I wasn't being sarcastic. Without that article I would never have believed that they had 13 wireless units. I mean, they don't really need to use that many, they could easily rotate a couple in the manner I described. But they've got an essentially unlimited budget, so why not? What's a few extra grand for that little nice luxury?
I would have believed that. Like you said, the guy has plenty of budget. If it were me I'd get as many wireless packs as I would need, one for every guitar that I plan to use on average each night, plus a few extra for backups. Because I want each pack to be as secured as securely as possible to each guitar strap. Which means it will take some time to unhook them. Time that is better spent by the guitar tech to clean and retune that guitar for re-use and/or prep the next guitar for the next song.
Also, I suspect you don't think like the Edge in this regard. Normal guitarists don't need to bring 20+ guitars along on the road, he does. To him they really do all sound different. Is it that alien a concept that it would then make perfect sense to him as well to get as many wireless packs as well? Honestly, I'm amazed he doesn't have 20+, one for each guitar. Which probably means that if its true that he has only 13 transmitters they probably do have to rotate transmitters between guitars. Because even if a number of his 20+ guitars are backups, they still have to be ready to go into action at the first sign of trouble. And I have seen footage of Edge getting a backup guitar at the first sign of trouble.
But come to think of it, that lends even further to me believing that Edge has the final mute control..because as the video and this article show, Dallas is handing him a live wireless with a pre-determined gain (based on the guitar, sound desired etc)..and then walking away with the previously used guitar. Does anyone actually think that Edge waits for Dallas to get back to his station and unmute his guitar?? Or that Dallas is handing him an unmuted guitar? lol No. That's not how it goes. Edge mutes his signal chain while Dallas is coming with the new guitar, they swap, Dallas walks away with the old guitar while Edge makes his final adjustments, tunings if he desires, and then un-mutes the signal to start playing. Edge does it. Think about process and logical flow for a sec..
Mystery solved.
Considering that Edge might be everywhere on stage, like on that 360 concentric outer stage, with no access to his switching rig, it's probably just as easy as Dallas handing him a guitar with an active transmitter with just the volume knob turned down. He gets the new guitar, turns the volume knob back up, voilà, ready to play. Occams razor!
How I think we can find out how he changes wired inputs is by determing this: when Edge is playing plugged into a guitar lead, where does the cable go to?
Does it go back to the underworld where Dallas is, or does it go back to the rack. In a previous post I mentioned that there was a 2 button switch below the rack, with various cables connected to it, some went back underneath the rack, while one went out towards the pedalboard. If this is the case,The Edge's guitar cable is connected to the rack or the two buttom box below it. If you look at footage when Edge switches guitars from a wired input to another wired input, he does not take the lead out of the guitar he just finished with and puts it into a new one, Dallas has the new guitar ready and plugged into another lead. This would be supported by the fact that the time in between songs in a U2 concert is short enough, and Edge may not have the time to take one lead out of a guitar and put it into another( may be completely wrong, but this is my theory of it all, when it comes to switching wired inputs)
Easiest solution would a be an on stage patch bay, like the cable snakes that sound techs use world wide, wherever they need a way to hook up a lot of mikes in a single spot. Especially since the rig was in the underworld during the last tour.
It also makes perfect sense that Edge does not take out the cable jack to switch guitars but takes a new guitar with a new cable, as when he has a problem with the old guitar it might be with the actual cable. In fact, if there's a problem with a guitar suddenly losing its signal it's usually almost always the cable.