“The guitar to me is like an oscillator on a synthesizer — it’s the start of a sound rather than the sound in itself,” Ed O’Brien told Guitar World. He is Radiohead’s unsung guitar hero — where Jonny Greenwood gets the headlines for the band’s experimental non-guitar approaches and Thom Yorke’s songwriting and performance define the band’s emotional center, O’Brien occupies the hardest-to-describe role in rock guitar: the guitarist whose specific contribution is texture, atmosphere, and the specifically non-guitar-like sounds that the guitar can make when subjected to enough processing. He was “always drawn to sounds that didn’t sound like the guitar,” he told MusicRadar. His role in Radiohead is to “service the songs” — his own phrase for his contribution — and servicing Radiohead’s songs from OK Computer (1997) through In Rainbows (2007) and The King of Limbs (2011) required developing one of the most extensive and most specifically functional effects collections in rock guitar. The Pedaltrain PT-Grande 42″ pedalboard he uses is specifically designed for maximum accessibility: TheGigRig’s explanation when they built it: “Ed, when he plays, a large part of his sound is actually tweaking the knobs of all the pedals, so he can’t have anything that is not ridiculously easy to get at. So he wants everything laid out flat.” The guitar as oscillator. The pedals as the synthesis. The knobs as the compositional tools.
Edward John O’Brien was born on April 15, 1968, in Oxford, England. He attended Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, where he met Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, and Philip Selway — the schoolmates who would form Radiohead in 1985. His first guitar was a Squier Stratocaster, bought in 1986: “I got my first strat, it was a Squier strat. And it was 1986… I played it on Pablo Honey and The Bends.” Rolling Stone named him the 59th greatest guitarist of all time in 2010. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Radiohead in 2019. He released his debut solo album, Earth, in April 2020 as EOB — inspired by his time living in Brazil and attending Carnival. His second solo album, Blue Morpho, is due in May 2026. He continues as a member of Radiohead.
Background: Abingdon School, “Servicing the Songs,” Kid A Evolution, EOB Solo Career
O’Brien’s self-described role in Radiohead — “service the songs” — is the most humble and most accurate description of what a rhythm/texture guitarist in a band with a dominant songwriter does. Thom Yorke writes the songs; Jonny Greenwood processes and re-processes everything through an extraordinary range of non-guitar and guitar sounds; Colin Greenwood and Philip Selway provide the rhythmic and harmonic foundation; O’Brien provides the atmosphere, the texture, the sounds “that didn’t sound like the guitar” that give Radiohead’s music its specific sense of space and air. He is, in the specific terminology of sound design, the ambient component of a band that is simultaneously ambient and rock.
His evolution from the Squier Stratocaster of Pablo Honey (1993) to the extraordinarily complex pedalboard of the Kid A/Amnesiac era reflects the specific trajectory of Radiohead’s music: from indie rock (Pablo Honey, The Bends) through alternative rock with experimental production (OK Computer) into the fully electronic and post-rock territory where conventional guitar had to be disguised as something else (Kid A, Amnesiac). The Fernandes Sustainer pickup — which sustains individual notes indefinitely through electromagnetic feedback induction — was the specific technological tool that allowed him to create the long, sustained, drone-like guitar textures that the Kid A period required without the feedback problems of conventional sustain. The EBow — a handheld electromagnetic device that bows individual strings to produce violin-like sustained tones — was the complementary tool: different in mechanism but achieving the same goal of long, smooth, non-percussive sustain.
His MusicRadar characterization as “the unsung hero of Radiohead” is accurate and slightly ironic: he is “unsung” because what he does is specifically designed to not be noticed as “guitar playing” in the conventional sense — to blend into the texture, to create atmosphere without asserting presence. When the guitar is being an oscillator rather than a guitar, the guitarist who is doing this work is invisible in exactly the way that a successful ambient composer is invisible. You feel the effect; you don’t hear the mechanism.
The Brazil period — living in São Paulo and attending Carnival, which he described as “a musical eureka moment” — produced the specific Brazilian-influenced rhythmic and melodic character of the EOB debut album Earth (2020): a departure from Radiohead’s British experimental rock toward a sunnier, more groove-oriented sound. His second album, Blue Morpho (May 2026), continues this solo work.
The Rig: Ed O’Brien’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
Fender EOB Sustainer Stratocaster (Primary Guitar, Signature Model with Fernandes Sustainer): Ed O’Brien’s primary and most distinctive guitar is the Fender EOB Sustainer Stratocaster — a signature model developed in collaboration with Fender and released in November 2017. Its defining feature is the Fernandes Sustainer neck pickup: an electromagnetic sustainer system that replaces the standard neck pickup with a driver unit that induces continuous electromagnetic vibration in the strings, sustaining notes and chords indefinitely without requiring high amplifier volume or physical feedback proximity. This system allows O’Brien to create the specific long, drone-like, infinitely sustained guitar textures that are central to Radiohead’s Kid A/Amnesiac era sound — textures that sound like bowed strings, or synthesizer pads, or wind instruments, but are produced from a guitar string.
The guitar otherwise maintains the classic Stratocaster architecture: an alder body, a maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard, a tremolo bridge, and a bridge humbucker replacing the standard single-coil for additional output in the bridge position. The MusicRadar interview captures his description of why the Fernandes Sustainer was central: “I was always drawn to sounds that didn’t sound like the guitar.” The Sustainer is the tool that most directly allows this — a guitar that can produce sounds that don’t sound like guitar-plucked strings because the strings are vibrating from electromagnetic induction rather than from pick or finger attack.
Squier Stratocaster (First Guitar, Pablo Honey and The Bends Era): O’Brien’s musical origin is documented with characteristic candor: “I got my first strat, it was a Squier strat. And it was 1986… I played it on Pablo Honey and The Bends.” The Squier Stratocaster — the budget version of the Fender Stratocaster, made in Japan or Korea to lower specifications — was his primary instrument through Radiohead’s formative commercial breakthrough. The Squier on Pablo Honey and The Bends is one of the more remarkable instances of a major record being made on a budget instrument, reflecting both Radiohead’s relatively modest early resources and O’Brien’s lack of concern about guitar prestige relative to sonic result.
Fernandes Native Pro (All I Need, Specific Song): The Fernandes Native Pro — an unusual guitar from the Japanese builder known for its sustainer pickup systems — appears in O’Brien’s gear for specific applications. “Ed uses a Fernandes Native Pro in this video of ‘All I Need’ by Radiohead. There is a clear view of him playing the guitar at 2:35” per Equipboard. The Fernandes Native Pro is essentially a Strat-style guitar with the Fernandes Sustainer system built in — a different instrument than the custom EOB Strat but serving the same sustainer function.
Plank Custom Guitars #1 and #2 (1994, Semi-Hollow Customs): Two custom guitars made by Plank in 1994 appear in O’Brien’s documented collection — “This guitar is a semi-hollow body guitar made by Ed and Plank in 1994 to serve as a backup to the Plank-Ed #1.” The semi-hollow construction provides the specific acoustic warmth and resonance that solid-body Stratocasters don’t have, and the custom specification (designed with O’Brien’s specific requirements in mind) gave him instruments not available from any production line. The 1994 date places these in the OK Computer pre-production period, when his tonal exploration was becoming more complex.
1972 Fender Telecaster (Shoreline Gold, Primary on Earth): O’Brien’s primary guitar for the EOB Earth album (2020) was a Shoreline Gold 1972 Fender Telecaster — purchased during a “spree” when Radiohead attended the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 2009 (“In Rainbows was up for Best Album. I had a bit of a spree during that trip. I bought [the Martin acoustic], a ’72 Tele and an old ’68 Fender amp”). “My Telecaster got used a lot. I think the main guitars on this record were the Tele and the EOB Strat, plus my 335 for ‘Long Time Coming.'” The vintage Telecaster’s specific bright, cutting character and the Shoreline Gold color’s visual identity both appear in the Earth recording context.
Gibson ES-335 (Long Time Coming, Earth Album): A Gibson ES-335 appears in O’Brien’s documented collection specifically for “Long Time Coming” on the Earth album — “plus my 335 for Long Time Coming.” The ES-335’s semi-hollow warmth and the full humbucking pickup character provided a different tonal palette from the Stratocater and Telecaster for that specific track.
Martin 000-18 (1959) and Martin D-28 (Acoustic): O’Brien’s acoustic instruments include a 1959 Martin 000-18 — “I used one acoustic a lot — this Martin 000-18 I’ve got, I think it’s a 1959 — all the acoustics are that” — and a Martin D-28. The 1959 Martin 000-18 is a pre-war-construction-influenced small-body acoustic from the height of Martin’s post-war quality period, providing the specific warm, balanced acoustic character of that era’s all-mahogany construction.
EBow (Sustain Tool, Radiohead Essential): The EBow (Electronic Bow) — a handheld electromagnetic device that, when held over a guitar string, induces the string to vibrate continuously like a bowed string — is one of the most important tools in O’Brien’s approach to creating sustained, non-percussive guitar textures. Unlike the Fernandes Sustainer (which works electromagnetically from the pickup cavity), the EBow is handheld and allows the guitarist to move it from string to string, creating individual sustained notes in sequence rather than full-chord sustain. The EBow’s specific sound — violin-like, continuous, without the transient attack of plucked or picked strings — is a central element of Radiohead’s atmospheric guitar texture.
Amps
Fender Pro Junior IV Combos (Primary 2020 Solo Tour Amps): For his 2020 EOB solo tour, O’Brien’s documented primary amplifiers were “a pair of Fender Pro Junior IV combos… mounted on Fender Small Amp stands.” The Pro Junior IV is a simple, low-wattage (15 watts) single-channel combo with a 10-inch speaker — a basic, clean platform that allows his effects chain to define the sound rather than the amplifier’s character. Running two in stereo creates the spatial width appropriate for his effects-heavy approach.
Various Radiohead Tour Amplifiers: O’Brien’s Radiohead tour rigs have used various amplifiers across different album cycles — the specific amplifier choice less important than the effects chain it serves. His pedalboard’s philosophy (the knobs of the pedals are the primary sound-shaping tools) means the amplifier is primarily a volume and power source rather than a tonal instrument.
Vintage Silverface Fender (Purchased with 1972 Telecaster): A 1968 Silverface Fender amplifier (described as “some kind of 6×10 Silverface”) was purchased alongside the 1972 Telecaster during the 2009 Los Angeles spree. The Silverface Fender’s specific American tube character — clean, warm, with natural compression at higher volumes — suited the Earth recording sessions alongside the vintage Telecaster.
Effects: The Primary Instrument
Pedaltrain PT-Grande 42″ Flat Pedalboard (The Architecture of the Sound): The physical basis of O’Brien’s effects approach is documented by TheGigRig in a July 2014 video about his pedalboard build: “Ed, when he plays, a large part of his sound is actually tweaking the knobs of all the pedals, so he can’t have anything that is not ridiculously easy to get at. So he wants everything laid out flat. This is why we’ve gone for a Pedaltrain Grande.” The Pedaltrain PT-Grande 42″ is an unusually large, single-tier flat pedalboard that provides maximum accessibility for all pedals simultaneously. The choice of a flat, accessible layout over a compact multi-tier configuration reflects his performance philosophy: the pedal knobs are instruments, and he needs to reach all of them at any moment during a performance.
Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler (Essential Delay, Career Constant): The Line 6 DL4 is one of the most important and most consistently documented pieces in O’Brien’s effects chain — a multi-mode digital delay with 15 delay algorithm models (including tape echo, analog delay, and reverse delay simulations) and a looping function. The DL4’s wide range of delay characters allows him to access different temporal effects for different songs and passages without multiple dedicated delay pedals. Its looping function allows live loop building, creating sustained guitar textures in real time.
Boss RV-3 Digital Reverb/Delay and DD-3 Digital Delay (Radiohead-Era): The Boss RV-3 and DD-3 appear in O’Brien’s documented Radiohead rig for specific reverb and delay applications — the RV-3’s combined reverb/delay function providing spatial depth, the DD-3 providing discrete echo for melodic passages.
Electro-Harmonix Freeze (Sound Retainer, Infinite Sustain): The EHX Freeze is a “sound retainer” pedal that freezes the guitar signal at the moment of activation, holding it infinitely while new notes are played over the frozen chord. Used in combination with the Fernandes Sustainer and the EBow, the Freeze allows O’Brien to create multiple layers of sustained guitar texture simultaneously — a frozen chord underneath while new notes are played over it, creating the specific ambient drone quality of Radiohead’s most atmospheric passages.
Boss FV-500L Volume Pedal (Low Impedance, Signal Management): The Boss FV-500L Volume Pedal (Low Impedance version, for use in effects loops rather than before the input) appears in O’Brien’s documented signal chain for volume swells and dynamic control. Volume pedal swells — bringing the guitar signal in after the note’s initial transient attack has decayed — eliminate the percussive “pick attack” and create the specific smooth, string-like sustain that gives atmospheric guitar its specific quality.
Boss DD-5 and DD-6 Digital Delay (Various Radiohead Albums): Multiple Boss delay units appear in O’Brien’s documented rigs across different Radiohead album cycles — the Boss compact delay family providing reliable, accessible digital delay across different maximum times and feedback settings.
TC Electronic and Other Modulation Effects (Chorus, Phasing): Various TC Electronic and other modulation effects appear in O’Brien’s documented rig across different periods — chorus, phasing, and tremolo providing the modulation dimension that gives sustained guitar textures their specific movement and aliveness.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Ed O’Brien’s playing style is the most specifically non-guitar in this guide — a style built around the sustained, the atmospheric, and the specifically non-plucked-string sounds that guitar electronics and signal processing can produce. His Guitar World statement — “The guitar to me is like an oscillator on a synthesizer — it’s the start of a sound rather than the sound in itself” — is the most philosophically precise description of his approach: the guitar is an input device, the effects chain and sustain tools are the actual sound-producing system, and the guitar’s conventional identity as a melodic, harmonic, rhythmic instrument is consistently dissolved in favor of its potential as a raw sound source for synthesis.
The specific techniques he uses — the Fernandes Sustainer for indefinite sustain, the EBow for violin-like sustained individual notes, the EHX Freeze for frozen chords, the volume pedal swells for attack-free sustain entry, the Line 6 DL4 for temporal manipulation of the sustained signal — are all tools for eliminating the percussive, pick-attack character of conventional guitar playing and replacing it with the smooth, sustained, continuous sound quality of synthesizers, strings, and wind instruments. He is not trying to make the guitar sound like a guitar; he is trying to make it sound like whatever Radiohead’s music needs at that moment.
His MusicRadar characterization of his role is the necessary context: “Ed’s role is harder to define — but that’s exactly how he likes it.” The diffuse, ambient, atmospheric dimension of Radiohead’s sound — the element that distinguishes their music from conventional alternative rock despite all of their music’s rock genre credentials — is primarily O’Brien’s contribution. When OK Computer sounds like it exists in space rather than in a recording studio, that is partly O’Brien’s specific approach to creating sounds that are simultaneously guitar and not-guitar, simultaneously rock and not-rock.
How to Sound Like Ed O’Brien
Guitar: The Fender EOB Sustainer Stratocaster is the authentic starting point — its Fernandes Sustainer neck pickup is the specific tool that makes his most characteristic sounds possible. For budget alternatives: a Fernandes Sustainer-equipped guitar (Fernandes makes several production models with the Sustainer built in) or a standard Stratocaster with an EBow for the sustained-string effect.
Amp: A clean, flat, transparent combo — Fender Pro Junior, Roland JC-120, or any clean solid-state or tube amp with minimal coloration. The amplifier is a transparent platform for the effects chain.
Amp Settings (Fender Pro Junior / Clean Tube Combo):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | 4–6 | Clean — the effects do the tonal work, not the amp |
| Tone | 5 | Flat — neutral, transparent character |
Effects approach: Activate the Fernandes Sustainer → use volume pedal swells to eliminate pick attack → add Line 6 DL4 delay (tape echo mode, moderate feedback, 400–800ms delay time) → add EHX Freeze for chord drone underneath new notes → use EBow for individual sustained notes when needed. The specific combination of these sustain tools with temporal effects creates the characteristic O’Brien sound. Experiment with the order: as with Guthrie’s distortion-chorus-delay philosophy, the sequence of effects matters as much as the effects themselves.
Influence & Legacy
Ed O’Brien’s influence is the most specific and the most hard to trace of any guitarist in this guide — because what he does is specifically designed to not be traceable as “guitar playing.” The ambient, atmospheric, sustained guitar textures of Radiohead’s Kid A through In Rainbows era have been absorbed into the general vocabulary of indie, electronic, and post-rock music in ways that are pervasive but not attributed. Every indie artist who uses an EBow or a volume pedal swell or an EHX Freeze is working in O’Brien’s territory; most of them don’t know they are.
His connection to Neil Halstead (Series 2 #158) of Slowdive as a parallel figure in the British atmospheric guitar tradition reflects the shared aesthetic environment — both musicians developed in the British alternative rock scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s, both absorbed the Cocteau Twins and dream-pop tradition, and both developed specific approaches to making the guitar sound like something it isn’t conventionally understood as. His connection to Robin Guthrie (Series 2 #157) as an antecedent reflects the specific lineage: Guthrie established the effects-as-composition approach in the early 1980s; O’Brien extended it with new technology in the 1990s and 2000s.
His connection to Jason Pierce (Series 2 #160) of Spiritualized — another British guitarist whose approach to the guitar as atmospheric instrument parallels O’Brien’s — reflects the specific character of the British alternative rock tradition at its most experimental and most sonically ambitious. Both musicians work in the space between guitar music and electronic music, using guitar instruments to produce sounds that challenge the genre’s conventional identity.
Internal Links:
- Neil Halstead of Slowdive, a parallel figure in the British atmospheric guitar tradition at #158
- Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins, the foundational figure in the British effects-as-composition approach O’Brien extended at #157
- Jason Pierce of Spiritualized, another British guitarist working in the space between guitar music and electronic music at #160
- Jonny Greenwood, O’Brien’s Radiohead bandmate whose experimental guitar approach complements his (Series 1)
Frequently Asked Questions: Ed O’Brien Radiohead Guitars & Gear
What guitar does Ed O’Brien play?
O’Brien’s primary and most distinctive guitar is the Fender EOB Sustainer Stratocaster — his signature model released in November 2017, featuring a Fernandes Sustainer pickup system in the neck position that sustains notes and chords indefinitely through electromagnetic induction. He began with a Squier Stratocaster (used on Pablo Honey and The Bends). Other documented guitars include custom Plank semi-hollow guitars (1994), a Fernandes Native Pro, a 1972 Fender Telecaster in Shoreline Gold (primary on the Earth album), a Gibson ES-335, and a 1959 Martin 000-18 acoustic alongside a Martin D-28.
What is the Fernandes Sustainer and why does O’Brien use it?
The Fernandes Sustainer is an electromagnetic pickup system that replaces the standard neck pickup with a driver unit that induces continuous electromagnetic vibration in the strings, sustaining notes and chords indefinitely. Unlike conventional sustain (which requires high volume and proximity to speakers for feedback), the Sustainer works at any volume and produces smooth, continuous sustain without feedback problems. O’Brien uses it because it allows him to create the long, drone-like, infinitely sustained guitar textures central to Radiohead’s Kid A/Amnesiac era — sounds that can resemble bowed strings, synthesizer pads, or wind instruments — consistent with his stated goal of sounds “that didn’t sound like the guitar.”
Why does O’Brien want his pedalboard completely flat?
TheGigRig documented the reasoning when building O’Brien’s Pedaltrain PT-Grande 42″ pedalboard: “Ed, when he plays, a large part of his sound is actually tweaking the knobs of all the pedals, so he can’t have anything that is not ridiculously easy to get at.” His performance approach involves active, real-time adjustment of pedal parameters — not just switching pedals on and off, but physically turning knobs during performance to evolve the sound. A flat layout allows him to reach every knob on every pedal simultaneously without the obscuring tiers of a compact multi-tier board.
What is the EBow and how does O’Brien use it?
The EBow (Electronic Bow) is a handheld electromagnetic device that, when held near a guitar string, induces continuous vibration like a bowed instrument, producing a violin-like sustained tone without pick or finger attack. Unlike the Fernandes Sustainer (which works from within the pickup cavity and sustains all strings simultaneously), the EBow is handheld and applies to individual strings in sequence. O’Brien uses it to create individual sustained notes with the specific smooth, continuous quality of bowed strings — central to the ambient, atmospheric texture of Radiohead’s most ethereal passages.
What is Ed O’Brien’s philosophy about guitar playing?
O’Brien’s philosophy is summarized in two of his Guitar World/MusicRadar quotes: “The guitar to me is like an oscillator on a synthesizer — it’s the start of a sound rather than the sound in itself” and “I was always drawn to sounds that didn’t sound like the guitar.” He views the guitar as an input device for a sound-design system rather than as an instrument in itself — the guitar produces a raw signal that his effects chain and sustain tools transform into whatever the song requires. His role in Radiohead is to “service the songs,” providing atmospheric texture and ambient dimension rather than lead melodies or conventional rhythm guitar.
What is the EOB solo project?
EOB is O’Brien’s solo project, named with his initials. His debut album Earth (April 2020, Capitol Records) was inspired by his time living in Brazil and attending Carnival — described as a “musical eureka moment” that introduced Brazilian rhythmic and melodic sensibility into his British alternative rock background. Earth features Colin Greenwood (Radiohead), Laura Marling, and Adrian Utley (Portishead) among others. The first track was “Brasil,” released December 2019. His second album, Blue Morpho, is due May 2026. The Earth tour was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
How does O’Brien’s role differ from Jonny Greenwood’s in Radiohead?
The two guitarists occupy distinct but complementary roles. Jonny Greenwood plays wiry, acerbic, often anti-melodic guitar lines and is responsible for many of Radiohead’s most distinctive experimental sounds, including ondes Martenot and string arrangements. O’Brien’s role is specifically atmospheric — he provides the ambient backdrop, the sustained textures, the sounds “that didn’t sound like the guitar.” Where Greenwood tends to create foreground sonic events (unusual timbres that demand attention), O’Brien creates background environments (sustained atmospheres that support the other elements without asserting themselves). Together they create a three-guitar band (with Thom Yorke’s rhythm guitar) where each guitarist occupies a distinct sonic territory.
