtedly got it from, since Radiohead asked Sigur Rós to open for them long before Jonny started bowing on Pyramid Song), but it’s really one of the worst guitars for bowing. Though, of course, it doesn’t hurt that the Starcaster has f-holes.
Hello there! Ed’s signal order for all of his pedalboards since 1992 are covered on his page. Wahs have been a constant part of his setup since 1995, and he’s always them before his distortions and delays (the importance of wahs his setup is discussed in the “starter pedalboard” article).
Placing a wah (or any kind of filter or modulation, for that matter) after distortion or delays will result in a more prominent effect. Trying it yourself is the best way to hear the different. In addition to making the effect more prominent, placing wahs or modulation after delays will cause the sweep of those effects to be heard “on top” of all of the delays – it will sound like a “mastering” effect, such as the filter sweeps often implemented by DJ’s. Placing wahs or modulation before delays will cause segments of their sweep to be repeated by those delays, resulting in a much more “diffuse” sound. This “diffuse” sound is a big part of the texture which Ed creates on live versions of Videotape, as is discussed in detail in this post.
Jonny is now using his new Ondomo as his touring ondes Martenot! They replace his 80’s student model Martenot, which he used for touring in 2000 and 2016. Jonny has one Ondomo on top of his keyboard stand, and another on its own separate keyboard stand which is brought closer to Thom during How To Disappear Completely. Jonny visited Japan to pick up his first Ondomo in 2016, and had three more Ondomo delivered earlier this year.
Jonny also revamped his modular setup, which now consists of two 9U eurorack cases on their own stand, as opposed to a single 9U rack kept underneath his laptop. The patches on both 9U racks seem to be identical, so the modular on the left (unused during Idioteque) is probably just a backup in case anything goes wrong.
Jonny seems to be trying to make his setup more “modular” in the traditional sense, since his laptop setup now also has its own independent stand. Its rolling table is wheeled closer to Thom’s piano for Videotape, when Jonny plays a Max/MSP drum machine patch.
Jonny is no longer using Nigel’s Crumar Multiman-S / Orchestrator – his keyboard setup now consists exclusively of the Ondomo and his Fatar Keys SL-161. Jonny’s new keyboard stand appears to have a sliding tray for the Fatar.
Thom used Nigel’s sunburst Fender Telecaster for Burn The Witch. Nigel had previously used the guitar with Atoms for Peace in 2013.
Ed switched back to a Fender-only amp setup, after using a Fender Vibro-King Custom and a Vox AC30 on the 2016 tour. The new setup consists of two 4x12 cabinets fed by a single Fender amp head, possible a Bassman. The two cabinets are slightly angled upwards, making it easier for Ed to hear them and safer for fans at the front of the crowd.
The Ondomo is visible on the right side of the image, on top of Jonny’s keyboard stand (@xkurzx). Jonny has a BOSS TU12H taped to the top of it.
Jonny playing an ondomo when he picked up his first one in Japan (@ygrrrrr).
Jonny playing his modular during Idioteque (godieinhell2).
Thom and Jonny during a performance of Videotape (@suryaf).
Thom playing Nigel’s Telecaster on Burn The Witch (godieinhell2).
Nigel’s Telecaster being carried offstage in Fairfax, VA in 2013 – original post with photo by Gio.
Ed’s new amp head is behind and to the side of his cabinets, suggesting that he doesn’t intend to adjust its settings much (@simone007).
Some further updates:
There’s a small screen mounted on the upright piano, just beneath the camera. The screen is showing the feed from the camera, so it’s probably there so that Thom can better align his eye for You and Whose Army? (see the above picture).
Burn The Witch has been rearranged a bit, with Thom entering with guitar (Nigel’s Tele) near the start and Jonny playing their DSI Prophet ‘08 as well as guitar. Jonny plays the Prophet during the first half of second verse, and during and the second half of the second chorus (godieinhell2). Jonny had previously played his ondes Martenot during the start of the second verse and guitar for the rest of the song.
On Climbing Up The Walls, the second Ondomo and another keyboard (possibly the Prophet ‘08) are brought out to Jonny (godieinhell2). It seems like Jonny’s setup has been rearranged such that, whenever possible, he’s closer to Thom and the rest of the band.
Thom is using his 60′s Gibson SG for The Tourist. When the band last played the song in 2008, Thom played Jonny’s natural finish Gibson Less Paul (allbearsrule).
Thom at the piano during the band’s performance of All I Need in Miami (allbearsrule).
Post-Atlanta Updates:
Audio Kitchen posted a photo on Flickr identifying Ed’s amplifiers as their own. The two amps are called ‘Emcee’ and ‘Burly Chassis’, each running into one of Audio Kitchen’s standard 1x12″ cabinets. Steve from Audio Kitchen informed us that Ed’s amps use the Big Chopper as their basis, but have a special reverb modification which uses amp’s second channel as a reverb return. This allows Ed to change the tone of the reverb using the second channel’s Baxandall EQ. The cabinets are fitted with Celestion Blues.
Additional photos of Ed’s setup show us that in addition to the Audio Kitchen amp heads, he is also using a Fender amp head of some kind. This is very likely being used as a spare, since Ed only has two cabinets.
Jonny is now using his Ondomo on Desert Island Disk. He initially loops a note played on the Ondomo, then spends the rest of the song adjusting the settings of a BOSS RV5 reverb. The RV5 is kept on the music stand next to the Ondomo.
During the 2016 tour, Jonny had used his keyboard Akai Headrush E2 to loop a chord played on the Crumar Orchestrator / Multiman-S. He would then manipulate the volume of the Headrush throughout the song.
Thom is also playing Nigel’s sunburst Telecaster on My Iron Lung (godieinhell2). Thom had played his ‘64 Gibson SG on the song since 2007.
On Paranoid Android,How To Disappear Completely, and The Numbers, Thom seems to have switched to using a new Martin acoustic. The new instrument is far less worn than Thom’s main Martin 000-18, which has considerable wear from strumming. The old Martin was still used to performFake Plastic Trees, however.
In 2016, Thom used his Gibson B25 for Paranoid Android and How To Disappear Completely and his old Martin for The Numbers.
Jonny adjusting a BOSS RV5 during Desert Island Disk (peterhutchins). You can also see him do so briefly in this video.
Ed’s amp setup in Atlanta (@chrisimparato). His small rack setup is is also visible to the right of the amps.
Post-Missouri Updates
The band played Where I End and You Begin for the first time since 2008! The arrangement is similar to the 2008 From The Basement version, but Clive Deamer provides added percussion throughout. Additionally, Ed and Jonny both play different instruments than they had previously.
Ed used his Custom Fender Stratocaster’s Sustainer System instead of his Epiphone Casino and EBow. Ed is still using his EBow for My Iron Lung and Nude.
Jonny used his Ondomo instead of his Analogue Systems French Connection (and The Apprentice Cabinet), and the band’s DSI Prophet ‘08 instead of a sampled synth triggered by his Fatar CMS-161. Jonny has also started also using the Prophet ‘08 on Climbing Up The Walls and Myxomatosis. He had used his CMS-161 for synth samples on both songs prior to the 2016 tour, when he had used his Crumar Orchestrator / Multiman-S.
Jonny used his “production” finish Ondomo during Radiohead’s concert in Kansas City. The “production“ finish Ondomo was kept on top of his main keyboard stand, and was to play Airbag. One of his two “JGreen Brown” finish Ondomos served as his primary ondes Musicales for the concert.
Thom is using only three acoustic guitars for this year’s tour: his new Martin 000-18, his old Martin 00-18 (which was used heavily on A Moon Shaped Pool), and his Gibson B25. It seems that his Gibson Hummingbird, which was used for Climbing Up The Walls in 2016, is no longer a part of his live setup.
On Lucky, Ed is using a new Fender Stratocaster, and Thom is using his Gibson SG.
Ed’s new Fender Strat is black with a black pickguard, a maple fingerboard, and three Gold Lace Sensor pickups. It may be the Eric Clapton Signature Strat which he first used in 2012, but with the original white pickguard swapped out for a black one. This would be unsurprising, given that Ed swapped out the white pickguard on his original Clapton Strat (which after circa-2002 modifications became his “Sustainer” Strat) for a black one.
Prior to the SG, Thom had used various Epihphone Casinos for the song starting in 2009, when he stopped bringing his Rickenbacker 330 on tour.
Aside from the new Strat, Ed mostly using the same guitars as last year: he’s using his Custom Fender Stratocaster for most songs, his Rickenbacker 360′s for most songs off of OK Computer, his Gibson ES-335 for some of In Rainbows (Nude and Videotape), and his Gretsch Panther for everything else.
The Panther replaced Ed’s ES-335 for Bodysnatchers in 2016, and this year it also replaces the Gibson for House of Cards.
Where I End and You Begin in Kansas City – Jonny can be seen on the left playing the DSI Prophet ‘08 (serfi).
Jonny is now using his new Ondomo as his touring ondes Martenot! They replace his 80’s student model Martenot, which he used for touring in 2000 and 2016. Jonny has one Ondomo on top of his keyboard stand, and another on its own separate keyboard stand which is brought closer to Thom during How To Disappear Completely. Jonny visited Japan to pick up his first Ondomo in 2016, and had three more Ondomo delivered earlier this year.
Jonny also revamped his modular setup, which now consists of two 9U eurorack cases on their own stand, as opposed to a single 9U rack kept underneath his laptop. The patches on both 9U racks seem to be identical, so the modular on the left (unused during Idioteque) is probably just a backup in case anything goes wrong.
Jonny seems to be trying to make his setup more “modular” in the traditional sense, since his laptop setup now also has its own independent stand. Its rolling table is wheeled closer to Thom’s piano for Videotape, when Jonny plays a Max/MSP drum machine patch.
Jonny is no longer using Nigel’s Crumar Multiman-S / Orchestrator – his keyboard setup now consists exclusively of the Ondomo and his Fatar Keys SL-161. Jonny’s new keyboard stand appears to have a sliding tray for the Fatar.
Thom used Nigel’s sunburst Fender Telecaster for Burn The Witch. Nigel had previously used the guitar with Atoms for Peace in 2013.
Ed switched back to a Fender-only amp setup, after using a Fender Vibro-King Custom and a Vox AC30 on the 2016 tour. The new setup consists of two 4x12 cabinets fed by a single Fender amp head, possible a Bassman. The two cabinets are slightly angled upwards, making it easier for Ed to hear them and safer for fans at the front of the crowd.
The Ondomo is visible on the right side of the image, on top of Jonny’s keyboard stand (@xkurzx). Jonny has a BOSS TU12H taped to the top of it.
Jonny playing an ondomo when he picked up his first one in Japan (@ygrrrrr).
Jonny playing his modular during Idioteque (godieinhell2).
Thom and Jonny during a performance of Videotape (@suryaf).
Thom playing Nigel’s Telecaster on Burn The Witch (godieinhell2).
Nigel’s Telecaster being carried offstage in Fairfax, VA in 2013 – original post with photo by Gio.
Ed’s new amp head is behind and to the side of his cabinets, suggesting that he doesn’t intend to adjust its settings much (@simone007).
Some further updates:
There’s a small screen mounted on the upright piano, just beneath the camera. The screen is showing the feed from the camera, so it’s probably there so that Thom can better align his eye for You and Whose Army? (see the above picture).
Burn The Witch has been rearranged a bit, with Thom entering with guitar (Nigel’s Tele) near the start and Jonny playing their DSI Prophet ‘08 as well as guitar. Jonny plays the Prophet during the first half of second verse, and during and the second half of the second chorus (godieinhell2). Jonny had previously played his ondes Martenot during the start of the second verse and guitar for the rest of the song.
On Climbing Up The Walls, the second Ondomo and another keyboard (possibly the Prophet ‘08) are brought out to Jonny (godieinhell2). It seems like Jonny’s setup has been rearranged such that, whenever possible, he’s closer to Thom and the rest of the band.
Thom is using his 60′s Gibson SG for The Tourist. When the band last played the song in 2008, Thom played Jonny’s natural finish Gibson Less Paul (allbearsrule).
Thom at the piano during the band’s performance of All I Need in Miami (allbearsrule).
Post-Atlanta Updates:
Audio Kitchen posted a photo on Flickr identifying Ed’s amplifiers as their own. The two amps are called ‘Emcee’ and ‘Burly Chassis’, each running into one of Audio Kitchen’s standard 1x12″ cabinets. Steve from Audio Kitchen informed us that Ed’s amps use the Big Chopper as their basis, but have a special reverb modification which uses amp’s second channel as a reverb return. This allows Ed to change the tone of the reverb using the second channel’s Baxandall EQ. The cabinets are fitted with Celestion Blues.
Additional photos of Ed’s setup show us that in addition to the Audio Kitchen amp heads, he is also using a Fender amp head of some kind. This is very likely being used as a spare, since Ed only has two cabinets.
Jonny is now using his Ondomo on Desert Island Disk. He initially loops a note played on the Ondomo, then spends the rest of the song adjusting the settings of a BOSS RV5 reverb. The RV5 is kept on the music stand next to the Ondomo.
During the 2016 tour, Jonny had used his keyboard Akai Headrush E2 to loop a chord played on the Crumar Orchestrator / Multiman-S. He would then manipulate the volume of the Headrush throughout the song.
Thom is also playing Nigel’s sunburst Telecaster on My Iron Lung (godieinhell2). Thom had played his ‘64 Gibson SG on the song since 2007.
On Paranoid Android,How To Disappear Completely, and The Numbers, Thom seems to have switched to using a new Martin acoustic. The new instrument is far less worn than Thom’s main Martin 000-18, which has considerable wear from strumming. The old Martin was still used to performFake Plastic Trees, however.
In 2016, Thom used his Gibson B25 for Paranoid Android and How To Disappear Completely and his old Martin for The Numbers.
Jonny adjusting a BOSS RV5 during Desert Island Disk (peterhutchins). You can also see him do so briefly in this video.
Ed’s amp setup in Atlanta (@chrisimparato). His small rack setup is is also visible to the right of the amps.
Post-Missouri Updates:
The band played Where I End and You Begin for the first time since 2008! The arrangement is similar to the 2008 From The Basement version, but Clive Deamer provides added percussion throughout. Additionally, Ed and Jonny both play different instruments than they had previously.
Ed used his Custom Fender Stratocaster’s Sustainer System instead of his Epiphone Casino and EBow. Ed is still using his EBow for My Iron Lung and Nude.
Jonny used his Ondomo instead of his Analogue Systems French Connection (and The Apprentice Cabinet), and the band’s DSI Prophet ‘08 instead of a sampled synth triggered by his Fatar CMS-161. Jonny has also started also using the Prophet ‘08 on Climbing Up The Walls and Myxomatosis. He had used his CMS-161 for synth samples on both songs prior to the 2016 tour, when he had used his Crumar Orchestrator / Multiman-S.
Jonny used his “production” finish Ondomo during Radiohead’s concert in Kansas City. The “production“ finish Ondomo was kept on top of his main keyboard stand, and was to play Airbag. One of his two “JGreen Brown” finish Ondomos served as his primary ondes Musicales for the concert.
Thom is using only three acoustic guitars for this year’s tour: his new Martin 000-18, his old Martin 00-18 (which was used heavily on A Moon Shaped Pool), and his Gibson B25. It seems that his Gibson Hummingbird, which was used for Climbing Up The Walls in 2016, is no longer a part of his live setup.
On Lucky, Ed is using a new Fender Stratocaster, and Thom is using his Gibson SG.
Ed’s new Fender Strat is black with a black pickguard, a maple fingerboard, and three Gold Lace Sensor pickups. It may be the Eric Clapton Signature Strat which he first used in 2012, but with the original white pickguard swapped out for a black one. This would be unsurprising, given that Ed swapped out the white pickguard on his original Clapton Strat (which after circa-2002 modifications became his “Sustainer” Strat) for a black one.
Prior to the SG, Thom had used various Epihphone Casinos for the song starting in 2009, when he stopped bringing his Rickenbacker 330 on tour.
Aside from the new Strat, Ed mostly using the same guitars as last year: he’s using his Custom Fender Stratocaster for most songs, his Rickenbacker 360′s for most songs off of OK Computer, his Gibson ES-335 for some of In Rainbows (Nude and Videotape), and his Gretsch Panther for everything else.
The Panther replaced Ed’s ES-335 for Bodysnatchers in 2016, and this year it also replaces the Gibson for House of Cards.
Where I End and You Begin in Kansas City – Jonny can be seen on the left playing the DSI Prophet ‘08 (serfi).
Ed with his new Strat during the band’s performance of Lucky in New Orleans, 2017.04.03 (@ephemerette).
Jonny performing Lucky in Kansas City, 2017.04.05 (serfi). His “production” finish Ondomo can be seen on the right.
Post-Portland Updates:
The latest picture posted on DeadAirSpace gives us a very good picture of Thom’s pedalboards. It confirms that he is now using BOSS RE-20′s on both his vocal and his guitar boards. The board is very similar to that used on the latter half of the 2016 tour, except that he replaced both of his Strymon Timeline’s with BOSS RE-20′s, and replaced his BOSS FV-500L with a BOSS FV-30 (the BOSS volume pedals are used as expression pedals).
Thom had previously used a BOSS RE-20 as part of his guitar pedalboard with Atoms For Peace in 2013.
Board 1 (Electric): BOSS TU-3, Telenordia Treble Booster, Telenordia Kompressor, Crowther Hotcake, Line 6 DL4, BOSS RE-20, EHX Holy Grail NANO No1, EHX Holy Grail NANO No2,
Board 2 (Vocals / Acoustic): BOSS RE-20, Akai Headrush E2, BOSS FV-30 (expression pedal) The white pedal on board 2 is an A/B box built by Plank. It selects between two signal paths (clean and distorted) for Thom’s acoustics.
As pictures from the 2016 tour suggested, Thom seems to have ceased using a third pedalboard, which used to be kept near his amplifiers.
Phil and Clive are using different Gretsch drum kits on this tour. Their base drum kits were very similar in 2012 and in 2016, although each used different snares, electronics, etc. This year, Clive is using a Gretsch Broadkaster drum kit with an Silver Oyster Pearl finish, whereas Phil is using the same Silver Sparkle drum kit which he used in 2016.
It looks like Jonny is actually adjusting a BOSS GE-7, rather than a BOSS RV-5, during performances of Desert Island Disk– although we’ll need better images to confirm. Jonny has starting playing ondomo with it facing the audience, so we may get those images soon. Jonny also seems to have a BOSS GE-7 at the back of his main keyboard stand.
Radiohead played These Are My Twisted Words for the first time since 2012! Clive joined them for the song in 2012, adding a shaker for most of the song and adding additional during the final section. This year’s arrangement is identical.
Ed is now using his Custom Fender Stratocaster for the song – in 2012, Ed had played his then-new “Aged White Blonde” Fender Telecaster.
They also played Glass Eyes in Portland! It’s arrangement was identical to that for shows in 2016, with only Thom, Jonny, and Colin playing.
A close-up of Thom’s pedalboard from the photo recently posted on DeadAirSpace.
Jonny’s primary keyboard stand during the band’s gig in Miami, 2017.03.30. A BOSS GE-7 can be seen on top of one of his DI boxes, identifiable by the small white slider cap visible above the input jack. The fact that this GE-7 is kept at the back of his keyboard stand suggests that has an always-on EQ for his ondes.
Clive playing during the band’s Seattle gig, 2017.04.08 (kexp).
Thom with his new Martin 000-18, showing that the new instrument is already a little scratched up.
Jonny’s primary guitar is a Fender Telecaster Plus V1 which was purchased in October 1995, after the band’s gear was stolen in Denver on Oct 03.
Jonny playing his Tele1 at Coachella, 2017.04.14.
While you are correct that most Fender Telecaster Plus V1 guitars (those produced 1989-1994) have the serial number on front of the headstock, the Telecaster Plus’s headstock was redesigned in 1995 along with the rest of the Fender range for the company’s fiftieth anniversary year. Telecaster Plus V1′s produced in 1995 have their serial number on the back of the headstock. Fender redesigned the Telecaster Plus in 1995, changing the pickup configuration, but V1 Plus guitars were shipped out throughout that year. It’s likely that Fender produced the V1 until they had used up all of the parts specific to the guitar. If you check ebay or reverb, you can find several Tele Plus V1 guitars from 1995 which feature the 1995 headstock design.
Jonny’s current Telecaster Plus No.1 is from 1995, purchased right after the gear theft. You can’t see the fiftieth anniversary decal on the back of Jonny’s headstock due to the small menorah sticker which he placed over it.
Jonny playing his Tele1 during the The Numbers music video. One can lightly make out the quotes around the word “Telecaster” on the face of the headstock, which were introduced to all Fender Telecasters in 1995.
Additionally, the Tobacco Burst finish of Jonny’s Telecaster Plus was never offered for American Standard Telecasters. The most similar finishes offered for American Standard Telecasters were “Brown Sunburst” and “Sunburst”. An example of a American Standard Telecaster in a “Brown Sunburst” finish is Jonny’s Tele2, which was converted to Tele Plus specs.
Radiohead sometimes use a click, but only judiciously.
They almost never do in live performance. In Radiohead’s early days (Pablo Honey, The Bends), they really considered themselves to be primarily a live band, and that has carried through to this day in how they perform (if not in how they make records). Phil has an extremely good sense of time, so as long as he’s playing then there’s little need for a click.
The only case of click use that I’m aware of is Little By Little on the 2012 tour. The band had a lot of trouble playing that song, and haven’t played it since part-way through the 2012 tour. The studio recording relied really heavily on complex layers of loops, and Radiohead had only recently started playing with a second drummer, so it’s no surprise that they had so much difficulty adapting it for live performance.
In the studio, Radiohead have occasionally used clicks. Their songs would suffer if clicks were used for the whole track, but there are cases (such as establishing the tempo when re-recording a chorus or verse) where a click can make the process a lot easier. I can’t find the source now, but Nigel once mentioned that he would sometimes use a click for the first couple of measures to establish the starting tempo, then turn it off.
Photos from Radiohead’s recent gig in Santa Barbara have provided some interesting information about Jonny’s pedals setup for this year’s tour.
One photo, taken backstage at the show, reveals the top of Jonny’s Ondomo keyboard stand. Next to his JGreen Brown Ondomo No.1 are two pedals, a BOSS GE-7 and a BOSS RV-5. This definitively confirms that Jonny is adjusting a BOSS GE-7 during performances of Desert Island Disk. The keyboard also has a lower platform on which Jonny keeps an Akai Headrush E2 and a volume pedal. He also has a BOSS Tuner on top of the Ondomo, which helps him ensure that he’s in tune while playing.
Jonny’s primary Ondomo in Santa Barbara, 2017.04.11 (instagram).
Another photo, taken during Radiohead’s performance of Like Spinning Plates shows a few details of Jonny’s guitar pedalboard.
A small but notable change is that Jonny switched from his old Demeter “The Tremulator” to a standard Demeter Tremulator. The black fluted knobs and white footswitch washer are both traits of the current production Tremulator, and one can just about make out the circular green sticker on the right side of the pedal. Jonny switched from his Digitech Whammy WH1 to a more modern Whammy WH4 in 2012 – possibly because the heavily used, 15-year old WH1 had stopped working – and in the past has switched out much of his rig for modern variants (Small Stone V4, RE20, RV5), so it isn’t too surprising that he switched to the contemporary version of the Tremulator as well.
Jonny’s new Demeter Tremulator, with a stock photo of the pedal for comparison.
The picture also gives us a view of Jonny’s BOSS RV-5 settings. The slight angle of the knobs shows that Jonny is using the “plate” mode in this photo, with the E.Level, Tone, and Time knobs all set to the center position. This is in contrast to the dark-sounding “plate” reverb for which Jonny often set his RV-3. Live recordings from 2016 seemed to indicate that Jonny was using the RV-5′s “spring” mode for Decks Dark and Identikit. He may still be using the spring mode for Identikit, but uses the plate mode for older songs, such as Subterranean Homesick Alien (played directly after Like Spinning Plates, during which the photo was taken). It’s also possible that he now uses the plate setting for Identikit as well.
Jonny’s BOSS RV-5 settings.
This photo of Jonny, also taken during Like Spinning Plates, shows that he is using a BOSS FV-300H as his guitar volume pedal for this year’s tour. It is shown to be the ‘H’ model by the white cap on the “minimum volume” knob.
Hello! It’s difficult to tell what you’re referring to your question, so I’ll give you two answers.
My first guess is that you mean a Tremolo effect. Tremolo cyclically varies the amplitude of a signal, making the guitar’s sound pulsate. It can be set for an intense, choppy sound, or just to add some movement. Ed more often uses tremolo in the second way. Ed and Jonny are both tremolo users, but it is Ed who plays the tremolo guitar parts on You and Big Boots (excluding the 1994 acoustic performance of You, when Jonny uses tremolo to play Ed’s introductory riff). Ed also plays the tremolo rhythm guitar on Creep, but his most forward use of tremolo is probably the square-wave trem on Planet Telex. Jonny uses tremolo less often than Ed, but he uses it in a very cool way Bones. Ed has used a range of tremolo pedals of the years, as well as amp and rack tremolos, while Jonny has used a Demeter tremolo pedal since the early 90’s.
My second guess would be a high-gain distortion effect. A distortion pedal clips the guitar’s signal, allowing it to sustain much longer in addition to adding a lot of harmonic content (so it sounds thicker/richer). Jonny uses a Marshall Shredmaster for high gain distortion, but there are a huge number of Marshall-emulating distortion pedals available.
On Microtonal Shaker, Jonny only uses his Laptop for guitar-processing. The Max patch notably differs from that used with Radiohead in that the stuttering fragments are all of a similar length. Likely, he picked only one or a few buffer lengths which suited the tempo of the piece. The randomness in this patch is primarily in when it is active, in contrast to his main stutter patch in which the length of the sampled fragment is also randomized.
Additionally, if you listen to this video at 2:57, you can hear that a stored fragment is briefly played back at double speed, causing it to sound an octave higher. In Max, it’s very easy to play back stored audio at different speeds, but Jonny’s stutter patches had never previously done so. The patch used on Microtonal Shaker is clearly set up to offer several parameters to adjust, further distinguishing it from his main patch which is optimized for hands-free performances. It’s unlikely that Jonny is modifying the patch directly (rather than adjusting sliders, etc) since he is only using one hand.
For performances with the LCO, Jonny also uses his Laptop and Focusrite 2i4 to play back high-quality audio of his backing track (via Pro Tools) on Electric Counterpoint.
Jonny during the Moscow performance of Microtonal Shaker, 2015.10.15 (noise_jam).
Hello! The Focusrite Scarlett series is the best in that price range for clean, good-quality audio – especially since they got an upgrade last year. Either the 2i2 or 2i4. As mentioned in the previous post, Jonny uses the 2i4 when he performs with the LCO. The PreSonus AudioBox USB interfaces are also good quality, and have a bit of a colored sound. However, even if you like the colored sound, you may not want it on every recording, so Focusrite is the safer option if it will be your only interface.
I really wouldn’t look elsewhere, except maybe at the Roland Rubix series. I haven’t tried the Roland, but basically all of their products are at least serviceable and certainly road-worthy, so it’s hard to go wrong with them.
Hello there! Jonny uses his Headrush as a looper, not a delay, on 15 Step. That is an old mistake on his page which had gone unnoticed, so thank you for pointing it out! I discuss Jonny’s use of the Headrush and the pedal’s strengths as a looper in this post.
During the September-October 2006 recording sessions for In Rainbows at Tottenham House, Jonny had a small setup in the “Green Room” consisting only of his Gretsch, Nigel’s Orpheum Amp, and an Akai Headrush E1. Most of the band’s standard gear, including Jonny’s main pedalboard, was set up in the “Banquetting Hall” of the house.
On 15 Step, Jonny uses his Akai Headrush to capture a loop of his main riff (the one which he starts to play after Thom sings “then you cut the string”). He records the loop on last repeat of that section (when as Thom sings “did your string come undone”) He stops recording and starts playback of the loop on the downbeat of the next section (when Thom sings “one by one”), and restarts the loop every two measures, which playing a new riff over it. If you watch the From The Basementperformance from 1:20-1:42, you can see him repeatedly lift his right foot to hit the footswitches on the Headrush (it’s on a riser near at back of his board). The double taps visible at 1:22, 1:29, 1:35 are when he quickly stops and restarts the loop to ensure that it’s in sync for the next two measures. Jonny records and plays back a loop of the main riff in an identical manner again after the brief break section (1:42-2:00). The volume of the Headrush is probably set somewhere around 12 o’clock, since the loop is much quieter than the new riff.
Jonny pedals for his Manchester performances with the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists, 2014.10.10 (source). BOSS TU3 -> EHX Freeze -> BOSS OD3 -> Akai Headrush E2 -> Ernie Ball VP Jr
However, you should also take Jonny’s comment to Bob Boilen with a grain of salt. Jonny certainly loves the sound of Roland Space Echo’s, and has used RE-201′s or RE-20′s for practically all of his delay sounds since the 90′s, but that doesn’t mean that he’s never used another delay. Rather, he was trying to make the point that he likes to focus on getting interesting sounds out of individual pedals, rather than by combining them. This shift in his use of pedals started around the time of Hail To The Thief, when Jonny tried to write totally clean guitar parts. He didn’t quite succeed, but all of his playing since has shown a much more deliberate use of effects – contrasting sharply with his heavy use of them on OK Computer in particular.
Hello there! A USB footswitch should work perfectly with your Max patches. Just note that a USB footswitch is essentially a single-key keyboard – there is no MIDI is involved. As such, you will be using the “key” object, configured to listen to whichever key your footswitch spits out.
If DIY is an option for you, it’s also worth mentioning that you can build a true MIDI footswitch to your own specifications and without much difficulty by using a Teensy USB Development Board. The board is tiny, so you could throw a few footswitches in a single 125B or 1590B pedal enclosure. That would be a lot more durable than the plastic USB footswitches. You can even wire up a jack for an expression pedal.
Hello! It looks to be a simple box for a 9V battery with a switch, such as this one (note: I have not tried this particular product). Given that Thom only uses the Alesis Q25 for a few minutes at each gig, a single 9V battery in one of those boxes will last a long time.
Thom playing the Q25 in Atlanta, Georgia, 2017.04.01 (flagpole). In this picture, the small power switch on the battery box is visible.
Since 2012, Radiohead have primarily used the monophonic Moog Voyager PE for synth bass and the polyphonic DSI Prophet ‘08 for pads and chords. The smooth filter and monophony of the Moog make it excel at bass sounds, which is why Jonny originally used a vintage MiniMoog Model D for Radiohead’s 2011 performances.
In this photo, taken in Studios La Fabrique’s “Control Room” during the recording of A Moon Shaped Pool, the band’s DSI Prophet ‘08 and Moog Voyager PE are visible on the table behind them, alongside a Roland Juno-60 and Nigel’s Sequential Circuits Prophet 5.
Hello! That sound is a combination of a Digitech Whammy WH5 and a BOSS DD5. To clarify, the particular performance is Paranoid Android at Coachella 2017.
Ed’s pedalboard for Radiohead’s 2016 tour, from one of their 2016 performances in Paris (danielthegigrig). The Whammy V and DD5 are both on the main pedalboard (the one on the left).
The Whammy V is set for an single octave shift, enabling Ed to play the his high guitar part during both of the “What’s that?” sections. Ed originally used a Digitech Whammy II to play the part on OK Computer, and used a Whammy IV for many years before switching to the V.
Though low quality, this picture of Ed’s pedalboard for Radiohead’s 1997 tour shows both his Digitech Whammy II (on the left board) and BOSS DD5 (on the right board).
The delay sound is clean, and the repeats don’t darken, making Ed’s DD5 the most likely candidate. The feedback on the DD5 is set to max, meaning the delay will repeat infinitely (the DD5 doesn’t oscillate), which is why the delay never gets quieter. When Ed bypasses the DD5 at 2:08, it cuts out immediately – we don’t hear any trails. This means that Ed bypassed it via his TheGigRig G2. After bypassing the pedal, Ed leans down at 2:14 to adjust the DD5 for a non-infinite setting with a much shorter delay time. The new setting used on this particular performance has more repeats than that heard on the album recording of Paranoid Android (on which he almost certainly used a DD5), probably to compensate for extra layers of instruments which are by necessity absent in performance.
Ed adjusting his BOSS DD-5 at the start of Exit Music (for a film) in Lyon, 2016.06.01 (youtube).
It’s worth noting that the “trails” on the DD5 are a bit different than on most delays. When the pedal is bypassed, it quickly fades out the delay sound regardless of where the feedback knob is set. As such, you can get some brief trails even when its set for infinite feedback. Compare this to the BOSS DD7, which will continue to repeat forever if it’s bypassed when set for infinite feedback, or a BOSS RE20, which will can be used as an oscillating sound source even when bypassed (so long as you feed it a little signal before bypassing it).
