Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)

Jonny Greenwood, lead guitarist for Radiohead, has recorded some of the most instantly recognizable guitar tones of all time, with the outro solo on Paranoid Android, from the OK Computer album, a shining example.

Greenwood’s guitar rig is a relatively traditional one, for someone that has carved out their name as creating futuristic, trippy tones.

Guitar wise, Greenwood favours Fender Telecasters for the most part. He’s often seen playing either a Fender Telecaster Plus, or a Fender Telecaster Standard, both modified with custom kill switches, and fitted with Lace Sensor pickups. He is said to use a Blue Lace Sensor pick-up in the neck position and a dual Red Lace Sensor pick-ups in the bridge position. The dual Red Lace Sensors are wired up like a traditional humbucker. These guitars featured heavily on Radiohead’s earlier work, with a Fender Starcaster, a bizarre looking guitar from the 70’s getting some heavy use for Kid A and Amnesiac.

String wise he favours Dean Markley Signature Series 10-46 strings.

He has also been seen using the following at times:

• Gretsch G6119-1962HT Tennessee Rose HT
• Gibson Les Paul HD.6X-Pro Digital
• Gibson ES-335 (used on the acoustic Tour 2003)
• Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (used for ‘The Headmaster Ritual’ on the Thumbs Down Webcast)
• Martin D-35
• Taylor Big Baby

In the early years he used a Fender Twin Reverb for clean tones and a Fender Deluxe 85 (a solid state amp from the 80’s) for distorted tones. Now days, his amplifier line up features a Vox AC30 for clean tones, and a Fender Eighty Five (solid state) for distorted tones. His entire effects chain is sent through the Vox AC30 except the Shredmaster.

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Greenwoods effects setup has remained relatively consistent through the years with a few pedals moving around or being retired for newer models. For the most part his effects have been split across two boards.

Below are pictures of his pedal boards from mid-2006.

The silver footswitch (a Vox Silver Egg footswitch) that sits just below the second board is used to switch on and off the Roland Space Echo RE-201 unit. The Space Echo itself is not technically a pedal, but a vintage tape machine that produces delay and reverb effects. Greenwood has used the RE-201 extensively across numerous Radiohead recordings for heavy delay/echo effects that tend to modulate slightly. You can hear the RE-201 on tracks such as Subterranean Homesick Alien, Airbag and Exit Music.

From 2007 Greenwood started to use the BOSS RE-20 in conjunction with the Roland RE-201 Space Echo. With the technical issues that you’d associate with older tape machines starting to mount up, the RE-201 was eventually retired from live use around 2010.

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For the 2010 Benefit for Haiti there were a couple of new additions:

• BOSS OD3 Overdrive (replacing the BOSS SD-1)
• BOSS RE20 (substituting for the Roland RE-201 Space Echo)
• Akai Headrush E2 (replacing the Akai Headrush E1)

Greenwood also uses a Mutronics Mutator in the studio, with the DOD440 acting as a substitute when playing live. The Mutronics Mutator is a rack unit and if you’re lucky enough to find one second hand these days you can expect to pay $3,500+ USD.

It’s rumoured that Greenwood used a Pro Co RAT Turbo RAT Distortion during ‘The Bends’ era and while I’ve seen references to this online I haven’t been able to find an image or video that would support it. Thom Yorke has used a Turbo Rat in the past so potentially it’s just a misunderstanding.

If you haven’t given Radiohead a listen yet, I’d highly recommend checking out OK Computer as an entry point, it’s a truly great album.