Home Guitar Legends Jonny Greenwood Guitars & Gear: The Complete Guide to Radiohead’s Anti-Guitar Hero

Jonny Greenwood Guitars & Gear: The Complete Guide to Radiohead’s Anti-Guitar Hero

9 June 2026

He played Renaissance and Baroque music on recorder as a teenager. He played viola in school orchestras, including the Thames Vale Youth Orchestra. He enrolled at Oxford Brookes University to study music and psychology, expecting — in his own words — to spend the rest of his life “at the back of the viola section at some minor orchestra.”

Then Radiohead happened, and Jonny Greenwood became one of the most influential guitarists of his generation without, in any meaningful sense, thinking of himself as a guitarist. He is a musician who plays guitar among other things — the “other things” including viola, ondes martenot, piano, organ, xylophone, glockenspiel, banjo, harmonica, and a computer he uses to manipulate and sample everything else. He has written film scores for Paul Thomas Anderson. He serves as composer-in-residence for the BBC Concert Orchestra.

His guitar rig is equally unlikely. The Marshall ShredMaster — a cheap, solid-state distortion pedal from the early 1990s — is his primary distortion source. His main amp for distorted tones is a solid-state Fender. His signature guitar modification involves the ball-end of a guitar string screwed into the pickguard, which he uses to hook the high E string to play ghost notes beyond the fretboard. He plays a cello bow on “The Pyramid Song.”

The results: Rolling Stone ranked him number 59 on their “100 Greatest Guitarists” list. The gear tells only a small part of why.

Background: Recorder Groups, Viola Sections, and the Band That Changed Everything

Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood was born November 5, 1971, in Oxford, England. He is the younger brother of Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood. Their family background was musical and broadly cultured, and Jonny’s early musical education was classical — recorder ensembles, school orchestras, viola through his teens, eventually reaching the Thames Vale Youth Orchestra. The guitar was not central to his musical development; it was an additional interest that emerged alongside the serious work of classical training.

He was not the founder of Radiohead — Thom Yorke, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, and Philip Selway had the band going first under the name On a Friday. The story of Jonny joining is one of the more charming in rock history: he was twelve years old, showed up to rehearsals uninvited, and made himself indispensable by playing harmonica and eventually guitar, at which point the older members found it impossible to ask him to leave. He was younger than everyone else and more musically sophisticated than most of them by virtue of the classical training.

Radiohead signed to EMI’s Parlophone label in 1991, with the signing advance funding some of the foundational gear purchases that defined their early sound: Jonny’s Fender Telecaster Plus and Fender Eighty-Five amp were both bought at Denmark Street in London with that money. These were the instruments of “Creep” and the first Radiohead recordings.

The arc from Pablo Honey (1993) through OK Computer (1997) to Kid A (2000) and beyond documents one of the most radical evolutions in rock guitar’s recent history. Greenwood’s role in that evolution is central and multi-dimensional — not just the guitar sounds that changed across albums, but the decision to treat guitar as one element within a much larger sonic palette, the willingness to subordinate conventional guitar playing to compositional goals that might not involve guitar at all.

His film score work — beginning with Bodysong (2003) and reaching its peak with his collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson on There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012), Inherent Vice (2014), Phantom Thread (2017), and Licorice Pizza (2021) — has established him as one of contemporary cinema’s most significant composers. The BBC Concert Orchestra residency confirmed his status as a serious composer rather than a guitarist who writes on the side. These achievements run parallel to the Radiohead career rather than supplementing it.

Tone note: He expected to spend his career at the back of a viola section. Instead he became both one of the most influential rock guitarists of his generation and one of contemporary cinema’s most significant composers. The recursion between classical training and experimental rock is still producing results thirty years later.

The Rig: Jonny Greenwood’s Guitars, Amps & Gear — Complete Era-by-Era Breakdown

Greenwood’s gear history is one of the most carefully documented in Radiohead fandom — the website thekingofgear.com has assembled detailed accounts of every instrument, amp, and pedal he has used, often with specific provenance and dating. What follows draws on that documentation alongside other sources.

Guitars: Tobacco Burst Telecasters, the 1975 Starcaster, and the Cello Bow

The Cream Fender Telecaster — The First Guitar (1992)

Jonny’s first significant electric guitar was a cream Fender Telecaster he bought from his guitar teacher at sixteen. He used it for Radiohead’s earliest recordings including the Drill EP and early sessions. On May 15, 1992, during Radiohead’s first tour (supporting “Creep”), the guitar was stolen at the Duchess of York in Leeds. Its loss sent Greenwood back to guitar shopping — and his replacement choice would define his career.

Fender Telecaster Plus “Tele1” (Tobacco Burst) — The Primary Guitar (1992–present)

Jonny’s primary guitar is a Fender Telecaster Plus in Tobacco Burst finish — purchased with EMI signing advance money at Denmark Street in London in 1992, the serial number revealing it was manufactured in 1990 before sitting in storage for two years. The Telecaster Plus was Fender’s “modern improvement” on the Telecaster in the early 1990s, featuring Lace Sensor pickups in place of conventional single coils. Lace Sensors were marketed for their low noise and precise pitch response.

This guitar — sometimes incorrectly identified as sunburst; it is tobacco burst, a distinct brown-tinged gradient — has been used on every Radiohead album at nearly every live performance since 1992. It is, by duration of use and historical significance, one of the most important guitars in the Radiohead story.

Modifications performed by Greenwood and Radiohead guitar tech “Plank” (who has worked with Radiohead throughout their career):

Killswitch: The bridge pickup coil-split was replaced with a killswitch — a momentary switch that cuts the signal when pressed. Used to create the stuttering staccato effect on “Paranoid Android,” “Airbag,” and “Electioneering.” The killswitch is active only when pressed, making it different from Buckethead’s momentary-off design — it cuts rather than restores on press
Volume knob removed: The volume potentiometer knob was physically removed (the pot remains functional for volume adjustment, but there’s no knob to grab)
Pickup selector tape: The pickup selector knob was removed and replaced with a piece of tape used to switch positions
Guitar string ball-end: A ball-end from a guitar string is screwed into the guitar just below the neck — Greenwood hooks the high E string onto this ball-end to play particularly high notes beyond the normal fretboard range, producing ghost notes otherwise inaccessible on a standard instrument. This is the most genuinely unusual guitar modification in the entire series.

The tobacco burst Tele1 was stolen along with all of Radiohead’s gear in Denver on October 3, 1995. For those who need a timeline: a second Telecaster Plus (see below) became primary after the theft, and the Tele1 was eventually recovered.

Tone note: The ball-end of a guitar string screwed into the pickguard to hook the high E string for ghost notes. This is not a pedal, not an amp, not a pickup — it’s a piece of hardware from another string, repurposed as a technique extension. That is the most Jonny Greenwood gear modification in the list.

Fender Telecaster Plus “Old Tele2” — The Stolen and Recovered Guitar

Jonny’s second main Telecaster was another Tobacco Burst Fender Telecaster Plus, purchased prior to the 1995 Denver theft. When the Denver theft took Tele1 (the original 1990 instrument), Tele2 stepped in as primary for an extended period. A third Telecaster — see below — was acquired to replace it. Tele2 was eventually recovered and returned to the collection, subsequently serving in specific performance contexts including Steve Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint.”

Fender Telecaster Standard “Tele2 Current” — The Converted Backup (circa 1995)

Purchased circa 1995 as a replacement after the Denver theft, this is actually a Fender Telecaster Standard (not a Plus) that was converted to Telecaster Plus specifications — fitted with Lace Sensor pickups and modified to match Tele1’s setup exactly, including the killswitch and guitar string ball-end. This guitar serves as Jonny’s backup Telecaster and has been used in specific live performances, including some Wembley shows in 2015. Around 2005–6, it was fitted with a Korg Kaoss Pad touchpad in the rear, though this has never been used live.

Fender Starcaster (1975) — The Mellow Voice

Jonny’s Starcaster is one of the more unusual choices in the rock guitar world. The Fender Starcaster was a semi-hollow guitar produced briefly by Fender between 1976 and 1980 — a failed attempt to compete with Gibson’s ES-335 that was commercially unsuccessful and subsequently discontinued, leaving surviving examples as relatively obscure collectibles. Greenwood bought his 1975 model (the Starcaster was first available in 1976, making this a pre-production or date-anomalous example) in 1995, immediately prior to the recording of OK Computer.

The Starcaster’s Wide Range humbuckers (designed by Seth Lover, inventor of the original PAF humbucker) give it a warmer, fuller character than the Telecaster Plus’s Lace Sensors. Greenwood uses it for Radiohead’s more mellow and atmospheric material — “Subterranean Homesick Alien,” “Let Down,” and “The Tourist” on OK Computer; live use on “Pyramid Song” and “Street Spirit.” His most famous Starcaster technique: playing it with a cello bow on “The Pyramid Song,” a technique Jimmy Page popularised in rock with Led Zeppelin.

Tone note: The Starcaster’s Wide Range humbuckers and semi-hollow body give it an acoustic-adjacent warmth that the solid-body Telecaster can’t replicate. Greenwood uses two guitars not for stylistic variety but for tonal necessity — each instrument serves specific songs.

Amps & Cabinets: Two Amps, Two Purposes, One Unusual Setup

Fender Deluxe 85 (Eighty-Five) — The Primary “Dirty” Amp

Here is where Jonny Greenwood’s gear story becomes genuinely unexpected: his primary amp for distorted tones throughout most of his career is a Fender Deluxe 85 — a solid-state (transistor) combo amp from the late 1980s. Not a tube amp. Not a vintage valve amp with harmonic saturation and natural compression. A solid-state Fender that was never intended to be a guitar hero’s primary drive amplifier.

He bought it at Denmark Street along with Tele1 when Radiohead received their EMI advance in 1992. The Eighty-Five has been his main distortion-context amp ever since. He does not use the amp’s own overdrive — he uses it on the clean channel, with the Marshall ShredMaster pedal providing all the distortion character. The Fender’s solid-state power section delivers a tight, uncolored amplification of whatever signal the ShredMaster produces.

This is the amp on “Creep” — confirmed by producers Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade, who described “a small Fender 85, which surprisingly was responsible for the ‘Creep’ sound.” The sound that launched Radiohead’s mainstream career came from a cheap solid-state practice amp and a budget distortion pedal. Both things being true simultaneously is both ironic and instructive.

Tone note: The “Creep” guitar tone — one of the most recognised in 1990s rock — came from a solid-state Fender 85 and a Marshall ShredMaster distortion pedal. The gear snob’s nightmare. The musical pragmatist’s proof point.

Vox AC30 — The Clean Foundation (and Later Primary Amp)

Jonny’s first Vox AC30 was a 1990s reissue AC306TB, acquired circa 1997. He has used AC30s for clean tones throughout the career — they also serve as the primary amp for his current rig. He uses Celestion Alnico Blue speakers in all his AC30s — the “Blue Bulldog” speaker, known for its warm, complex character that suits single-coil Telecaster tones. Initially the AC30 was used purely for clean sounds, but it gradually became his main live amp as the Fender Eighty-Five aged and its use became more selective.

He has used multiple AC30 variants: two AC30TBX models, a Dave Petersen Special AC30, and an AC30C2. The Shure SM57 was his standard microphone for the AC30 for a long time; circa 2008 he switched to an Audio-Technica AT3060. He keeps a direct box on top of the AC30 to send the amp signal to the PA.

Fender Twin Reverb — Early Studio Clean

Purchased sometime in the early-to-mid 1990s, the Fender Twin Reverb served as a clean complement to the Eighty-Five in the early years — the big, headroom-rich American clean against which the ShredMaster’s distortion was placed. It was used for recording through several albums before the Vox AC30 took over that role.

Amp	Era / Role	Notes
Fender Deluxe 85 (Eighty-Five, solid-state)	Pablo Honey through present (primary dirty amp)	Bought at Denmark Street 1992; used on clean channel with ShredMaster for distortion; the amp on “Creep”; solid-state
Fender Twin Reverb	Early 1990s through mid-career (clean)	Big American clean tone complement to the Eighty-Five
Vox AC30 (various models: AC306TB, Dave Petersen Special, AC30C2)	1997–present (clean and primary)	Celestion Alnico Blue speakers; originally clean-only, now primary live amp; SM57 then AT3060 for microphone

Pedals & Signal Chain: The ShredMaster, the Space Echo, and the Mutator

Marshall ShredMaster — The Primary Distortion

The Marshall ShredMaster is Greenwood’s primary distortion pedal — and has been since the earliest days of Radiohead’s professional career. It was used on every song on Pablo Honey except “Thinking About You,” and has continued through “The Bends,” “High and Dry,” “Paranoid Android,” “Bones,” and throughout the classic Radiohead albums.

The ShredMaster is a solid-state distortion pedal from the early 1990s, designed to emulate British amp crunch in a relatively affordable format. It has a characteristic midrange bark and aggressive clipping character that produces a slightly nasal, aggressive distortion different from both boutique germanium fuzzes and high-gain tube preamps. It is, by most accounts, not a prestigious or expensive piece of equipment — which is exactly the point. Greenwood found that it produced the sound he wanted and has never seen any reason to change it.

He uses it into the Fender Eighty-Five’s clean channel — the amp doesn’t distort, the pedal provides all the distortion character, and the solid-state amp delivers it without additional colouring.

Tone note: The Marshall ShredMaster into a solid-state Fender. Not a tube amp, not a boutique pedal, not a vintage fuzz. A 1990s budget distortion pedal into a 1980s solid-state amp combo. And it sounds like “Paranoid Android.” Some combinations work for reasons that defy conventional gear logic.

Roland RE-201 Space Echo — The Album Constant

Jonny has recorded with the Roland RE-201 Space Echo — a vintage tape-based delay/echo unit — on every Radiohead album since OK Computer (1997). The RE-201 uses a loop of magnetic tape to produce delay effects, with the characteristic warmth and slight degradation of tape-based repetition rather than the clean, digital precision of modern delay units. He used it in the studio from 1995 onward, and live from 1996 to 2009.

Over time, his two RE-201 units wore out — tape echo units require maintenance and the tape eventually degrades. When they became unusable, he transitioned to the Boss RE-20 Space Echo — a digital emulation of the RE-201 that captures the character of the original in a more reliable format. He now uses the RE-20 exclusively for the Space Echo sound.

The Space Echo appears on the texture of virtually every Radiohead track from OK Computer onward — in the studio if not always live. It’s the single most consistent gear presence across the band’s most celebrated period.

Tone note: He’s recorded with a Roland Space Echo on every album since OK Computer. That’s the most quietly consistent gear commitment in the entire Radiohead catalog. Not a guitar, not an amp — a tape echo that’s been there on every significant recording for close to thirty years.

DigiTech Whammy — Expressive Pitch Tool

The DigiTech Whammy has been part of Greenwood’s rig since the mid-1990s. He uses the original WH-1 version and subsequently newer models (4th generation documented on the 2012 Austin City Limits pedalboard photograph). The Whammy is audible on “Paranoid Android” and multiple other Radiohead tracks, used for expressive pitch-shift effects that range from subtle to extremely dramatic. His use of the Whammy is characteristically musical rather than demonstrative — it appears when the song needs its specific pitch-distortion vocabulary, not as a default effect.

Mutronics Mutator — The “Paranoid Android” Solo Effect

The Mutronics Mutator is a rack-mounted filter/signal processor that Greenwood used to create the warped, filter-sweeping guitar solo at the end of “Paranoid Android.” The Mutator combines a voltage-controlled filter with an envelope follower and an LFO for complex, living filter sweeps — it’s the same unit that Daft Punk used in their classic productions. The effect it produces is more synthesiser-like than conventional guitar processing, consistent with Greenwood’s approach to treating the guitar as a general sound-production tool rather than a specifically guitar-sounding instrument.

Complete Pedalboard and Effects

Marshall ShredMaster — Primary distortion; “Creep” through “Paranoid Android” and beyond
Roland RE-201 Space Echo (retired) — Tape delay; every album since OK Computer
Boss RE-20 Space Echo — Digital replacement for the worn-out RE-201s; same character
DigiTech Whammy (WH-1 and later 4th gen) — Pitch shifting; “Paranoid Android” and throughout
Mutronics Mutator — Filter/envelope processor; “Paranoid Android” solo
Boss LS-2 Line Selector — A/B signal routing between amps
Boss FV-300H Volume Pedal (later Ernie Ball VP Jr.) — Main volume control
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive — Light crunch on the clean channel; replaced by Boss OD-3 in later years
Boss OD-3 OverDrive — Current clean channel crunch pedal
Boss RV-3 Digital Reverb — Supplemental reverb
DOD 440 Envelope Filter — Documented in the 1997 rig; auto-wah/envelope filter character
Demeter TRM-1 Tremulator — Optical tremolo for atmospheric passages
EHX PolyChorus — Chorus/ensemble effect
Pro Co RAT — Additional distortion option in specific contexts
Korg KP2 Kaoss Pad — Live performance in 2001 “Kid A” era for real-time effect manipulation
MXR Phase 90 — Phaser for specific tonal applications
Akai Headrush — Delay/looping
Lovetone Meatball — Envelope filter used in later eras
Line 6 DL4 — Versatile delay for multi-tempo configurations

Tone note: The Marshall ShredMaster and the Roland Space Echo. Everything else is supplementary. Those two effects, alongside the Telecaster’s killswitch, produce more of the identifiable Jonny Greenwood sound than anything else in the combined list.

Strings, Picks & Setup

Strings (electric): Most sources indicate Dean Markley strings in .010–.046 gauge for the electric guitars. The Lace Sensor pickups of the Telecaster Plus are responsive to string material — their low-noise, high-output character responds well to nickel-wound strings in this gauge range.

Strings (acoustic): Martin SP Phosphor Bronze in .011–.052 gauge for acoustic work.

Picks: Grey Dunlop Nylon .60mm — a relatively light-medium gauge nylon pick. The nylon material produces a softer attack than Tortex or Delrin picks, with a slight flexibility that affects how single-coil Telecaster pickups respond to the initial pick strike. The .60mm gauge is consistent with a player who uses the pick for rhythm and melodic work without requiring the rigidity of heavy-gauge options.

Setup specifics:

Lace Sensor Blue (neck) and Lace Sensor Red (bridge) in the Tele1 — Low-noise, transparent-sounding pickups; Red is more output-heavy than standard Blue
Killswitch replaces bridge pickup coil-split function — practical substitution that gets more use
Volume knob removed — only the pot remains functional
Pickup selector tape — functional improvisation
Guitar string ball-end — the most unusual modification; allows extended range ghost notes
Cello bow for Starcaster — not a modification but a technique accessory

Tone note: The pickup selector has no knob — just tape. The volume control has no knob — just the bare pot. The killswitch replaced something else. The guitar is progressively being stripped of its conventional operating interface and rebuilt for his specific musical needs. That’s the Greenwood approach: the instrument should do exactly what’s needed and nothing else.

Tunings & Tone Philosophy

Standard E tuning for the vast majority of Radiohead’s guitar work. Drop tunings appear on specific songs — the viola-like depths of certain Radiohead tracks suggest some down-tuned work in studio contexts.

Greenwood’s tone philosophy is the most anti-conventional in this series. He has never expressed strong attachment to specific gear beyond what produces the sounds he needs. The ShredMaster is kept because it works. The Starcaster is kept because it sounds different from the Telecaster in ways that matter for specific songs. The RE-201 was used until it wore out, then replaced with a digital version that captures its character. The ball-end of a guitar string is screwed into the pickguard because it solves a specific problem.

There is no fetishism of vintage gear, no chasing of specific pickup impedances, no obsession with amp tone. There is instead a complete focus on: does this produce the sound the music needs? If yes: keep it. If not: find something that does.

This approach is both consistent with his background in classical music — where the instrument serves the composition, rather than the composition serving the instrument’s capabilities — and with Radiohead’s broader philosophy of treating each album as a fresh sonic problem to be solved rather than a continuation of an established aesthetic.

Tone note: He keeps the ShredMaster because it works. He plays a solid-state amp because it does what he needs. He screwed a guitar string ball-end into his pickguard to extend the playable range upward. These are the decisions of a composer who plays guitar, not a guitarist who writes music.

Playing Style & Tone Philosophy: The Composer Who Plays Guitar as an Act of Translation

Jonny Greenwood’s guitar playing is distinguished by something that is simultaneously obvious and rarely discussed: he plays guitar as a composer thinks, not as a guitarist thinks. The difference is profound.

The Compositional Approach

A guitarist thinks in terms of what the instrument can do: scales, positions, techniques, tones that the guitar naturally produces. A composer thinks in terms of what the music requires and then finds ways to produce it. Greenwood, trained as a classical musician before he was seriously trained as a guitarist, brings compositional thinking to everything he does with a guitar — which is why his guitar parts often don’t sound like guitar parts in the conventional sense.

The string section textures on OK Computer, the electronic noise on Kid A, the feedback passages on The Bends — all of these involve guitars, but none of them are organised around the guitar’s conventional melodic or harmonic vocabulary. They are organised around what the music needs at that moment, and Greenwood uses the guitar as one available tool for producing it.

Tone note: He thinks in sounds and works backward to find what instrument produces them. Most guitarists think in instruments and work forward to find what sounds they can make. The direction of the thinking changes everything about the results.

The Killswitch Technique on “Paranoid Android”

The stuttering, rhythmic killswitch effect on “Paranoid Android” is one of the most distinctive guitar moments of the 1990s — and it is produced with a momentary push-button switch installed in place of a pickup coil-split on a Telecaster Plus with Lace Sensor pickups, running through a Marshall ShredMaster into a Fender Eighty-Five. The technical apparatus is almost perversely simple for the result it produces.

The killswitch is active when pressed (cutting the signal), inactive when released (restoring the signal) — the reverse of Buckethead’s implementation. This means the “silence” in the stuttering effect is when Greenwood is pressing the switch, with sound appearing between presses. The rhythmic precision required to create musical patterns from this simple on/off mechanism demands both timing accuracy and the musical intelligence to know what pattern will serve the song.

Tone note: One of the most distinctive guitar sounds of the 1990s. One killswitch. One budget distortion pedal. One solid-state amp. The complexity is entirely in the musicianship, not the equipment.

The Feedback and Noise Vocabulary

Greenwood’s most experimental guitar work — particularly the noise and feedback passages on songs like “Just,” “The Bends,” and various live performances — treats the guitar’s natural tendency toward feedback as a musical resource rather than a problem to be managed. Standing near the amp, pointing the guitar at specific speaker positions, adjusting pickup heights and volume to encourage controlled sustain and feedback: these techniques transform the guitar from an instrument that produces notes into an instrument that produces continuous tones, drones, and textures.

His film score work has extended this vocabulary significantly: in scoring for Paul Thomas Anderson, he has used guitar as a textural and atmospheric instrument rather than a melodic one, processing it through the kind of signal chain that transforms guitar tone beyond recognition.

The Multi-Instrumentalist Dimension

The ondes martenot — the electronic keyboard instrument invented in 1928 — is perhaps the most important instrument in Greenwood’s post-OK Computer work. Its continuous, wavering tone, controlled through a ribbon and a ring on the player’s finger, produces sounds that sit between strings, theremin, and human voice. In Radiohead’s arrangements from Kid A onward, and in his film scores throughout, the ondes martenot provides emotional texture that no conventional guitar or keyboard can approximate.

His mastery of it — he is one of very few contemporary professional players of the instrument — represents the most complete commitment to an unusual instrument of any guitarist in this series. The ondes martenot requires dedicated study; Greenwood pursued it seriously because the music he was composing required it.

Tone note: He learned the ondes martenot because his music needed it. He modified his Telecaster with a guitar string ball-end because his playing needed it. Both decisions follow the same logic: what does the music require, and how do we produce it?

How to Sound Like Jonny Greenwood: Building the Radiohead Guitar Tone

Greenwood’s core tone is remarkably accessible in terms of equipment — the ShredMaster and a Telecaster are widely available, the Fender Eighty-Five can be found secondhand for minimal cost. The challenge is not replicating the gear but replicating the musical intelligence with which it’s used.

The Guitar

Fender Telecaster Plus, or any Telecaster with Lace Sensor or equivalent low-noise single-coil pickups. A killswitch can be added by any competent guitar tech. The guitar string ball-end is the strangest modification in this list, but it’s literally just a ball-end from a string, screwed in with a small fastener.

Fender Telecaster Plus — The original, if you can find one; Lace Sensor pickups give the specific tonal character
Fender Telecaster American Standard with Lace Sensor upgrade — Lace Sensor Blue and Red pickups are available separately and can be retrofitted
Any Fender Telecaster — The stock single-coils are closer to the Greenwood sound than any humbucker-equipped guitar
Killswitch installation — Replace the coil-split or an unused control with a momentary switch; guitar tech cost approximately $30–$50

The Amp

Paradoxically, the most authentic Greenwood amp choice is a solid-state Fender — either the Eighty-Five/Deluxe 85 or any comparable solid-state clean platform. Alternatively, a Vox AC30 running clean (with the ShredMaster providing all distortion character).

Control	Fender Eighty-Five (clean channel)	Vox AC30 (clean)	Notes
Volume / Gain	Clean — all distortion from ShredMaster	5–6 (edge of breakup)	The amp does NOT distort. The pedal provides all gain.
Treble	6	5–6	Present but controlled — the ShredMaster handles upper-mid aggression
Mid	6	AC30 EQ structure is different — use Cut control to shape	Mid presence for the Telecaster’s natural voice to cut through
Bass	5	5	Moderate — solid-state amps don’t naturally compress bass like tube amps

Tone note: The amp must be clean. This is the counterintuitive part. Set the amp to clean, engage the ShredMaster, and let the pedal’s character speak through an uncoloured solid-state power section. That’s the Creep guitar tone. That’s Paranoid Android. Both the same setup.

The Essential Pedals

Marshall ShredMaster — The non-negotiable. Find one secondhand or buy a clone. Set: Gain around 7–8, Bass around 5, Contour around 5–6, Volume at unity. The “Contour” control on the ShredMaster is a tilt EQ that shifts between bass and treble emphasis — this is where much of the pedal’s character lives.
Roland RE-201 Space Echo or Boss RE-20 — For the album-texture delay. The RE-20 is the practical modern equivalent and readily available.
DigiTech Whammy — For pitch effects when needed; not always on.
Boss SD-1 or OD-3 — Low gain, for adding crunch to the clean signal when the ShredMaster isn’t engaged.

Budget vs Pro Rigs

Budget — The Bends / OK Computer era:

Guitar: Fender Telecaster (any) with killswitch modification
Amp: Fender Frontman or any solid-state combo — clean channel; OR Vox AC15
Pedals: Marshall ShredMaster (secondhand ~$100–200) + Boss RE-20 + DigiTech Whammy
Picks: Dunlop Nylon .60mm (grey)
Strings: Dean Markley or equivalent .010–.046

Pro — Complete Greenwood setup:

Guitar: Fender Telecaster Plus with Lace Sensor Blue/Red pickups; killswitch replacing coil-split; volume knob removed; guitar string ball-end screwed in below neck
Amp: Fender Deluxe 85 (Eighty-Five) for dirty, Vox AC30 with Celestion Alnico Blue speakers for clean
Pedals: Marshall ShredMaster → Boss LS-2 → Fender Eighty-Five (dirty); Boss SD-1 → Roland RE-201 or Boss RE-20 → Vox AC30 (clean)

Tone note: The Marshall ShredMaster is the single most important pedal to find. Buy one. Learn the Contour control. Everything else is available from modern equivalents. The ShredMaster is irreplaceable for this specific sound.

The Approach

Develop the killswitch technique as a rhythmic tool — not for constant use, but for specific dramatic moments. Listen to “Paranoid Android” and identify exactly where the stutter appears and how it functions rhythmically within the bar. Then reproduce that rhythmic pattern on your killswitch. The technique is not impressive-sounding — it’s musically purposeful.

Beyond that: listen more to what the song needs than what the guitar can do. The specific anti-heroic quality of Greenwood’s playing — the restraint, the deliberate avoidance of conventional guitar hero moments — is a musical choice that requires resisting instinct rather than developing new technique. Play less when the song calls for less.

Influence & Legacy: The Anti-Hero Who Helped Redefine Rock Guitar

Jonny Greenwood’s influence on a generation of rock guitarists is paradoxically inverse: his most significant contribution may have been demonstrating that the guitar hero approach is not the only approach. In a decade (the 1990s) that began with grunge’s deliberate anti-virtuosity and ended with Radiohead’s systematic deconstruction of rock’s sonic conventions, Greenwood’s guitar playing occupied an increasingly important position as a model for using the guitar compositionally rather than performatively.

Guitarists who grew up with The Bends and OK Computer absorbed — consciously or not — the idea that the guitar could be subordinated to a larger musical whole without being diminished by that subordination. That a solo didn’t have to be the climax. That feedback and noise were as legitimate as melody. That a solid-state amp and a budget distortion pedal could produce something more interesting than an expensive vintage tube rig used conventionally.

The specific techniques he popularised — the killswitch stutter, the cello bow on electric guitar, the integration of ondes martenot textures into rock arrangements — have been absorbed into the vocabulary of experimental rock musicians broadly. They were not innovations in an absolute sense (the cello bow technique was Page’s, the killswitch had precedents) but Greenwood’s specific application of each was distinctive enough to constitute a new use.

His film score work has had a different kind of influence — on younger composers working in film, on the perceived possibilities of combining classical orchestra with experimental electronic and guitar-based textures, on the ambition of what a rock musician’s compositional career can extend to. The Oscar nomination for Spencer (2022) and the recognition of his film work as genuinely artistically significant rather than creditable-for-a-rock-musician confirms that the trajectory he began has produced results that transcend any single genre.

Rolling Stone’s ranking of him at number 59 in the “100 Greatest Guitarists” list is both an acknowledgment and a slight category error — he is not primarily a guitarist in the sense most of the other 99 are, and his most significant musical contributions are arguably not guitar-based. But as a guitarist, the influence is genuine and documented: a generation of players who decided that restraint, compositional thinking, and the pursuit of unusual sounds through unusual means were at least as valuable as technical proficiency.

Tone note: His most influential contribution to guitar culture might be showing that the guitar doesn’t have to be the point of the music. That’s an unusual thing for a guitarist to teach other guitarists. It’s also exactly right.

At the Denmark Street guitar shop in London in 1992, a young musician who primarily played viola spent his EMI signing advance on a Fender Telecaster Plus and a Fender Eighty-Five solid-state amp. He bought them not because they were the most prestigious instruments available or the ones with the most gear community approval, but because they were there and they could do what he needed.

Thirty-plus years later, the Telecaster Plus — tobacco burst, no volume knob, tape on the pickup selector, guitar string ball-end below the neck, killswitch where the coil-split was — is still his primary guitar. The Fender Eighty-Five is still his primary distortion amp. The Marshall ShredMaster is still his primary distortion pedal. The Roland Space Echo has worn out and been replaced with a digital version that captures its sound.

Somewhere in the rack is the Boss RE-20 running the Space Echo sound he has used on every Radiohead album since 1997.

The ondes martenot is in its case in the corner.

The viola is somewhere too.

He never did end up at the back of a minor orchestra’s viola section. He ended up somewhere considerably more interesting, playing considerably more instruments, making considerably stranger music than anyone at Oxford Brookes University in 1992 would have predicted for the younger brother of Radiohead’s bassist.

The Telecaster does not look like a magic instrument. The amp does not look like a magic amp. Neither does any of the rest of it. But that’s never been the point.

If Greenwood’s approach to the guitar as a compositional tool within a larger ensemble has you thinking about how texture and sound design can matter more than conventional technique, check out our complete guide to Matt Bellamy’s guitars and gear — another player who built an instrument ecosystem to serve specific musical goals, arriving at very different conclusions from the same basic question.

And for the guitarist who came closest to the Radiohead tradition of treating effects and noise as primary musical vocabulary rather than decoration, don’t miss our deep dive on Tom Morello’s gear and technique — the player Greenwood cited as an early influence, who similarly treated the guitar as a tool for producing sounds that existed nowhere else.

FAQ: Jonny Greenwood Guitars & Gear

What guitar does Jonny Greenwood play?: A Fender Telecaster Plus in Tobacco Burst finish — purchased at Denmark Street in London in 1992 with Radiohead’s EMI signing advance. The guitar has Lace Sensor Blue (neck) and Lace Sensor Red (bridge) pickups and has been modified by Greenwood and Radiohead guitar tech “Plank”: the coil-split replaced by a killswitch; the volume knob removed; the pickup selector knob replaced with tape; and a guitar string ball-end screwed into the body below the neck for playing ghost notes beyond the normal fretboard range. He also uses a 1975 Fender Starcaster for mellow and atmospheric material.
What amplifier does Jonny Greenwood use for distortion?: A Fender Deluxe 85 (Eighty-Five) — a solid-state combo amp from the late 1980s, purchased at Denmark Street in 1992 alongside the Telecaster Plus. Critically, he uses it on the clean channel — the amp itself does not distort. All distortion comes from the Marshall ShredMaster pedal running into the clean input. This solid-state amp is confirmed as the amp on “Creep” by the album’s producers. He uses a Vox AC30 (with Celestion Alnico Blue speakers) for clean tones.
What is the Marshall ShredMaster and why is it important to Jonny Greenwood?: The Marshall ShredMaster is a solid-state distortion pedal from the early 1990s designed to emulate British amp crunch at an affordable price. Greenwood has used it as his primary distortion source since the beginning of Radiohead’s career — it was used on every song on Pablo Honey except “Thinking About You,” and continues through “The Bends,” “Paranoid Android,” and beyond. It runs into the clean channel of his Fender Eighty-Five solid-state amp. Together, they produce some of the most recognised guitar sounds of 1990s alternative rock using what is, by most measures, non-prestigious equipment.
What is the Roland Space Echo’s role in Jonny Greenwood’s sound?: Greenwood has recorded with either the Roland RE-201 Space Echo (a vintage tape-based delay unit) or its digital successor the Boss RE-20 on every Radiohead album since OK Computer (1997). The Space Echo’s characteristic warmth and tape degradation give his recordings a textural quality distinct from digital delay. His original RE-201 units wore out over time and were replaced with the RE-20 digital emulation. It is the single most consistent gear presence across Radiohead’s entire classic period.
What is the guitar string ball-end modification on Jonny’s Telecaster?: A ball-end from a guitar string is physically screwed into the body of the guitar just below the neck. Greenwood hooks the high E string onto this ball-end during playing to produce particularly high notes beyond the normal fretboard range — ghost notes that would otherwise be inaccessible on a standard instrument. This modification was present on the guitar during the recording of OK Computer and has remained on the instrument since. It is the most unusual guitar modification in this entire series of GuitarGangsters profiles.
What other instruments does Jonny Greenwood play?: In addition to guitar, Greenwood plays viola (his primary instrument during adolescence, in which he received formal classical training), ondes martenot (a 1928 electronic keyboard instrument whose continuous, wavering tone is controlled by a keyboard and a ring; used extensively in Radiohead recordings from Kid A onward and in his film scores), piano, organ, xylophone, glockenspiel, banjo, harmonica, and drums. He has composed film scores for Paul Thomas Anderson including There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread, and Licorice Pizza, and serves as composer-in-residence for the BBC Concert Orchestra.
How do I get Jonny Greenwood’s guitar tone?: The core setup: a Fender Telecaster (ideally a Plus with Lace Sensor pickups) with a killswitch installed in place of the coil-split; a Marshall ShredMaster distortion pedal set to high gain; a clean solid-state amp (Fender Eighty-Five or equivalent) with the ShredMaster providing all distortion; a Roland Space Echo or Boss RE-20 for atmospheric delay. The amp must be clean — the ShredMaster is the distortion source. A DigiTech Whammy adds pitch-shift moments when needed. The killswitch technique on “Paranoid Android” requires practice: it cuts when pressed (opposite to Buckethead’s implementation) and the rhythmic pattern it creates is musically specific to each song.