Bass Guitars

Lakland Bob Glaub signature, custom version

Lakland "Joe Osborne", custom version: in natural finish and with a maple neck.

Fender Precision Bass 1972, sunburst, CBS-era, with Jazz Bass neck from 1972

Fender Jazz Bass 1964, natural, CBS-era, with Jazz Bass neck from 1966

Fender Precision Bass 19XX, white, with black pickguard

Fender Jazz Bass 1972, natural, CBS-era

Fender Jazz Bass, 19XX, sunburst

Fender Telecaster Bass 19XX, used during the "Rattle and hum" tour.

Auerswald Custom bass, used for MoFo on Popmart, yellow body, made by german manufacture Auerswald, uhh, this one looks very strange! Auerswald also makes instruments for "Prince"! This bass was really expensive, because the wood of what it's made is over 100 years old!

Music Man Stingray, 4-string, white

Music Man Stingray, 5-string, white, white pickguard

Gibson Thunderbird, mahagoni natural, played on the "Desire"-Video in Rattle and hum

Gibson Les Paul Bass, white, seen in the booklet of Achtung Baby and in the video to "Even better than the real thing"

ZON Legacy Bass, this model has Bartolini pickups from what I have been told!

Ibanez Musician, brown, Adam used it for the whole WAR-Tour and Unforgettable Fire-Tour.

Rickenbacker 4001 Bass, black

Amplifiers

Adam uses Ashdown Amps since the Elevation Tour.

With the North American leg of U2's massive Elevation tour now past the halfway point, reports from the road suggest that Adam Clayton's mighty Ashdown bass rig continues to shake the continent with consummate ease, performing faultlessly night after night.
"I spoke with Adam's Bass Tech Stuart Morgan just before the sell out show at Toronto's Air Canada Center" reports Ashdown main-man Mark Gooday. "He told me that Adam is delighted with the rig and that discovering Ashdown was like the end of a lifelong search - 'real bass amplification' he calls it."

Mark originally sent a range of Ashdown heads, cabinets and combos to Dublin for auditioning prior to the recording of the 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' album. Suitably impressed, Adam chose an ABM C410H-500 combo to use in the studio and, when the time came to go on the road, Mark suggested that he should try the custom rig originally designed by Ashdown for bass legend John Entwistle".

"I asked John if Adam could try his rig and he was happy to oblige," says Mark. "We sent it over to Ireland for rehearsals and Adam loved it. So we made an exact replica and swapped it out after U2's gig at the London Astoria. I think it was the only way John was going to get his gear back!"

The Entwistle/Clayton touring rig comprises of an Ashdown RPM-1 preamp, two PM1000 Power Magnifiers, a pair of ABM212 cabinets and a pair of ABM115 bins. Not surprisingly, interest from bass players around the world has been considerable, leading to Ashdown making all four items available from their standard catalogue.

In earlier days Adam uses the following rig for getting his sound...

Audio Limited Cambridge Engl. SR707 Pro

AUDIO RA2000 main-amp

AUDIO RA3000 main-amp

AMPEG SVT2T The Bass, Adam´s main amp during the Zoo-TV Tour.

Alembic Preamp, used on Popmart

SWR Preamp, used for Popmart

BSS FDS 360 Frequency Dividing system + limiters

AUDIO RA3000 main-amp

Also I´ve heard that Adam used Alembic amps in the past. Perhaps anyone can confirm this as I have never heard about this!

Effects & pedals

IPK Maximum Total Load Note exceed 10A, this seems to be a over-voltage protection system

EMO Systems Rack Light, this gives Adam the possibilty to recognize, what's going on in his rack.

KORG DT-1 Pro, that is Adams rack-tuner.

BOSS Chronomatic Tuner TU-12, this is his other tuner.

Ibanez UE400 Multieffect

Ibanez DM1000 digital delay

Alesis Quadraverb, this one seems to be his main multieffect

Demeter DI's, for DI-Miking

Dramwer Dual-Gate DS201, noise reduction system to minimize hum and noise

dbx 120x-DS, It is a sub-harmonic synthesiser. It creates a bass note one octave below everything that is played into it, and it sounds HUGE. Music catalogs from all over sell them in the states. They've been around for a while.

Boss Chorus Ensemble, these pedal is fitted in Clayton´s rack, and gives him a cool chorus sound! Special to this pedal is, that you have seperate tone-knobs which allows you to adjust the heights different from the bass-frequencies.

Boss Overdrive pedal, these pedal is fitted in Clayton´s rack.

Moog Taurus I Synthesizer, is lying on floor in front of the stage. You can hear it a lot on "Exit", "Pride" and "I still haven't found"

E-Max plus sampler

Boss OD-1 Overdrive Pedal

Countryman direct box mic

Mu-Tron, autowah

Digitech Bass Whammy pedal

Rocktron RSB-18 Switching System, this is Adam´s control-unit for sound switchings.

Rocktron Patchmates, for selecting the different pedals

Sony UHF Wireless Tuner WRR37

Miking

During Popmart ist was just one 10" speaker miked with Beyerdynamic M88