Tout comme Jonny, Ed est passionné par les effets -il en utilise généralement deux plateaux- , on le voit s’en donner à cœur joie sur plein de chansons.

[button style=’green’]1993-94[/button]

Au début du groupe, c’est plus sommaire : il n’y a qu’un seul tableau, mais déjà bien organisé.

[button style=’green’]1995 – époque” The Bends”[/button]

[button style=’green’]1997-1998, Epoque OK Computer[/button]

Le succès est venu, les moyens aussi ; les chansons sont de plus en plus complexes. Il faut donc toujours plus d’effets ! Ed a désormais deux tableaux pour les ranger.

[quote cite=’Ed / Total Guitar, novembre 1997′ align=’none’]we’ve got shitloads of pedals.(…)

But ask for precise details of the effects the band use, and Ed becomes slightly cagey; “it’s a bit difficult, because you learn tricks as you go along and you don’t want to give them to everyone. Especially with us, because we’ve got so many boxes and noises and things, and with all the orders of pedals and stuff, all that makes such a difference to the sound.”
So, no Radiohead trade secrets will be given away here, but the basic effects unit in Ed’s rack is a Korg A2 multi-FX, although it’s fallen out of favour for the more analogue sound of OK Computer.
“I used it a lot on The Bends, stuff like “Planet Telex” – almost all the guitar is through that, all very synthesised.”
Next up is a Digitech Whammy pedal – “everyone seems to have one of thoose, but they’re great.” Then there’s an old MXR phaser pedal, Jim Dunlop tremolo, a Companion Distortion pedal, Electro Harmonix Small Stone and Electric Mistress, plus Roland Space Echos and “all the usual” Boss pedals.
The thinking behind the use of so many standalone pedals is simple – it opens the doors to sonic experimentation big-time. “It’s how you use them, in what order you put them,” as Ed puts it. “Out in America we pick up loads of stuff from second-hand stores, funky old pedals. We’ve got a great fuzz pedal – the bass on “Exit Music”, the distorted bass at the end was a 60’s Japanese fuzz pedal that I picked up in LA. It’s a great pedal. 60 bucks for this thing – you put it on a guitar and it sounds like Telstar.
“Or Jonny at the end of “Paranoid Android”, the phased solo thing, that’s through a Mutator – he did the part then fed it back through the box and played with the settings.”
Another good example is the background sound in the verse and intro to “Lucky” – it sounds like a typical O’Brien creation. Ed: “I remember fiddling around in the soundcheck – we were in Japan – and putting together a different pedal order and actually hitting the strings above the nut on the headstock. The pedals that I did it with, and the delay that was going on. It was one of those moments – ‘Yeah, this is pretty cool.’
“A lot of it is just when you’re relaxed, just trying to do something different, you get loads of sounds. Some of them don’t work, but you have to just keep on making them and see what happens. Lucky was certainly a sound I hadn’t heard before. It was interesting because the song itself was there, but that sound just puts it in a different context, into a different space.” [/quote]

 

[quote cite=’Guitar Play, octobre 1997′ align=’none’]O’Brien says about 80% of the album was tracked live. “I hate doing overdubs, because it just doesn’t feel natural. There’s something weird about playing in the control room to a backing track. Something special happens when you’re playing live; a lot of it is just looking at one another and knowing there are four other people making it happen.”
While Yorke keeps his rig lean and mean, Greenwood and O’Brien experiment with tone toys and bi-amp setups.  (…) O’Brien runs a Rickenbacker 330 through Mesa Dual Rectifier stacks, abetted by a Korg A- I multi-effect, Morley Phase 100, DigiTech Whammy/pitch shifter, CryBaby wah and an E-Bow.[/quote]

 

[button style=’green’]2001-2002, Epoque Kid A/ Amnesiac[/button]

En 2001, on voit apparaître des photos bien plus précises permettant de reconnaître les effets, qu’Ed collectionne en énorme quantité !

[button style=’green’]2002-2003, Epoque Hail To The Thief[/button]

En 2002-2003, une vidéo de la webcast nous permet de bien apercevoir  les tableaux :

Le site The King of Gear avance cette composition :

Board 1
EHX Holy Grail – Boss DD5 – Boss DD5 – Boss PN2 – Akai Headrush – Line 6 DL4 – Digitech Whammy WH4 – Boss DD5 (with Boss FS-5U tap tempo) – Boss LS2

Boss FV300H

Board 2
Boss TU2 – Lovetone Ring Stinger – Lovetone Meatball – MXR Micro Amp(?) – Boss GE7 – Crowther Hotcake – Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive – Boss DD5 (with Boss FS-5U tap tempo) -DOD440

[button style=’green’]2006-7, Tournée avant In-Rainbows[/button]

 

quelques changements envisagés en collaboration avec Plank en juillet 2006 :
[quote ]”Ed’s device that we keep trying to come up with new battery ideas for is a Boss SP-303 which is a phrase sampler / re sampler, 8 mono samples can be triggered at once and loops built up…………as mentioned before – we power this from a combination of PP3’s and D cells and fitted with a radio transmitter so Ed can be mobile with it, then routed through pedals »[/quote]

 

Selon The King of Gear :

Board 1:
Boss TU2 – MXR DynaComp – Voodoo Labs SparkleDrive – Crowther Hotcake – Cry Baby Wah – MXR Phase 90 – Boss DD5 (with Boss FS-5U tap tempo) – Boss LS2

Boss FV300L

Board 2:
Akai Headrush E1 – Line 6 DL4 – Digitech Whammy IV – EHX Deluxe Memory Man – BOSS FC-200(sending signals to his Sound Sculpture Switchblade to activate his rack units)

 

 

date incertaine, a priori, une photo provenant du blog du groupe également :

[button style=’green’]9 novembre 2007 : Webcast “Thumbs Down”[/button]

Selon the King of Gear :

Board 1:

Boss TU2 – MXR DynaComp – Voodoo Labs SparkleDrive – Crowther Hotcake – Cry Baby Wah – MXR Phase 90 – Boss DD5 – Boss LS2

Boss FV300L

Board 2:
Akai Headrush E2 – Line 6 DL4 – Line 6 DL4 – Digitech Whammy IV – EHX Deluxe Memory Man – BOSS FC-200 (sending signals to his Sound Sculpture Switchblade to activate his rack units)

Ed appears to have two DL4’s stacked on top of eachother, but slightly tiered, such that he can access the footswitches of either.

 

[button style=’green’]Nouvel an 2007, webcast “Scotch Mist”[/button]

Selon The King of Gear :

Board 1:
Boss TU2 – MXR DynaComp – Voodoo Labs SparkleDrive – Crowther Hotcake – Cry Baby Wah – MXR Phase 90 – Boss DD5 – Boss LS2

Boss FV300L

Board 2:
Akai Headrush E2 – Line 6 DL4 – Digitech Whammy IV– EHX Deluxe Memory Man

 

[button style=’green’]2008/2009 : enregistrement d’In Rainbows[/button]

Selon The King of Gear :

Board 1:
Voodoo Lab Pedal Switcher – Voodoo Lab Pedal Switcher
Boss TU2 – Voodoo Labs SparkleDrive – Crowther Hotcake – Cry Baby Wah – Boss DD5 (with Boss FS-5U tap tempo)  - MXR DynaComp– EHX Memory Man w/ Hazarai – Boss LS2

Boss FV500L

Board 2:
Voodoo Lab Pedal Switcher – Bypass Switcher(for the Deluxe Memory Man)
Unknown brown pedal –Line 6 DL4 – Digitech Whammy IV – Akai Headrush E2 – EHX Deluxe Memory Man – EHX Memory Man w/ Hazarai

[button style=’green’]2009 : 7 worlds Collide[/button]

Tableau 1 :

Boss TU2 – MXR DynaComp – Ibanez TS808 Tubescreamer – Crowther Hotcake – Cry Baby Wah  – Boss DD5 (with Boss FS-5U tap tempo) – Digitech Whammy IV – Line 6 DL4 – EHX Deluxe Memory Man – Ernie Ball VP Jr

All pedals save the Whammy and Deluxe Memory Manare powered off of a single Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2+.

 

[button style=’green’]janvier 2010[/button]

Au concert de charité pour Haiti de janvier 2010, on a pu voir une nouvelle configuration et de nouveaux effets :

de gauche à droite et du plus loin au plus près :

– un Booster CatalinBread Super Chili Picoso (avec le piment rouge)

– un Compresseur, le COMP-1 Compulator de Demeter

Рun Overdrive Boss OD-2 modifi̩ par Analogman

– une Wah-wah Dunlop Cry baby

– un Delay DL-4 de Line 6

– un Tremolo Boss TR-2

– sans doute un accordeur

– un octaver Whammy Digitech

– un Synthé polyphonique / Générateur d’octave Hog de Electro-Harmonix

– un Delay Memory man en version Deluxe (et vintage)

Рet sur le c̫t̩ du pedal train, un autre delay, le Boss DD-5

Enfin, de part et d’autre une pédale de volume (sans doute pour pouvoir gérer les 2 lignes séparément.

[button style=’green’]2012, Tournée The King of Limb[/button]

[button style=’green’]2012, Coachella[/button]

Ed introduit un nouvel élément : pour “Everything In Its Right Place“, Ed utilise un tableau d’effets particulier, placé sur une table. Les effets qu’on y trouve (dans le désordre) : Line 6 DL4, Digitech Whammy, BOSS LS2, BOSS TU2, Strymon Timeline, EHX Deluxe Memory Man, BOSS LS2, EHX 2880, BOSS FV500. (source : The King of Gear).

A priori, cette réorganisation fait suite aux dégats occasionés par l’effrondrement de la scène au Canada…

[button style=’green’]2014[/button]

Le 26 juin, Ed a décidé de réorganiser son tableau d’effets.

Avant, ça donne ça :

et pour se faire aider, il a fait appel à l’équipe TheGigRIg :

Spent an amazing day with Ed O’Brien from #radiohead planning his new #pedalboard with #TheGigRig #G2 gonna be EPIC! pic.twitter.com/DM2DD2YTuo

— Daniel TheGigRig (@Dan_TheGigRig) 24 Juin 2014

juillet 2014, la réorganisation est effective, et qui plus est, documentée :

[button style=’green’]2016[/button]
Ed a fait à nouveau appel à Daniel Stenhardt de Gigrig, un technicien américain réputé pour la conception de pédaliers de guitare, et inventeur d’un système de routage de pédales d’effets pour guitare. On le voit d’ailleurs allongé à côté des pédaliers qu’il a réalisé pour Ed à l’occasion de la tournée 2016 sur la photo ci-dessous :

 

Une autre photo postée sur la page facebook de GigRIg :

Description complète sur le site The King of Gear :
[quote]Here is a full alphabetized list of all pedals that Ed is using (not including TheGigRig auxiliary units):

BOSS DD5
BOSS FV500
Diamond Tremolo (Custom Blue)
Digitech Whammy V + Molten Voltage Molten MIDI 5
Dinosaural Opticompressor OTC-201
Electro-Harmonix HOG2 + HOG2 Foot Controller
Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man 1100-TT
Fulltone Clyde Deluxe WahFulltone OCD
JHS Angry Charlie Distortion V2
MXR M117R Flanger
Radial Engineering HOTSHOT ABo (not connected)
Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST300
Strymon Timeline
TC Electronic DITTO X4 Looper (#1)
TC Electronic DITTO X4 Looper (#2)
ThorpyFX Muffroom Cloud Fuzz
Wampler Tumnus
Xotic EP Booster

These are the TheGigRig units that Ed is using (not including power distribution):

TheGigRig G2
TheGigRig G2 Bank Manager Footswitch
TheGigRig Cinco Cinco Patch Bay (#1) (Molten MIDI 5 is velcro’d onto it)
TheGigRig Cinco Cinco Patch Bay (#2) (on the expansion board)
TheGigRig QuarterMaster QMX2
TheGigRig HumDinger (velcro’d onto Cinco Cinco #2)

The QuarterMaster is currently not hooked up to anything, but it probably will be used to incorporate rack units (like his Korg A2) and perhaps his Fulltone Tape Echo.[/quote]