EOBs and EUBs

I am so in love with my Ed O’Brien Strat right now… time to talk shop for a minute or two about guitars, both Stratocasters and non-Strats. And I’d love to hear what you think in the comments - which of yours is your favourite guitar? How do you get on with Strats? Let me know at the end of the article.

so what am i talking about?

If you’re not a nerd about guitars, you may not know. And if you’re not a nerd about music (specifically Radiohead) you might not know EOB either!

Ed O’Brien of RH

Ed O’ Brien and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead are some of the most innovative sonic guitarists in the last two decades, taking effects and their overall approach to guitar-playing very differently to many before them. Perhaps influenced by pioneers such as Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Radiohead use(d?*) effects to the nth degree, going beyond even guitarists like The Edge, who - whatever you think of him/ U2 - created a distinctive, recognisable guitar sound using delay effects: something he wouldn’t have been able to do without expanding his sonic canvas.

EOB STRAT

With just the sound of a guitar into an amplifier, there’s only so much you can do… but with the Signature series Stratocaster with which Ed O’Brien worked with Fender, there’s an extra trick up your sleeve.

I have been using this guitar extensively, because of this extra trick. And the trick is eternal sustain!

Again, for the uninitiated, a brief explanation…. This guitar has a special pickup (pictured across) which allows you to play a note, and it will ring out, or sustain basically forever.

You can find more info here.

The sustained sound allows me to create tonal variances, almost like a background layer of sound, along with an effect pedal, my EHX Freeze. The character is also more like a synthesiser, because the sound is less attack-y and more organic sounding, like a pure sine wave or something!

So I’ve been playing this guitar and it’s been inspiring new songs, as playing a different or new guitar always seems to. The live trio of Temporal Comet is cooking up some new music and attempting to get some gigs booked throughout the year, starting March 2024!

My Strats, with the EOB on the left

I took some pictures of my guitar and popped them on instagram - link here.

What else?

Well, I thought I’d mention Dudu’s bass too, as it’s so interesting…

Dudu plays bass in the Temporal Comet live band, and plays a bass guitar that you don’t see very often. It’s an electric upright bass or EUB, made by ‘NS Design’. The Omni bass is like a hybrid, a cross between a double bass (it’s fretless, and can be played on a stand so it’s vertical like a double bass) and an electric bass (it’s electric, has lots of knobs to twiddle, and can be played over the shoulder like a cross between a guitar and a sub-machine gun). So that’s cool. Check them out here.

Dudu has a really unique style and it’s great playing with him, whether it’s new songs like ‘There Is No Evidence To Suggest That Space Flight Personnel Dream During Travel’ (which you probably haven’t heard yet) or old songs like ‘Shine’, ‘Rising’ and ‘Silencio’.

There’s some live 2023 versions of us playing them - vids below!

And don’t forget to leave us a comment - have you seen a EUB before? Do you have a favourite Strat or Fender guitar? We’d love to know!

*will Radiohead play together again? Who knows! Seems to me like Phil and Ed are much keener than Thom and Jonny. :S