🎸 Rock · 1980s

Sunday Bloody Sunday (Riff · Clean) — Guitar Tone

by U2 · riff

The Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 guitar tone is built on a Vox AC30 — Telecaster, dialed in at gain 2.5/10, bass 5, mid 5.5, treble 7, presence 6 (community-researched baseline). Full breakdown below — then adapt every knob to your exact guitar and amp, free.

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Amp settings (0–10)

2.5
GAIN
5
BASS
5.5
MID
7
TREBLE
6
PRESENCE
2
REVERB

Community-researched baseline. Your rig is different — GuitarToneAdapt re-dials every knob for your specific guitar, amp and pickups.

Original gear

Amp: Vox AC30 — Telecaster, with a Memory Man / Korg SDD-3000 delay (the chime)

Pickups

bridge (Telecaster, bright & chiming)

Effects / signal chain

delay, reverb

Tone character

bright chiming clean, rhythmic delay, cascading & anthemic, Tele into AC30

Recording context

studio

How it’s played

bright chiming clean with rhythmic delay distortion. This shapes how hard the amp is pushed and where the EQ sits for the Sunday Bloody Sunday sound.

What makes the Sunday Bloody Sunday part tricky

rhythmic delay timing, bright chime, picking with the delay. GuitarToneAdapt gets the tone right so you can focus on the playing.

Note: Sunday Bloody Sunday is The Edge’s chime — a bright Telecaster into a Vox AC30 with a RHYTHMIC delay (~100ms, feedback ~40) that fills in the strums. Treble way up, low gain, the delay in time with the song. The delay IS the sound — play simply and let it cascade., Use a bright single-coil into a Vox-style clean, treble way up, low gain, and a ~100ms delay (moderate feedback) in time with the tempo; play sparse and let the delay build the rhythm., Settings are community-researched starting points, not official recall sheets.

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More like this

🎸 How to get U2’s guitar tone →  ·  🎚️ Vox AC30 settings →  ·  🎛️ best rock amp settings →

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With or Without You — U2Where the Streets Have No Name — U2Boys Don't Cry — The CureWay Down We Go — KALEOSweet Child O' Mine — Guns N' RosesHotel California — Eagles
Settings are community-researched estimates, not official. GuitarToneAdapt adapts them to your gear. guitartoneadapt.com