Ed Sheeran Gear Guide - Sound Like Ed Sheeran

Sheeran featured on the EP No.5 Collaboration Project (2011), which soared its way to No.2 in the iTunes Charts and sold over 7000 copies in its first week, all with no major promotions and no record label backing. With a shocking 11 EPs, a multi-million selling debut album (+) and a fan-base that could probably rival the population of China... times 10, Ed Sheeran is most definitely setting a new bar for the acoustic singer songwriter. #

His double win at the BRIT Awards 2015 (Best Male Solo Artist & Album of The Year) coupled with a myriad of headlining gigs at Wembley Arena confirmed him as a major musical force for the years to come. His followup album 'X' followed in 2014, and has now sold nearly 8 million copies. His latest album 'Divide' styled as ÷ was the best selling album globally of 2017. It actually sold 6.1 million copies worldwide according to the IFPI and went on to sell more than 11 million equivalent units (Vinyl/download etc.).

According to wikipedia as of January 2019, the album has sold over 15.8 million equivalent units and 1.3 million copies in pure sales alone... that's like.. a lot!

Want to know how Ed plays his guitar, what pedals Ed Sheeran uses and what guitar he uses on stage and in the studio? Watch our guide below:

ED SHEERAN IN 2017 AND THE RELEASE OF '÷' (DIVIDE)

Shortly after release in March 2017, his newest album '÷' pronounced 'Divide' has hit sales well over a million. Amazingly, 9 songs from the album appeared in the UK top 10 in its release week, with all 16 tracks appearing in the top 20 - causing calls for the chart system to be reviewed. No wonder then, that so many people feel inspired and are influenced by him, so the aim of this Ed Sheeran Gear Guide is to answer many questions people have regarding his setup, and also to give a few pointers on how to get the Ed Sheeran sound.

In summary, Ed Sheeran uses 3/4 size guitars, most notably the Martin LX1 series, with which he has a variety of signature models including the new Martin Ed Sheeran Divide Signature Edition Guitar.

Sheeran is not just one of the biggest names in music right now - he's also one of the most influential. Thanks to his success, more musicians have been turning to 3/4-sized guitars and loop pedals, a setup which could be described as Ed's "magic formula". The Martin Ed Sheeran Divide Signature Edition Guitar is the latest instalment in Ed's collaboration with the team at Martin to coincide with the release and subsequent tour of his album  '÷' Divide.

Usually thought of as ideal for beginners, 3/4-sized guitars can also be described as travel-sized guitars, due to their portability. Of course, none of those reasons apply as to why Ed Sheeran uses them! Smaller bodied guitars can feel lighter and more comfortable to play, and give a tighter, more focused sound than Jumbo or Dreadnought guitars, which are bassier and louder - perfect if you sing loudly, or if you're playing with a band, but when you sing like Ed Sheeran does, then playing a 3/4-sized guitars starts to make a lot of sense!   

The most recent Martin Ed Sheeran X Signature Edition Guitars (which we talk about below) are structured using a Solid Spruce top with inlaid Koa "X" and feature really cool custom appointments such as the Black Ping tuning knobs, black richlite bridge and fingerboard with black bridge pins, saddle and nut. To celebrate his platinum selling album "Multiply" the cool green "X" inlays are featured along the fretboard and on the headstock. Ed has made the LX1E Little Martin his own with many signature edition models, taking a lesser known but sweet sounding Martin and making it a great busking and gigging all rounder. Plus for every one sold a donation is made to East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices. Check it out in more depth here.

As of 2020 Ed Sheeran now uses Lowden guitars. The Sheeran by Lodwen guitars, according to their official website, are a range of newly designed guitars born out of a friendship between Ed Sheeran and George Lowden. 

Possibly Ed's most notable piece of equipment ever was his Boss RC-30 Looping Pedal. Sheeran used the RC-30 in most of his live performances and he’s probably the most recognised looper in the UK right now. Roland themselves believe that Mr. Sheeran is in fact “A master of looping on the cusp of greatness.” After many years touring, Sheeran moved into more complex looping realms, with a massive custom pedalboard called "The Chewie Monsta".

As looping is a crucial part of Ed Sheeran's performance, he and his guitar tech decided to upgrade to this custom built unit, which allows for better sound quality, better looping and better control of the sound at bigger venues. According to his guitar tech, Trevor Dawkins: "We needed to source a pedal that had separate outputs for the guitar, percussion, and vocal elements of the loop, allowing for separate treatments (reverb, echo, harmonizer etc.) at the front of the house, Chris and I spent about 6 months contacting every pedal manufacture worldwide that we could think of to get someone to help us come up with a pedal that would be future proof and sonically superior to the RC.

Although a couple of manufacturers were interested, no one had an existing product that really came close to what we wanted to do in terms of numbers of outputs and attainable loop lengths." The "Chewie Monsta" is not an FX pedal, it's a sophisticated, unique pedalboard controller that Ed uses to manipulate a Roland FC300 MIDI Controller which is placed off-stage, described by his tech as the "brain behind the looping system." The pedal controls Ed's new looper: a Mobius 2 VST plug-in, hosted on Ableton Live. The closest and easiest option to this system is the Boss RC300 Loop Station Guitar Pedal - highly recommended.

According to Trevor Dawkins: "The pedal allows Ed to record, overdub, and play back on any one of four synchronized loops, each of which has its own output, allowing us to now have the guitars, percussion and vocals separately, which is invaluable in a live situation. Ed can also now mute the loops individually, allowing him to alternate between different sections, such as a verse/chorus scenario. We also have an undo function, which allows Ed to clear the last overdub on the selected channel, should he need to." Live, besides his guitar, Sheeran also plugs what looks to be a Sennheiser e945 to the controller, which is used to loop his vocals.

This is no longer available, but we recommend the Sennheiser E835 Cardioid Dynamic Vocal Microphone as a substitute. At gigs, Ed uses two mics. The second one is not for looping, it's used just for a clear signal. As of 2017, Ed has upgraded the Chewie Monsta, with the 'Chewie II Monsta Looper'. Here it is below:

Ed Sheeran ‘Green T’ Stratocaster by Teddy McDonald

OK, it's not quite as shocking as Bob Dylan going electric in the sixties, but it is still surprising to see Ed Sheeran playing an electric guitar! At the MTV EMA 2014 Awards, Ed was seen playing what looked like a "Crashocaster" guitar - the first of which was made for Eric Clapton in 1997. At first, Ed was under the impression that this was an Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster, given a custom "street-art" paintjob by New York artist John Crash Matos - but unfortunately it turned out to be a fake and a completely unauthorised copy.

Ed immediately stopped playing it when he found out it was a fake!

To remedy the situation, Ed then asked Teddy McDonald - an emerging British contemporary artist - and John Crash Matos to collaborate to create the "Crash x Teddy M" Stratocaster. Ed would be seen playing this at his Wembley Stadium shows in 2015 and is currently using it on his current Divide world tour (2017). 

The Crash x Teddy M guitar can be seen below and more information can be found over at Teddy McDonald's official site.

Ed Sheeran with his CRASH x TEDDY M guitar - Credit: Teddy McDonald

We reached out to Teddy McDonald, who was kind enough to give us a little insight into the background behind this awesome guitar..

HOW DID THE PROJECT COME ABOUT?

I read Ed is a big Clapton fan and when I saw him playing the fake Crash Strat at the Grammy Awards, I asked Crash about it. He wasn’t too happy and I let Ed’s management know. They very kindly and quickly confirmed Ed had no idea it wasn’t a real Crash painted guitar and that he would stop playing it immediately. Ed’s management then said they would like to commission a collaboration between myself and Crash, to create something unique for Ed on a Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster. Given this all happened just as Ed was about to head out on the final leg of his X world tour and Ed was surprisingly now without an electric guitar, I offered to loan him my own 'Green T’ Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster while we completed his commission and which he then played for the remainder of the X tour.

Fender 'Eric Clapton' Stratocaster by Teddy McDonald loaned to Ed Sheeran for his X world tour, 2015 - Credit: Teddy McDonald

HOW CLOSELY DID YOU WORK WITH ED ON THE PROJECT?

Ed was busy touring, so I was communicating with his manager whenever they had cellphone signal. To Ed’s credit, he was happy for myself and Crash to come up with our own design and to be honest, this was a relief. It took the pressure off, there were no expectations, we were free to create our own artwork.

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND YOUR IDEAS?

Crash is an art legend, much underrated likely because he's still alive! He is regarded as the pioneer of street art, exhibiting with the greats in the 80’s, namely Andy Warhol, Basquiat, and Haring. Crash uses the ‘Eye’ symbol in many of his works including Clapton’s main Crashocaster, so you see this prominently displayed on the front of Ed’s guitar. We worked together on agreeing the colours and this was the first time I used the ‘Teddy M Heart’ symbol which has since gone on to form the basis of the first Royal graffiti with British Royalty and also the recent Range Rover Autobiography Art Car.

IS THERE A THIRD COLLABORATION WITH ED IN THE WORKS?

I’ve asked Ed’s manager if he’d like something special for Glastonbury, so who knows… though I’m quite content seeing the ‘Crash x Teddy M’ Stratocaster given it was created with one of my living art heroes for, as GQ said, “The Biggest Selling Male Popstar on the Planet!"

Update: Ed played the 'Crash x Teddy M’ Stratocaster during his headline set at Glastonbury in 2017, showcasing this spectacularly unique piece of guitar art to the world!

CRASH x TEDDY M Commissioned by Ed Sheeran, a collaboration between John CRASH Matos and Teddy M - Credit: Teddy McDonald

The Focusrite ISA430MkII represents the pinnacle of Focusrite’s analog channel strip technology. Combining all of the classic designs into one comprehensive production tool. The 430 features an optional 192kHz/24-bit A-D conversion with soft limiter , Phase-cancellation de-esser for more natural processing and a VCA-based expander/gate with "hysteresis" setting to avoid chattering. With such impeccable specifications we can see why Massey and Sheeran fell in love with this sweet bit of kit. Focusrite, always aiming to please were sure to include these four main elements into the ISA430 MkII.

The classic Focusrite transformer-based mic pre with variable input impedance, EQ with two dual-range parametrics HPF and LPF, and of course a dual mode compressor with both VCA and optical circuitry. These can each be accessed individually and can be used as separate processors.

The possibilities are pretty lengthy with the ISA430 MkII, there’s simply nothing quite like it. Sheeran says "Jake and Guy captured everything I wanted to capture. The album sounds exactly how I wanted it, so thanks Focusrite!"

Ed Sheeran’s producer, Jake Gosling is a big fan of sE electronics microphones and uses then frequently with a lot of his artists, from Lady Gaga to Timbaland.

Sheeran used an sE4400a microphone for recording acoustic guitars, live pianos and percussion in both the No.5 Collaboration Project and in his debut album +, which also features some vocal recordings from the sE Z3300a condenser microphone. The sE Z3300a seems to pop up in many of Sheeran’s live YouTube performances, including the ‘You Need Me l Don’t Need You’ video. Sheeran also used an sE4400a microphone for recording acoustic guitars, live pianos and percussion on this same album, and with the sound quality of this guy’s tracks, we have no reason to doubt its performance ability.

HERE’S WHAT JAKE GOSLING HAD TO SAY ABOUT SE MICROPHONES:

“I use the sE4400a pair all the time now! I record a lot of guitars and live piano with them, and they’re a fantastic vocal mic too. They’re incredibly versatile… a brilliant set of mics, and nowadays I can’t live without them. They build quality, performance and sound, are totally reliable and very true.”

The Z3300A microphone is in fact the most versatile class A FET microphone in the SE Electronics range, utilizing a large 1.07” twin diaphragm, giving the engineer a choice of the three most widely used polar patterns, omni, cardioid and figure of eight. Couple this with a 100Hz low cut filter and new ultra clean, ultra quiet Z range electronics and the Z3300A is the ultimate solid state microphone for almost all recording applications, from vocals, to pianos and acoustic instruments, as Jake and Ed have proved.

Check out the full range of sE Electronics microphones.

sE Electronics 4400a condenser microphone is often compared to the incredibly popular AKG C414 (now discontinued) as it is a true all-rounder, versatile and does a great job in every recording situation you give it. The sE Electronics 4400a inherits its dual capsule design from the highly successful sE2200a II, with four polar patterns (Cardioid, Hypercardioid, Figure of 8 and Omni), 2 bass cuts at 60Hz and 120Hz, and 2 pads at 10 and 20dB.

The Neumann U87 Microphone is one of the most prestige microphones available on the market, and is practically a piece of permanent furniture in... well, too many studios to mention. The U87 can be seen in Ed Sheeran’s live YouTube recording of 'Wayfaring Stranger', famous for its warm sound and well balanced characteristics, the U87 really brings out the best in every performance. The current U87A yields a 6dB improvement in signal-to-noise over its predecessor. A 10 dB attenuation switch is located on the rear.

It enables the microphone to handle sound pressure levels up to 127 dB without distortion and the low frequency response can be reduced to compensate for proximity effect. ... But let’s be honest, talking about all of the technicalities is pretty much useless until you actually hear this mic's quality for yourself, so check out Ed Sheeran performing 'Wayfaring Stranger' with the Neumann U87 here.

SHEERAN GIVES HIS PAW PRINTED ACOUSTIC THE AKG TREATMENT

Recently, Ed Sheeran was spotted using a pair of Beyer-Dynamic DT770 headphones, a superb choice for anyone who wants professional monitoring at a quite reasonable price...

RECENT ED SHEERAN NEWS

Ed Sheeran is still breaking streaming records and well on his way  to becoming one of the greatest selling artists the UK has ever produced. We can't wait to see what he does next. You can find out more about Ed Sheerans latest releases and live dates here.

We’re sure to have more to add to the Ed Sheeran Gear Guide soon enough so watch this space for updates with the latest gear he’s been spotted using! If you hear anything new and you think we should ad it to our Ed Sheeran gear Guide , feel free to update us and comment below.

View a complete range of guitars and effects pedals over at PMT Online. 

Watch our guide to looping on guitar and find out how you can start creating full songs on your own with a loop pedal!

Updated 2020-09-23