Adam Clayton (U2) with a reversed Stryker/Explorer style bass.

[Nocturnal]

all at the same time...?

Yep. He wanted to take the Rick Nielson approach!

[Chris P.]

Yep! Playing with hands, feet and teeth. The guy is a genius!

[Chris P.]

Hadn't seen this one before: Clayton with white Hobbit!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/u2soul/3720673411/

And a good look on the Stryker:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/u2soul/3720355841/

[gearHed289]

That looks pretty good!

[nofi]

ya' know U2 could really benefit with a bass player. i have never heard a major band where the bass was such a non entity. your results will most certainly vary.

[gearHed289]

ya' know U2 could really benefit with a bass player. i have never heard a major band where the bass was such a non entity. your results will most certainly vary.

Does every mention of U2 have to end up with someone ripping on Adam Clayton? Have you heard the songs New Years Day or Two Hearts Beat as One? Have you heard the latest record? And for that matter, have you heard the bands AC/DC or Judas Priest? Jeez.... 

[Hornisse]

I remember when I Will Follow came out.  Loved that bass line.  He was using one of those cool Ibanez Musician basses that made me drool back then.

[uwe]

Does every mention of U2 have to end up with someone ripping on Adam Clayton? Have you heard the songs New Years Day or Two Hearts Beat as One? Have you heard the latest record? And for that matter, have you heard the bands AC/DC or Judas Priest? Jeez....  

I don't think Clayton is a bad player though the mix on many U 2 albums is unkind to him. He plays more than root note drone on the new album, true. Why he gets so much stick is that U 2's music leaves so much room for a bass to do something other than the obvious - that is where the difference to Priest (where Hill has dumbed down his playing over the decades) or AC/DC (Williams was a melodic bass player with Home and, yes, Al Stewart (!), again he dumbed down for AC/DC) comes in, these are bands dominated by crunching guitar riffs with rhythm guitars always present. Even a metal bass player like Steve Harris would make Priest or AC/DC sound radically different for the mere fact of being the busier player.

So, with all due respect to Herr Clayton and his eclectic choice in basses, just imagine if Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order) was playing on those songs with that spheric Edge guitar. I don't think U 2 would be a lot less commercial, but sometimes a tad more interesting.

[gearHed289]

just imagine if Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order) was playing on those songs with that spheric Edge guitar. I don't think U 2 would be a lot less commercial, but sometimes a tad more interesting.

OK, that would be cool!

[leftybass]

OK, that would be cool!

I might listen to that!

[Highlander]

Sometimes it's not the notes you play, but those you don't, that make it work... sometimes less is more... 

[uwe]

Sometimes less is more and can have huge dramatic impact. But Herr Clayton is no John McCoy I fear when it comes down to making one note throughout sound dramatic. When Clayton stays simple, he doesn't hang on to one note while The Edge changes chords, but pretty much follows him around wherever he goes. Might alienate the girlie audience if you sound too dark and dramatic ...  

Being simple doesn't mean you can't make a forceful - hey, I want to be heard! - musical statement as these two tracks show:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9DTD80HeQ4&feature=related


I don't really think that Herr Clayton thinks in the terms of "forceful musical statements" as regards his bass playing.   Not that it harmed U2 any, but The Beatles would have probably done reasonably well too if McCartney's bass playing had not been as brilliant as it was, still most of us are grateful that it was him and not Ringo playing bass.

Granted, U2 is not Gillan and perhaps that type of attention-grabbing minimalist bass playing wouldn't fit with them. But if you look at New Order here, Hook isn't playing rocket science, but it is a musical statement:

[Chris P.]

I love Hooky and his bass lines!

[clankenstein]

nice.whats the bass hes playing?

[Chris P.]

Hooky started with a Rickenbacker as first real bass, after an EB0 copy. Then some Shergolds. Well, let's copy paste Wiki!

Gibson EB-0 copy - Hook's first bass, bought at Mazel's Music Shop in Manchester in 1976 and used live with Warsaw 1977 (there are photos of him playing it at a 1977 gig at Rafters, Manchester) and on the 18/7/77 Warsaw demos.[citation needed]
Hondo Rickenbacker 4001 bass copy - Used on Joy Division's 1978-1980 recordings and used live with Joy Division 1978-1980.[citation needed]In an interview in Bass Guitar Magazine, he revealed that was given away to a child for a charity sale "He [the child] didn't even use my name! He just thought it was a bass guitar like any other. Nowadays that'd be worth what, nine or ten grand?"
Yamaha BB1200 - Basically a neck-through, active version of a Fender Precision Bass with the pickup installed in a reverse configuration to a Fender P bass.[citation needed] Used on Joy Division's Closer LP and every New Order album.[citation needed]
Shergold Marathon six-string bass - Has a 30" scale putting it between normal bass (34") and guitar (around 25").[citation needed]
Eccleshall bass - Based on a Guild Starfire Bass, main live bass.[citation needed] He wanted a hollow body with Yamaha electronics, so Chris Eccleshall took the active electronics from a BB1200 and built a full-scale neck-through bass with 24 frets.[citation needed] Subsequent versions of the bass have been produced using custom circuitry designed by a Japanese student visiting Chris Eccleshall, a custom circuit was needed as Yamaha stopped producing the BB1200 preamp. He is currently awaiting a fourth incarnation of the Eccleshall bass. All are designed to be as nearly identical as possible.

So it's a fake Ricky. Nowadays he plays the Eccleshall, but he's Warwick endorsee too.

Amps:

The main equipment he used used during the early days of New Order was an Alembic F-2B preamp/ Roland rack unit/Crown-Amcron DC-300A power amp fed through two large custom built 2 x 15 Gauss loaded flightcase cabinets. In the earlier days of Joy Division, he used a Hiwatt Custom 100 Watt head on top of a 4x15 Gauss loaded Marshall cabinet. He has also used an Ampeg SVT rig, and has expressed interest in Ashdown amplification.

For the most part, his distinctive tone comes from the use of a chorus pedal, an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory. This has recently been reissued by Electro-Harmonix, and whilst having the same circuitry as the original is said by many not to be as exciting as the original 1970s ones.[who?]

With Revenge and Monaco, he updated an Ampeg SVT, which is used at maximum volume when playing live.[1] [2]

In the May/June 2008 issue of Bass Guitar Magazine he was reported to use: Two HiWatt Custom 200 amp heads Two Warwick NeoPro 115 cabs with 15 inch Gauss speakers

Hooky's a big JAE fan. Clayton got in touch with Warwick for a Stryker and a Buzzard after watching some Who DVD's.