Is anyone else upset that U2 have dropped The Returm of the Stringray Guitar

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gunsnroses

The Fly
Joined
Dec 19, 2008
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I have been waiting along time to hear this track live,but it appears as U2 have moved on to Even Better Than the Real Thing,which I love, but no stringray sucks.
 
Nope not at all. EBTTRT is the opener they've been trying to find for three years now. I so hope they'll keep it for the NA shows. Stingray was okay live, but this bloody rocks!
 
Stingray was just a kinda cool, funky, different intro. I'd much rather Even Better.

Oh, I definitely agree. EBTTRT is the opener 360 should have had since the start, though Breathe and Stingray were great openers too. It's a great way to start the show, even judging by videos. Can't wait to experience it personally.
 
NLOTH is the opener 360 should have had from the start and still have now.

I've been saying this since ... well, June 2009! Can't believe this opportunity slipped the band by - and that they've completely dropped the song. It was electric live and really got the place going in a way most other new songs didn't.

But EBTTRT is also a great opener, so I'm not too down on it like when BD was opening.
 
Nah. Stingray was fun but mostly anti-climactic and ended too abruptly. The dead zone in between songs was just too awkward for my tastes. Plus BD didn't fit at all after it.
 
Nope not at all. EBTTRT is the opener they've been trying to find for three years now. I so hope they'll keep it for the NA shows. Stingray was okay live, but this bloody rocks!

Agreed.

Stingray was okay, but EBTTRT is the far better opener. Much better than Beautiful Day.

I might be one of the few though who also enjoyed Breathe. Though NLOTH would have been the best opener for this tour.
 
yeah, especially if some segue between stingray/ebttrt could be done.

I think that would be quite hard to pull off, for Edge. Stingray is played on a regular six string(the Explorer) and for Even Better he needs the 12 string Rickenbacker, so in oder to segue he'd have to swap guitars really quickly.
 
I think that would be quite hard to pull off, for Edge. Stingray is played on a regular six string(the Explorer) and for Even Better he needs the 12 string Rickenbacker, so in oder to segue he'd have to swap guitars really quickly.

Hey, it's The Edge!:wink:

EBTTRT is the best opener by far. NLOTH would be great too.
 
You'd think they'd give NLOTH at least a shot to open as they did with Magnificent.

They should have started 2009 with a rotation of Breathe, Magnificent (with intro from the album) and NLOTH.

Then let them battle it out for supremacy sort of like on the Vertigo tour.
 
Like others here I just can't understand why they dropped NLOTH live. It has a huge energy that grabs the audience by the collar and pulls them into the show. Hope it comes back.
 
I miss Stingray. I thought it was one of the best peace of music in a long while.
However, this version of EBTTRT is breathtaking.....

I would love it to have as an intro Stingray > Even better than the real thing :drool:
 
I think that would be quite hard to pull off, for Edge. Stingray is played on a regular six string(the Explorer) and for Even Better he needs the 12 string Rickenbacker, so in oder to segue he'd have to swap guitars really quickly.

Hey, it's The Edge!:wink:
my thoughts exactly. :giggle:

and yeah, i also think nloth would be a great opener. if i had to pick between the two (lol cuz u2 would totally ask me) i'd pick nloth only because it's the newer song. but ebttrt works.
 
I think that would be quite hard to pull off, for Edge. Stingray is played on a regular six string(the Explorer) and for Even Better he needs the 12 string Rickenbacker, so in oder to segue he'd have to swap guitars really quickly.

That and the fact that the biggest "problem" of EBTTRT this tour is that it's the album version and hence down half step and Stingray is in standard tuning...so it just sounds awkward when you play them back to back. For comparison, end Stingray and then play a EBTTRT version of the 90's and it clicks much more.
 
I think that would be quite hard to pull off, for Edge. Stingray is played on a regular six string(the Explorer) and for Even Better he needs the 12 string Rickenbacker, so in oder to segue he'd have to swap guitars really quickly.

he just needs to use the top (or bottom) 6 strings and he's good to go. amirite?

i miss them them starting out stingray with the stadium lights on and bono doing his silly little bono moves :sad:
 
Ehm no Dray. That's not how a 12 string guitar works...Mirrorballman also raises a good point. I completely forgot about the key change.
 
just to clear it up Dray, a 12 string guitar has an extra string (usually tuned a whole octave up except for the last two) next to each string to give it a brighter, fuller tone.
check out this, it shows pretty simply how it works :)
YouTube - How to tune a 12-string guitar - commented lesson -
i think all the Rickenbacker 12 strings (used on EBTTRT/Mysterious Ways etc) are different in the fact that they lower strings come first.

----

That and the fact that the biggest "problem" of EBTTRT this tour is that it's the album version and hence down half step and Stingray is in standard tuning...so it just sounds awkward when you play them back to back. For comparison, end Stingray and then play a EBTTRT version of the 90's and it clicks much more.

what you said about the tuning for both songs, that's wrong! :huh: Stingray is in standard tuning in the key of E, but at the moment U2 are playing EBTTRT in it's original key off the album (A) so the guitar is ALSO in standard tuning for that song for the first time live I think. It was at the very start of Zoo TV when they played it in Aflat [half a step down] for a while before (wisely) switching to the higher Dflat (the next string up) at some point during that tour, as it stayed until 2001. So the guitar had always been tuned down half a step live, but isn't now.

So both guitars for Stingray/EBTTRT are in the same standard tuning, but the problem is he'd still need to change to the 12-string to play EBTTRT.
 
I just don't see Stingray into EBTTRT working honestly.

The band walks out to Stingray while Bono prances around trying to find something to do. Nothing really special.

With EBTTRT you have this epic entrance and every one is in disbelief.
 
Moser said:
I just don't see Stingray into EBTTRT working honestly.

The band walks out to Stingray while Bono prances around trying to find something to do. Nothing really special.

With EBTTRT you have this epic entrance and every one is in disbelief.

but Bono prancing around trying to find something to do is what Bono is all about

I think you're going a bit overboard on your comment re:ebttrt

...and I was kidding about the whole 6-string/12-string thing :)
 
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