🎸 Rock · 1980s

Where the Streets Have No Name (Riff · Clean) — Guitar Tone

by U2 · riff

The Where the Streets Have No Name by U2 guitar tone is built on a Vox AC30, dialed in at gain 2.5/10, bass 4.5, mid 5.5, treble 7, presence 6 (community-researched baseline). Full breakdown below — then adapt every knob to your exact guitar and amp, free.

🎛️ Adapt this tone to YOUR guitar & amp — free →

Amp settings (0–10)

2.5
GAIN
4.5
BASS
5.5
MID
7
TREBLE
6
PRESENCE
3
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 (bright, chiming) — defined by a dotted-eighth dual delay

Pickups

bridge+middle (bright Strat)

Effects / signal chain

delay, reverb

Tone character

bright chiming clean, cascading dotted-eighth delay, anthemic, shimmering

Recording context

studio

How it’s played

bright chiming clean (delay-defined) distortion. This shapes how hard the amp is pushed and where the EQ sits for the Where the Streets Have No Name sound.

What makes the Where the Streets Have No Name part tricky

dotted-eighth delay timing, picking in time with delay, clean. GuitarToneAdapt gets the tone right so you can focus on the playing.

Note: Where the Streets Have No Name IS the delay — a bright Strat into a Vox AC30 with a DOTTED-EIGHTH delay (short slap into a long modulated repeat). Set the delay to a dotted-eighth of the tempo; play simple notes and let the delay build the cascading arpeggio. Clean, low gain., Dial a dotted-eighth delay (≈3/16) with one-or-few repeats, bright clean AC30-style tone, and pick simple notes in time with the repeats. The delay is the part., Settings are community-researched starting points, not official recall sheets.

Get these exact settings for your rig →
🎧 Can you guess the tone?
Recognise famous songs from just the amp dials — a quick 10-round game. Beat your friends. Play free →
🎸 Which guitar legend is your tone twin? Take the quiz & share your result →

Share this tone

𝕏 PostRedditFacebook

Sources

Free practice tools

🎤 Online guitar tuner →  ·  🎸 Tuning chart →  ·  🎼 Scale finder →  ·  🎚️ Chord transposer & capo →  ·  🥁 Metronome →  ·  🎶 Song chords →  ·  🎧 Guess the Tone game →  ·  🎸 Tone Legend quiz →  ·  📊 Tone data report →

🔥 The most famous guitar tones of all time →  ·  🎯 Easy guitar songs to play (with settings) →

More like this

🎚️ Vox AC30 settings →  ·  🎛️ best rock amp settings →

Related tones

With or Without You — U2Boys Don't Cry — The CureWay Down We Go — KALEOSweet Child O' Mine — Guns N' RosesHotel California — EaglesAin't Talkin' 'Bout Love — Van Halen
Settings are community-researched estimates, not official. GuitarToneAdapt adapts them to your gear. guitartoneadapt.com