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Bono and The Edge onstage on U2's current 360° Tour (© A3464 Rainer Jensen/dpa/Corbis)

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My word! How many of these do you string each day?

"Generally, about 18 or 19. Last night was 21. I have a system: the guitars are unloaded off the band truck around 9:30 or 10am, which is when I begin to string and stretch. I can usually have 14 guitars finished by the time the band comes in for soundcheck. Then I try to get another four done right up to when the support band goes on.

"While that's happening, I have almost an hour to get in the last string stretching and tuning on each show guitar. I have a pretty good procedure and rhythm for all of this, but meals often take a back seat or passed on altogether if there additional guitar repairs."

So Edge wants fresh strings every day? He doesn't like a little grit on the strings?

"Nope. And he'll even ask me while he's soundchecking - 'Dallas, are these strings new?' He can tell."

[Pointing to some Gibson Explorers] These guitars here…is one of these the famous '76 Explorer?

"No, we finally retired it. It's such an important guitar for recording that I finally convinced him to leave it home. Nothing serious ever happened to it, but it's spent years in the sun, getting rained on - outdoor shows do that. I wanted to nip things in the bud while I could.

"It's a bright-sounding guitar, very toppy - like the AC30, it's one of the most important components of his sound. So I told him, 'Let me look around. I'll find some amazing replacements,' and I came up with three 1976 Explorers, all with the natural finish.

"The right ones are hard to find because Gibson had two different Explorers in production that year. The ones that were produced from June through December had a thin neck, but the models that were produced during the first part of that year had a thick baseball bat neck. Those are the ones Edge prefers. Gibson didn't make many of them, only about 1800 of them or so, and people hang on to them. Finding a few of them that were just right took some detective work."

[Seeing a faded Alpine White Les Paul] Now, I know Edge auctioned his '75 Les Paul a few years ago…What's this?

[Takes the guitar out of the rack] "Let me tell you a story, Joe. This is the most amazing thing. Yes, The Edge did auction his Les Paul off for Music Rising - it made a phenomenal amount of money. [Ed. Note: final price $288, 000] It was hard for him to part with it."

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