Moggio
Likes Bikes and Dirt
You are trying to hit all my buttons aren't you?In my opinion The Edge is a classic example of a guy who drowns his playing in effects to hide his inadequacies both technically and in regards to versatility that become painfully obvious towards the end of that documentary? with jimmy page and jack white.
The Edge can't play well in most traditional senses and if he tries it really shows... his Zoo TV guitar solo in Bullet The Blue Sky a case in point (oh and Rattle and Hum, Lovetown tour etc etc etc). What Edge does best is play Edge guitar brilliantly. Coming out of the 70s and bands like Can and Television his playing was simple and he discovered an Echo unit which made things sound big. You don't overplay with an echo unit because it sounds like mush. Up until Achtung Baby his playing was essentially a memory man echo unit, occasional distortion and a Vox Ac30... nothing too flash. He with his simplicity developed his own Edge technique that sounded huge and exciting but ignoring conventional guitar techniques. Stuff like Electric Co or most of the Red Rocks show for Under a Blood Red Sky sounds amazing... take away the echo and it wouldn't sound amazing but who cares, soumds amazing with it?
In "it Might Get Loud" Jimmy Page makes them both look lamish, but Jimmy was a hell of a technician and amazing artist who created much of the rock guitar vocabulary. Edge is someone who has avoided the standard rock vocabulary and Jack White is a song writer and someone who has mutated his style from much early rock and delta type blues. Conventionally those two look poor compared to Pagey but they have both created their own greatness in their own way.
....and to me Edge's guitar line for "Bad" in that doco shows how super simple can create something amazing.... then check out U2 playing "Bad" from Live Aid where magic truly happened at a very big show. Crap guitarist creating music that powerfully... music wins.