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what is Adam Clayton playing?

AFAIK:
It’s a ‘72 Precision with an early ‘80s maple-board Jazz Bass neck. He preferred the Jazz neck as it was “more lady-like”.
Much later (Vertigo video) it ended up with a chrome pickguard and a Jazz neck with black block markers. He seemed to like swapping stuff around (or maybe his tech did!)

Which can be a bit funny because in the late 90's he had a stack knob Jazz and then swapped a maple board P neck onto it for a while. Eventually it seemed the J neck went back on it.
 
@fessSto apparently they played a set a bar just minutes from my childhood home in San Antonio in 1982 or so. I was about 9 years old. People said they played a few songs and drank at the bar with the locals afterwards. yes that would never happen again.

i'm not sure about the effects he used but I have a fender pj and when i solo the j with the tone up and use a pick, it sounds pretty damn close to that ibanez he uses in the red rock video.
 
If my memory holds right, I recall reading in the early 2000s or so of a warehouse fire in either in Dublin or elsewhere that destroyed many of u2's vintage instruments. they apparently stored them at this warehouse and the news reported they were devastated. I've searched google and can't find the correct terms to pull up the results. I could be wrong tho
 
Which can be a bit funny because in the late 90's he had a stack knob Jazz and then swapped a maple board P neck onto it for a while. Eventually it seemed the J neck went back on it.
I vaguely remember this. I thought that it might have been the early-80s maple Jazz neck he was so found of?
He also had a Tele neck on his ‘72 P once so god only knows what he gets up to in his spare time lol!
 
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I saw them in 1980 in the UK when they were doing their first headlining tour promoting the Boy album at The Boat Club in Nottingham. A friend of mine dragged me along as he was already a fan having seen them supporting The Only Ones (IIRC). There were about 50 people in the audience. I'm pretty sure Adam was playing the Ibanez Musician shown earlier in this thread rather than the P-Bass, but at the time I was more interested in The Edge's Gibson Explorer and his (then) innovative use of delay pedals. We also went with someone who knew them from when they are just starting out in Dublin, so we got to meet Bono and The Edge afterwards. I went and bought the album and all the singles I could find the very next day.

I then saw them the following year at Rock City where they played to a considerably larger audience. Unfortunately for me they didn't make the same impression as before and I also wondered why the majority of the set was unchanged from year ago. IMO they were completely overshadowed by their support band The Comsat Angels.
 
I was just having this same discussion with a friend of mine, specifically about the bass tone on Achtung Baby. He found this picture from the sessions where Adam Clayton appears to be playing a Gibson RD Artist bass. I don't know much about those basses. To my ears, that album is a lot of P-Bass through an SVT. Whatever he's playing on there, it sounds amazing!
 

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I was just having this same discussion with a friend of mine, specifically about the bass tone on Achtung Baby. He found this picture from the sessions where Adam Clayton appears to be playing a Gibson RD Artist bass. I don't know much about those basses. To my ears, that album is a lot of P-Bass through an SVT. Whatever he's playing on there, it sounds amazing!

I've never seen any formal breakdown of what he played on that album, but going on memory I believe I read he'd tracked at least some part of it with one of those Gibson LP Triumph basses. He's got a lot of really thick tones on Aching Baby.
 
It’s in a lot of older pics. He had it on “3 by” shows that were carried into the release of Boy and also when they supported J Geils Band.
I love Clayton and U2, War is framed on my office wall.
But… way too many pictures of U2 from that era he’s facing backwards or hiding behind Larry.
Too long a story but I got to interview them for my school paper during the Boy era. They were all a little awkward l, not quite embracing the fame that was soon to come. He and Bono were both very homesick and Adam hardly said a word. I’m sure he’s better now haha.


Met them in Dallas in 96 on tour at the Cotton Bowl. Adam was talkative then! They were all very nice and very welcoming actually. Man I feel old.
 
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Same here! And I've always been curious about that pickguard, it just doesn't make sense. It's such an odd thing to cut it like that.

My friend in Dublin had his Fender RW modified by his luthier to replicate that bass. It looks fantastic!

I think it looks hideous, but that's just my opinion. That pickguard shape is about the minimum you need to cover the wire route, hold the controls, and provide a place for your thumb to ride alongside the E string - I see a logic there, but....it still looks hideous.
 
Very cool! I took my very first girlfriend ever way back when. It didn't work out either. U2... Ruining relationships for decades now
well maybe...I found out I could live (with or) without her and I think now living with her would have been hell. lol

she was crazy in love with bono and stalked him as best she could pre social media days. she was loca...too pretty for her own good.
 
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Interesting convo here. My total guess is Adam did this on purpose. I believe he, perhaps impulsively, cut the pick guard to make the bass "his", take it from the common, generic and familiar to something personalized. I'm sure this is me projecting what I did, and what most of us did back then. We bleached & painted our jean jackets, pants, sneakers, a safety pin here and there, maybe I'll take the sleeves off and wear it with a zip hoodie.... There was a considerable amount of pressure and expectations to conform & fit in, and there was the reaction, an under-current that rebelled. Nowadays it's blasphemy to even think of a scuff on those Nike whatever's.... back in those days, those brand new kicks would've been "road worn" rather quickly by all your buddies.
 
Interesting convo here. My total guess is Adam did this on purpose. I believe he, perhaps impulsively, cut the pick guard to make the bass "his", take it from the common, generic and familiar to something personalized. I'm sure this is me projecting what I did, and what most of us did back then. We bleached & painted our jean jackets, pants, sneakers, a safety pin here and there, maybe I'll take the sleeves off and wear it with a zip hoodie.... There was a considerable amount of pressure and expectations to conform & fit in, and there was the reaction, an under-current that rebelled. Nowadays it's blasphemy to even think of a scuff on those Nike whatever's.... back in those days, those brand new kicks would've been "road worn" rather quickly by all your buddies.
I felt inspired, did most of this myself, has had both kent armstrong twins and custom shop 62 both are nice. Initially had an indonesian squier neck, upgraded to fender.
 

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It was as easy as walking up to the stage at soundcheck in any bar (this time it was the Agora in Atlanta) and asking a complete unknown band who had exactly 1 single on college radio light rotation

Myself and a friend got to sit with Kate Schellenbach in a laundromat while she did laundry after load in interviewing her pretty much the same way. Rock and roll is often just that glamorous.
 
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I felt inspired, did most of this myself, has had both kent armstrong twins and custom shop 62 both are nice. Initially had an indonesian squier neck, upgraded to fender.
Where did you get the metal control plate? I'm kind of fascinated by P's with that mod. The guy who used to play bass in Autolux also had a metal control plate on his Precision and it looked great.
 
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He took that bass out again for the Joshua Tree 30th anniversary tour, which we saw in Buffalo. We were sitting down low, looking edge-on (ha!) at the side of the stage. I actually like that perspective at a big concert because you get to see a little bit of the backstage/tech operations, which I’m always fascinated by. We could see a little tiny sliver of Edge’s guitar tech’s workstation.
 
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