Bad example - they wouldn't be U2 otherwise.
I'm not a U2 fan but I class the Edge has being an innovator of how to use effects and how to sound like you're doing a lot when you're doing something very simple.
But is that not the aim of every guitarist? Do make the best sound possible with the least amount of effort? The guitar is a hard enough instrument to master without making life hard for oneself.
How often do you see guitarists doing some amazingly good sounding solos yet ultimately is nothing more than 'glorified scales'? (tongue in cheek). They got that good and fast through practice, practice, practice!!
I think there is an argument for doing things the easy way but ultimately to progress to more than proficient it takes practice.
Check out the documentary It’s Going to get Loud with The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White. It's a fascinating example of three very different guitarists who have honed their craft over years, all very different but all brilliant in their own right (IMO).
What really stood out to me in the documentary was
how The Edge uses his gear. I mean he's got SERIOUS amounts of gear and when I was watching the program I must confess I was judging him over the others as they were just playing the guitar brilliantly well, letting the guitar/amp do the work, yet he was tap-dancing with his pedals. Yet Edge states that often a pedal will do one thing well, even only used for a single song and even then sometimes only for a single part. How does he know? He must have spent some serious hours finding out.
I can relate to that on a small scale. For example I have pedals that on paper would be absolute junk, e.g. Behringer RV600 (reverb), it cost £35 new and isn't a patch on my Boss reverb, yet it has a shimmer setting that sounds great and comes at 1/4 of the cost of the Verbzilla that has a similar effect. But it sounds absolutely fantastic when I do what Edge does and hold a Herdim .87mm nylon pick upside down and pick the strings - because of the nobbly effect on the pick it gives it a grating sound but couple that with the shimmer effect on the RV600 it sounds very 80’s classic U2.
My point is that it’s all very well saying ‘someone has all the gear and no idea’ but I don’t think a guitarist should be judged for
relying on the gear used (talking more on a gigging/professional level now) but there can be real talent in how the gear is used and even more so how it’s used in conjunction with other gear, in the context of a band and in a song/part/style. It may not be as impressive as Satriani or Petrucci flying about the fret board at a million miles per hour or as iconic as Page but if The Edge (for example) can exploit sounds from such a huge amount of gear then is this not a talent in itself too?
It’s like comparing old school DJ’s that used vinyl and could tell you the tempo of a song from just listening to it compared to modern DJing that rely on computers and electronics do to the same for them. From having friends that do both there is a vast and varied array of knowledge that both have over the other but serve for different situations and tastes. Purist vs. modernist perhaps but if we were all the same it would make life pretty boring!
