Ed O’Brien is the unsung hero of Radiohead. Where Jonny Greenwood is the man performing the wiry, acerbic anti-solos and Thom Yorke the rhythmic six-string backbone, Ed’s role is harder to define - but that’s exactly how he likes it.

Raised on ’80s indie heroes, Ed’s evolution has been fascinating to observe and, of course, to hear. From 2000’s Kid A onwards, the guitarist’s propensity for exploring new effects and textures, many of which are very much alien to the instrument’s traditional role, is integral to the band’s uneasy, ethereal edge.

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It’s fitting, then, that Ed should be the man to tastefully radicalise the Stratocaster with the EOB Strat, a ‘designed-with’ model that stays true to the guitar’s iconic outline, but equips it with the otherworldly Fernandes Sustainer system and a hugely versatile set of pickups.

Ed’s enthusiasm for his collaborative creation is undeniable. We meet the guitarist in a small studio in west London, where he’s midway through a bout of sonic exploration with an early batch of EOB models running through his full pedalboard and amp rig.

After thanking MusicRadar for providing “a great resource” for gearheads like himself (you’re welcome, Ed), he hands us a guitar. “Try it - see what you think.” No pressure, then.

We’re pleased to report the final result is a seamless melding of Ed’s vision and the Strat’s idiosyncrasies: a chunkier-than normal neck is the first sign of something different, but a guided tour of the Sustainer’s possibilities through Ed’s well-stocked pedalboard is an eye-opener as to what a guitar like this can achieve.

Following that brief exploration of his Strat’s capabilities (during which we resist the urge to play Paranoid Android), we sat down with Ed to hear the full story of the guitar and his tonal journey through Radiohead’s unpredictable career: the essential tools, how he fits in with Jonny and Thom, and where he thinks the future of the guitar lies.

As someone who has played a lot of different guitars over the years, what first drew you to the Strat?

The Les Paul and the Tele are a lot more masculine. There’s a roundness, a femininity about the Strat that I really love

“I like the shape of it, I obviously like the sound of it, but I like the way it feels. I think British guitarists are all so drawn to the aesthetic - when you first get a guitar, the aesthetic is as important as how it plays; it’s gotta look cool.

“The first guitar I bought, when we formed the band back in 1985, was a Westone Spectrum DX. It was all-black, and Colin [Greenwood] had the matching bass. And it looked wicked, with coil-splits. I cottoned on pretty quickly that it wasn’t that nice to play… so the next guitar that I bought at the beginning of ’87 was a Squier Strat and that was enough. I couldn’t afford a Strat, but I could afford a Squier Strat. That was all I had until we got signed in 1991. And I didn’t need anything else - it was great. It did the job.

“So I’ve always liked Strats. Jonny [Greenwood] would take the piss out of me a bit with it being a bit ‘rock’ or something. I had a Rickenbacker as well, so I think that offset it. I loved the yin and the yang [of that], and when you wanted to finesse something or do something really beautiful, you’d pull out the Strat. It was brilliant with effects.

“It’s one of the most iconic guitars in the world, and I love the feel of it; I like the way it fits in the body. I like its femininity: the Les Paul and the Tele are a lot more masculine. There’s a roundness, a femininity about the Strat that I really love.”

When did the Sustainer pickup first become such an integral part of your sound?

I didn’t hear Led Zeppelin or Jimmy Page until I was 27, which was extraordinary. I didn’t know about those epic guitar heroes until then

“The big thing that relates to this is Kid A. We’d made three records; the first one is really guitar-y, a little bit of effects; the second one, there are more effects; the third one, OK Computer, I’m playing a lot of delay and we’ve got all sorts of simple stuff but really effect-y and the sound is getting less distorted with the guitars and it’s more about textures. When it came to Kid A, after the initial sessions, it was decided that the conventional-sounding band was not doing it for us, so the whole thing was, ‘Bring synths in, throw our tools away.’

“The first time I heard the Sustainer thing was on Michael Brook’s infinite sustain guitar - he gave one to the Edge on The Joshua Tree; that’s the sound on With Or Without You, that high-pitched thing. So as a young guitarist I was always drawn to sounds that didn’t sound like the guitar.

“The first guitarist who made an impression on me was Andy Summers, because when you heard Walking On The Moon, it was guitar, but with all the delay and the chorus, it sounded like he was on the moon. And then people like Edge and Johnny Marr, we were spoiled for choice - there were all these amazing guitarists who were trying to do things that didn’t sound like the guitar.

“I’ve always been drawn to people who put the song first. The guitarists who were important for me were Johnny Marr and Edge, people like that, and Peter Buck and Andy Summers. I didn’t hear Led Zeppelin or Jimmy Page until I was 27, which was extraordinary. I didn’t know about those epic guitar heroes until then. And John McGeogh was another big influence, from Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees. They were great guitarists, but they weren’t lead guitarists. Again, everything they did was about the song. That’s where I came from, so I guess that’s where I naturally gravitate.

Ed with his Sustainer-fitted Clapton Strat in 2001 at the Santa Barbara Bowl, CA (Image credit: Lucy Nicholson/Getty Images)

“So when we threw guitars out, I got in contact with Michael Brook and had a great conversation when we were in the studio. And he directed me towards Fernandes, who had the Sustainer. I had a Clapton Strat from the mid-’90s, and we put the Sustainer unit in there, and that’s when we started using it, around 2000.

“It’s always been a go-to guitar for me on every album; it does a certain thing. My problem with the ones that I had was that the way we did it was it sounded crap functioning as a normal guitar. It sounded great as a Sustainer.

“I want a guitar that can do both: in Radiohead, when we were playing live, I was changing guitar every song, and it was driving me nuts. Because your fingers are trying to get used to a different [instrument]… in a way, it was inhibiting. For the bulk of the set, I want one guitar that does the job. And that’s when I approached Fender - that was what I wanted: a guitar that could sustain, but also sounded as a great guitar.”