Radiohead’s upcoming tour is fast approaching, and preparations are well under way! Last week, Daniel Steinhardt from TheGigRig shared details of Colin’s new pedalboard! The board features all the classics, plus several cool additions! (Is that too many exclamation marks? It’s hard not to use them with all this exciting news!)

Read our full analysis with details and history on each pedal, or skip to the end for a list of everything…

Colin’s latest pedalboard! Photo shared by Daniel Steinhardton Sep 19.

Last month, we made a full analysis of Ed’s board for the upcoming tour. That board was shared on the main TheGigRig account, but Colin’s board was posted on Dan’s personal Instagram account. Dan seems to have really enjoyed building a board for Colin, saying:

“Amidst all the stress of running a business, looking after staff, planning, designing, imagineering, and the day to day grind, I do need to remind myself, I get to do some really cool stuff. Building this board has been so much fun and such an honour 🤓🙏”

Returning Giants

The mainstays of Colin’s pedalboard are back! Most prominent is the bright orange Lovetone Big Cheese. Acquired in circa-1999, it’s responsible for the fuzzy tone on live versions of The National Anthem, Packt like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box, and Myxomatosis. Partly hidden beneath the Cheese is Colin’s other fuzz pedal: the Shin-ei FY-2 he acquired in the mid-1990s. Colin uses its huge, scooped sound sparingly, saving it for a gut-punch at the end of Exit Music (for a film). Both fuzz pedals were part of Colin’s setup before he even had a pedalboard. Instead, they sat on top of his rack setup.

At the fore of the board is Colin’s SansAmp Programmable Bass Driver DI. He’s used the Sansamp since circa-2005, when he abandoned rack preamps and Gallien-Krueger heads in favor of Ampeg SVT heads. Colin uses the SansAmp for an overdriven tone on live performances of Ful Stop, and probably a few others too.

A big-box Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth appeared in a couple Radiohead gear photos over the years. It eventually landed on Colin’s touring pedalboard for the A Moon Shaped Pool era. This time, he’s using the more recent Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synth XO, which is a lot more micro than the original!

The Boss TU2 tuner is certainly less dramatic than the other returning favorites, but it makes up for that in its huge reputation as a standard on touring pedalboards. The paler orange color and the circular LEDs on the display show that it is indeed a TU2, not the more recent TU3. Colin has used a Boss tuner pedal since circa-2005, when he abandoned his massive Korg ToneWorks rack tuner.

A closeup of the SansAmp. Note the “FULSTOP” label under the LED for the SansAmp’s preset #1. Since the pedal uses presets, the knob positions can be ignored.

New Kids

Probably the most interesting new pedal on Colin’s board is an Origin Effects Bassrig ‘64. The Bassrig is an amp-in-a-box, replicating the circuit of vintage Fenders using transistors instead of tubes. It blends those with some bass-oriented features, like filters for the main output and a a dry blend control. It covers a lot of ground with Colin’s SansAmp, but perhaps the pedals cover different. Colin has the black panel version of the Bassrig, which is internally identical to the regular silver version.

The Origin Effects Cali76 Bass isn’t too much of a surprise—even Colin’s Boss-loving brother is using one of the boutique compressors on his The Smile board! And it makes sense: the Cali76 is based on the vintage UREI 1176 rack compressor that Nigel’s used countless times on Radiohead recordings. Colin’s Cali76 replaces the Diamond Compressor that he used during the A Moon Shaped Pool era. It’s a funny contrast with Ed, who went back to a Diamond after using a Cali76 on his Earth touring board. Like the Bassrig, Colin has the black panel version, which is internally identical to the regular silver version.

The Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor might seem pretty innocuous, but it’s an a pretty interesting addition! Not only is it the first time Colin’s had a noise gate on his pedalboard, it’s the first time any member of Radiohead has had one! In the past, a noise gate was doubtless applied to Colin’s mic’d and DI signals at the FOH mixer. However, using a pedal reduces the noise at the source, meaning there’s less need to process all of the later signals as heavily. Removing the noise before Colin’s amp also means that there’s less noise on stage. However, it’s also possible that the NS-2 is only being used in combination with one particularly noisy pedal, perhaps the Shin-ei fuzz.

A closeup of Colin’s board, from a video shared by Dan, highlighting the QMX-2 switcher. Note patchbay on the right edge of the board.

True Bypass Switchers

Another new addition for Colin are true bypass loops. These keep the extra cables for each pedal out of the signal chain when not needed. They also just make it easier to turn pedals on and off. Each pedal gets a dedicated footswitch, in contrast to the controllers used by Ed (where each footswitch can be programmed to switch multiple loops simultaneously).

Colin is using a pair of TheGigRig’s Quartermaster bypass switchers. The one at the front of the board is a four-channel Quartermaster QMX-4. The smaller one, hidden under the riser, is a two-channel Quartermaster QMX-2.

A closeup of Colin’s board, from a video shared by Dan, highlighting the QMX-4 switcher. Note the individual labels for each effect.

More about the Board

All pedals are powered by a TheGigRig GENX14 DC power supply, which is mounted to the underside of the riser to keep it out of the way!

In a reply to his post, Dan also stated that the board itself is one of TheGigRig’s Large Single Tier boards.

Although most of the details of the board were shared on Dan’s personal page, one photo was stealthily shared on the main account too. The post only talks about the customizable rear panels on TheGigRig’s boards, but Colin’s Lovetone Meatball and the knobs of his Shin-ei Fuzz make it clear that this could be no one else’s board!

A photo of the back of Colin’s board, shared to the TheGigRig page on Sep 22. None of the pedals have a power cable connected, so this photo must’ve been taken partway through the build.

You might’ve noticed a stray, unplugged XLR cable in the other photos. It goes to the XLR connector on the back of the board. It’s a little surprising that the cable isn’t connected to the SansAmp, given how close together they are. But there’s also a couple of unplugged ¼" cables too. Perhaps the Radiohead crew are planning to stick a DI box in there?

The cables are all custom made for the build, each kept as short as possible. The right angle ¼" connectors are Eminence x TheGigRig Tiny Plugs. The straight ¼" connectors are Squareplug SPS connectors in black.

With the riser lifted up, we can see the GENX14 velcro’d to its underside (in the upper left corner of this image).

Pedal chain:

• TheGigRig Patchbay
• Boss TU2
• Origin Effects Cali76 (QMX-4 #1)
• Lovetone Big Cheese (QMX-4 #2)
• Shin-ei FY-2 (QMX-4 #3)
• Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synth (QMX-4 #4)
• Boss NS-2
• SansAmp Programmable Bass Driver DI (QMX-2 #2)
• Origin Effects Bassrig '64 (QMX-2 #2)
• TheGigRig Patchbay

The piano on True Love Waits almost seems electronic to me, if you have any clue as to what piano this is, how it's mixed, etc, etc... I would love to know. Thank you!

If you mean the piano at the very start, it’s an acoustic piano with some clipping and reduced high frequencies. The piano itself is played softly and close mic’d, bringing out the mechanical noise of the instrument. It may be felt muted, a technique common in modern classical music and also heard on Jonny’s soundtracks. It’s likely an upright piano, as those often have lockable felt-mute pedals. There’s also some compression, which brings out the sustain of the notes. Depending on the compressor, that could also be responsible for the gritty clipping on the attack of the louder notes. But for the clipping, they also could have used a tube amp (possibly with the treble turned down), or used a rack preamp, or used EQ or clipping plugins, or any combination of those.

Can I get Radiohead sounds out of the OB6? Will it be that much different than having an actual prophet 5?

Thom and Jonny messing with Nigel’s vintage Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 REV3 during the recording of A Moon Shaped Pool.

As we say in our (slightly out of date) article A Synthesizer To Play Radiohead: “the most significant factor in a subtractive synthesizer’s tone is the tone of its filter: regardless of how many oscillators, waveforms, envelopes, and extra features a synth offers, it will always sound like its filter.” That’s one reason that many modern synths have added multiple filter circuits to choose from (for example the Sequential Pro-3, Moog One, and Novation Bass Station II).

And it’s doubly true if one synth has a 2-pole filter (like the OB6) and the other has a 4-pole filter (like the Prophet-6). If you’re a guitarist, you could think of 2-pole as brighter single coils and 4-pole as warmer humbuckers. You can make them sound similar by turning down the filter cutoff on a 2-pole, but the 2-pole will still have a gentler and more “natural” sound.

If you really love Radiohead’s polyphonic synth sounds, then you should get a Prophet of some kind (or at least a Prophet emulator like the u-he REPRO-5). The Sequential OB6 is a really great sounding instrument, but with its 2-pole filter it really sounds like an Oberheim, which was the goal of course. The OB6 may share some architecture with the Prophet-6, but the filter really sets them apart.

The Prophet-6 sounds very similar to the Prophet-5 REV3, which has a much cleaner filter than the earlier REV1 and REV2 Prophet-5 synths. Plus the Prophet-6 has a lot more features than any version of the Prophet-5. But the Prophet REV2 and even the Prophet ‘08 can all sound pretty close with the right settings, especially if you add a bit of EQ and reverb. Some folks will obsess over tiny differences in the sound of these synths in isolation, but that should only tell you how similar all those Prophets sound.

If you want the best of both worlds, for the price of a new OB6 keyboard ($3500 USD) you could get a new OB6 desktop ($2400 USD) and a used Prophet '08 keyboard (~$1000 USD). Plus that would give you an extra octave of keys compared to the OB6 or Prophet-6 keyboards.

But before you take the plunge, why not test the sounds with some plugins? Download the e-he REPRO-5 demo version and the free DiscoDSP OB-XD, and see how you compare the “Prophet” and “Oberheim” sounds. Maybe you’ll find that you prefer Oberheim tones after all. You might even be happy with the plugins instead of an expensive piece of hardware.

Thom playing the band’s Dave Smith Instruments Prophet '08 during the recording of Ful Stop (nigelgod).

following from your weird fishes post, what actually is counterpoint? can you give some radiohead examples to explain it?

There are plenty of resources online to learn about counterpoint. And there are endless examples in Radiohead’s music, though they usually aren’t lengthy sections following historic rules (as you might find in prog rock). Of course, you could analyze any vocal melody as basic counterpoint against the bass, and you’d be correct (save for a few unaccompanied vocals like the verses of Idioteque). Thom does introduce and resolve some nice 9-8 suspensions over the bass during the verses of My Iron Lung for example. In fact, when analyzing counterpoint, the intervals of each melody should be looked at primarily in relation to the lowest voice (the bass), rather than in relation to each other. But generally when people talk about counterpoint in Radiohead, they’re trying to emphasize the presence of secondary melodies. So listen for any melodic parts (vocal or instrumental) that don’t follow Thom’s vocal rhythmically, and you’re likely to find counterpoint with three or more parts.

Thom’s voice and Colin’s bass on My Iron Lung. While the relationship between the vocals and bass on any song can be analyzed as basic counterpoint, this is a particularly stark example since guitars are (briefly) absent. It’s worth noting that the dissonances are either passing (as with the augmented 4th on “hurts”) or prepared suspensions (9-8 and 7-6).

Looking through A Moon Shaped Pool, here’s some examples of multiple, connected melodies:

Burn The Witch — In the second verse (starting 1:30), the violins and cello each briefly add distinct counter-melodies.

Daydreaming — Thom’s processed vocals are a perhaps too textural to call counterpoint, but they form a similar role. This is especially true around 4:17, when various layers of Thom’s vocals and Ed’s guitar interplay in interesting ways.

Decks Dark — The choir’s melody at 1:22-1:47 forms some compelling counterpoint with the bass guitar. When Thom’s vocal enters at 1:48, it adds a third “melodic voice” to the texture.

Desert Island Disk — This track is sparser, but Ed’s guitar at 2:28 could be viewed as a brief secondary melody.

Ful Stop — Lots of examples here. The “take me back” section is a good example, as Thom and the upper synth both have independence from the bass. When Jonny’s guitar enters at 3:39, it adds an additional layer.

Identikit — Lots of examples here too, perhaps most notably in the interplay between Thom’s main vocal, the (looped) backing vocals, and Jonny’s guitar riffing. There’s also cool rhythmic play between Thom’s synth and the choir singing “broken hearts make it rain” (starting 2:30).

The Numbers — Jonny’s piano is constantly adding counter-melodies. The strings at 3:30 also largely form a separate melody that interplays with Thom’s vocal.

Present Tense — The extra guitar layer at 1:45 could also be read as being in counterpoint with the main guitar part, in a similar way to Jonny’s upper arpeggios against Ed’s main apreggios on Weird Fishes. But the better example (perhaps the best on the album) is the multi-part choir that enters at 3:13. By 3:37, the melodic texture gets pretty complex!

Tinker Tailor — The piano adds a nice secondary melody at 1:58, accented by Colin’s nimble bass guitar. There’s also a ton of sub-melodies from the ondes and various string parts for the duration of the lengthy outro.

While most string writing in pop music is fairly flat (not far from playing a chord on a keyboard), Jonny’s string arrangements are generally more multi-layered. Often every single player will have a unique part to play, even for Jonny’s early arrangements like for Climbing Up The Walls. However, that doesn’t mean they’re always forming a contrapuntal texture, because sometimes the strings are not rhythmically independent.

One last note: Overall, I’ve tried to point out moments of full independence. But the secondary melodies in Radiohead’s music often fall in and out of unison with the main melody. If following the theories of counterpoint strictly, one could argue they are not fully independent voices. But this flexibility is clearly a strength for Radiohead. The supporting instruments are free to add flair when needed, but also to bolster the main melody at key points, which prevents their music from becoming noodly.

In Decks Dark at about 1:24, is that some sort of choir/woman singing or is that the Ondes Martenot? Thanks.

The main thing you’re hearing is the London Contemporary Orchestra’s female chorus (as credited in the album’s liner notes). But given how many instruments are playing in unison with the melody (piano and guitar at least), it wouldn’t be a surprise if some ondes was buried in there too.

In The Numbers: Jonny, Thom, and a CR78 (filmed on location in Tarzana, California), what is the source of that beautiful super low bass note?

What you see is what you get with that one: two guitars tuned CGCFAD plugged into Vox Normal channels. Worth noting that in most Vox amps the Normal channel cuts way less lows than the more famous Top Boost channel, but Thom and Jonny almost exclusively use the Normal channel these days so that isn’t unique to this song or performance. The only real secret is the interplay of Thom and Jonny’s playing styles. And I think some bassists would take issue with describing that C as “super low” – it’s a minor sixth above the E-string on a bass guitar, and keyboards go even lower. But that also shows the importance of context in music: in a sparse arrangement, a note can feel much larger than it would in a band mix.

Jonny hits a note on the low string, detuned to C, during The Numbers.

Hey guys, i've been loking for this for a long time but can't seem to find the answer, what effect is jonny using in nude during the second verse of the song? Timestamp 1:43 to be exact, been looking at covers but fluffy momo seems to be the only one to get it right, is it a max/ msp patch or something? Thanks before hand and love this site!!

Ah, Jonny’s guitar part on Nude! It’s perhaps the peak of Jonny’s interest in clean guitar playing, which began during the Hail To The Thief sessions and greatly influenced his playing on all albums afterwards. Jonny even mentioned it in a 2012 interview: “I went through a period of only using clean, un-effected guitar sounds - it was a bit self-defeating and hair-shirty, but I wanted to try and avoid relying too heavily on pedals, and see if I could come up with interesting things without them” (Uncut). On ‘Hail’, Jonny didn’t use any effects for his main guitar parts on Sail To The Moon, We Suck Young Blood (excluding the brief breakdown section at 2:58), A Punchup at a Wedding, Scatterbrain, or A Wolf at the Door. 2+2=5 and Go To Sleep both feature overdrive and processing with the Cycling74 Max software, but both have lengthy sections of clean playing too. There’s definitely reverb, but that was almost certainly added by Nigel during mixing. It’s worth noting that while at live shows Jonny uses his Space Echo during the “it’s the devil’s way now” section of 2+2=5, on the album his main guitar part (panned hard-right for the full song) has no delay. The “delay” during that section is actually played as a separate clean guitar part that’s panned hard-left, layering with Ed’s left-panned overdriven guitar.

A photo of Jonny in the library at Tottenham house in September or October 2006, during the recording of In Rainbows. Jonny’s sitting on his 1998-ish Vox AC30TB. One can see the back of his 1953 Fender Champ 5C1, with a cable plugged into one of the inputs and the volume set nearly to max. A Roland Space Echo is on the floor next to the amp, likely connected between Jonny’s Tele and the Champ. Across from Jonny one can see Nigel’s Orpheum amplifier: another small vintage tube amp. It’s worth noting that only the Champ is mic’d.

While ‘Hail’ saw Jonny using an AC30* set pretty clean and minimal pedals, In Rainbows saw Jonny experimenting with small vintage tube amps and pairing them with just delays or loopers. Jonny plays totally clean on 15 Step and Weird Fishes (he uses a looper live, but might not have on the album), and mainly uses overdrive and Space Echo on Bodysnatchers and House of Cards. Since Jonny was using small amps that overdrive easily, he may also have just used the amp for overdrive on those tracks (or it could have been his AC30 with or without a pedal). Jonny’s guitar part at 1:46-2:15 on Jigsaw Falling Into Place certainly sounds like a small amp such as his 1953 Fender Champ 5C1 (”a favorite”): it progresses from totally clean to a boxy light overdrive as he crescendos. Although Jonny uses a looper for live performances of Bangers and Mash, the album recording was made by recording short tape loops (inspired by Jonny’s earlier work on his soundtrack to Bodysong, according to Ed). Jonny’s distortion sound is also quite different from his live sound – it has less gain and a lot less bass – so perhaps it was just his guitar into a small overdriven amp, without effects, recorded directly to the tape loop.

*Jonny’s amp for that album was most likely his Dave Petersen special Vox AC30TBX. A 90s AC30TBX re-built by Dave Petersen to match the ones he re-built for Brian May, it features no tone or vibrato controls whatsoever, having only a single input volume control on each of its two channels. The simple control layout is pretty consistent with Jonny’s attitude at the time of focusing on guitar parts rather than effects.

A photo of part of Jonny’s setup at the Green Room in Tottenham house, from during the recording of In Rainbows. His guitar setup is simply a Gretsch G6119-1962HT Tennessee Rose guitar, an Akai Headrush E1 (which Jonny uses as a looper), and Nigel’s Orpheum amplifier. The photo was posted in March 2007 and was titled “Set Up 1 (Back At The House)”, so it’s likely from a later date than the previous photo.

That section of Nude is so beautiful that everyone assumes something must be going on. In fact, it’s just the fingernail of Jonny’s thumb scraping lightly upwards across the strings! But the technique only works because he fingerpicks with a delicacy not found in his earlier guitar playing, and which wouldn’t have happened without his experimentation on ‘Hail’. The nail just skims across the strings – it’s enough to make them audible, but not to overpower the melodic notes which he plays afterwards. That lightness also gives Jonny the dynamic range to get some grit from his tube amp (especially at live shows) when he more forcefully strums the chords in the “you’ll go to hell” section – no overdrive pedal needed (during the From The Basement performance Jonny even walks away from his setup and plays much of the song while standing by Phil). You can clearly see (and hear) Jonny using the technique at around 3:20 during Radiohead’s Jonathan Ross performance. Notice how Jonny slightly rotates his wrist to position his thumb better for the nail to slide across the strings. You can’t see Jonny’s hands as well during the 2006 Bonnaroo performance, but you can see him playing the part while standing between Ed and Thom, far from his setup, which emphasizes that it’s indeed all about playing technique.

Jonny’s use of the thumbnail technique is particularly visible in footage from Radiohead’s performance at Lollapalooza Berlin on September 11, 2016. This screenshot shows Jonny just as he uses the technique, with his thumb hidden behind his other fingers.

The interest in clean playing influenced Jonny’s playing on their subsequent albums too. While Jonny uses overdrive and other effects to bring extra energy to the live versions of songs from The King of Limbs, Jonny’s guitar parts on the album recordings are totally clean, with looping done during recording by the turntable-controlled Max application Ms Pinky and reverb added (most likely) during mixing. Morning Mr Magpie, Little By Little, and Give Up The Ghost all feature extensive clean playing by Jonny, contrary to many critiques saying the album has too little guitar. Jonny uses overdrive and delay on A Moon Shaped Pool, but also experimented with new techniques to bring interest to his clean-ish playing, such as the 2-string capo used on Ful Stop or the gentle percussive taps used on live versions of Present Tense. Originally developed for Jonny’s composition Loop, the technique for Present Tense is similar to the thumbnail technique on Nude: both add gentle percussive sounds, both are assumed to be Cycling74 Max effects, and both are created through playing technique (Jonny does use a single-repeat delay on Present Tense, but the percussive sounds themselves are still made by Jonny’s hand).

A photo at Nigel’s The Hospital studio in November or December 2006, during the recording of In Rainbows. Behind Thom, one can see Jonny’s 1953 Fender Champ 5C1 under a small table, with a Roland Space Echo on top of the table and his Fender Telecaster Plus next to it.

Is there page where you can find all the gear used for a specific album?

There is one for Hail To The Thief. However, given that any gear from previous albums is fair game in the studio, such lists can be misleading.

For instance, Thom’s Sequential Prophet-6 is his only poly-synth for ANIMA touring, but in an interview with Elektron he mentioned that he used his Elektron Analog Keys a lot on the album itself (at Nigel’s behest), even though he stopped touring with the Analog Keys in 2017. Thom also used the Prophet-6 a lot on Anima, but it still shows that when gear is no longer used on tour, it can still have major impact as a studio tool.

Another example is shown by this photo of Thom and Jonny adjusting a Sequential Prophet 5 while recording A Moon Shaped Pool, with the Dave Smith Prophet ‘08, their main touring synth from 2011 to present, is languishing against a wall in the back (although Thom can be seen playing the ‘08 in another photo from the session).

Radiohead did sell some of their old gear on eBay in the mid-2000s, but it was only a very small portion of the gear that they’ve used over the years and mostly backups (like their second Twin Reverb and their second Turbo Rat). Factor in any gear that they may not have used publicly or in photos (like the TR808 on Codex which Nigel mentioned on a radio show), and it becomes clear that it’s impossible to pin down everything what was used on a particular album, especially given that Jonny in particular loves to combine old and new technology in surprising configurations.

Thom, Colin, and Phil performing Daydreaming in Chicago, IL on Jul 6, 2018 (mwilso30).

Photos so far from Radiohead’s gig in Chicago show that Colin is using his new “Olympic White” Lākland bass mainly as a backup. As on the South American leg of the 2018 tour, Colin seems to be favoring the ”Sunburst” Fender Precision Bass which he used on A Moon Shaped Pool. In the photo above, you can see Colin playing the sunburst, while the Lākland sits in a stand by his bass amp. It’s very possible that Colin isn’t yet used to the feel of his new bass, and the instrument may see more use often once Colin’s had more time to practice with it.

But even if the Lākland serves mainly as a backup, its presence means that Colin’s '72 “Olympic White” P-Bass – his favorite of two decades – is no longer a part of his core touring setup!

However, the instrument has not been retired: instead, Jonny seems to be using it for Junun:

Jonny performing with Shye Ben Tzur and Rajasthan Express in Chicago, IL on Jul 6, 2018.

A photo of Colin receiving his new bass at the Lākland factory in Chicago (zachates).

On Wednesday, Colin picked up a new bass from Lākland in Chicago. Given that the North American leg of Radiohead’s 2018 tour starts Friday, it’s clear that Colin picked up this bass just in time for rehearsals (similarly to how Clive picked up a new Gretsch drum kit just a few days before Radiohead’s first 2017 tour performance).

The instrument is a lightly customized version of the US-made “44-64″, Lākland’s take on the Fender Precision bass. According to comments on this instagram post, all of the customization options are one’s offered on the Lākland website (excluding a “blood magic ritual”), so it should be possible for someone to order the exact same instrument. Posts on instagram show that the body of the bass was sanded down in mid-June, but the instrument was only completed in early July.

Photos of the bass as it was being built, from instagram users zachates and normsinspace respectively.

Like Colin’s long-time favorite ‘72 Fender P-Bass, the instrument has a maple neck and a body painted in an Olympic White finish. But unlike the ‘72 P-Bass, it features ebony block inlays, a black pickguard, and Lākland’s distinctively ovular “Dual Access” bridge.

It isn’t too much of a surprise for Colin to pick up a new Precision bass. While he almost exclusively used his ‘72 “Olympic White” P-Bass for touring from 2000 to 2012, Colin used a newly acquired 60′s (?) “Sunburst” P-Bass on the recording of A Moon Shaped Pool. Since 2016, both basses have seen heavy touring use, with Colin switching between them frequently during shows.

What is surprising, though, is that the new bass isn’t a Fender. Even when Colin has used different instruments in the past two decades, from In Rainbows-era recording and webcasts to a 2014 Dries Van Noten fashion show, they’ve always been Fenders. Assuming that the new bass is used for the upcoming tour, it may well be the first time that he’s performed with a non-Fender instrument since the 90′s.

Top is Colin’s 1972 Fender Precision Bass in 2006 (stringsreunited), bottom is the new Lākland 44-64 (normsinspace). Both basses are in “Olympic White” finish, but over fifty years of heavy use have caused the finish on the ‘72 to yellow considerably.