"Where the Streets Have No Name" opens U2's The Joshua Tree (1987). The Edge's guitar part is a fast, chiming ripple that seems to play twice as many notes as he actually picks. That is the trick: a delay set to a dotted eighth note, filling the gaps between his notes with echoes so the part rolls forward like a sequencer.
What was used
- Delay: the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man and the TC Electronic 2290 are the delays most commonly cited for The Edge in this era. Which unit is on the record is debated.
- Amp: a Vox AC30 is his widely documented amp, giving the bright, glassy top end.
The rig below is an approximation: a common way to get close to this sound, not the exact original gear or settings.
Dotted-eighth delay
A dotted eighth lasts three sixteenth notes. If you play even eighth notes and each one echoes a dotted eighth later, the echoes land exactly halfway between your notes. You hear a steady stream of sixteenths, though you only pick eighths.
To get the time in milliseconds: 60000 / bpm × 0.75. At 90 bpm that's 666.7 × 0.75 = 500 ms. At 126 bpm it's about 357 ms. Many delays have a tap tempo with a dotted-eighth setting that does the math for you.
Playing it
The exercise is an original pattern of steady eighth notes on the B and high e strings in D major, not the song's part. Set the delay before you start, and reset the time each time you raise the metronome.
- Pick evenly. Uneven eighths make the echoes land in the wrong place and the pattern falls apart.
- Mute lightly with your picking hand so the notes stay short and the echoes stay clear.
- Start at 90 bpm. When the rhythm sounds like a smooth stream of sixteenths, move up toward 126.