Tool / Adam Jones Sound

[csikira]

This is what I've got so far.. any tips or ideas are welcomed though : )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OL8KSjUi5o

 

[Platypus]

Not bad, needs a bit more bass and warmth though for AJ's tone.

cool gibby

 

[csikira]

I've actually have just been renting the Les Paul.. I actually bought a Silverburst.. cost me all I have.. its on its way.. and thanks, I'll turn up the bass : )

 

[Mr_You]

Sounds pretty good.. what are you playing through and recording with?

I should be confirming this soon, but it seems the recipe for Adam Jones/Tool tone is:

- Moderate High Output Humbuckers
- Mahogany Body+Maple Top Guitar (single piece body is best)
- EQ pedal ON with mids boosted: /\ (this is most important)
- Moderate High Gain Preamp Tube Distortion (shaped by the EQ just mentioned)
- Clean Tube Power Amp (6L6s or KT88s?)

I'm guessing he tweaks the amp head EQ for the venue he's playing in.

Sounds like you got it, good performance too.

 

[phyrexia]

I've always read he uses JBs.

 

[csikira]

Yeah I've read that too, about the JBs and a Diezel VH4 for amps.. although I don't know much about that amp.. I knew that if I looked in to it.. I'd wanna buy it.. and its just far too much money : ( But yeah, I've also heard the mids are pretty high on his amps : )

 

[Mr_You]

The mids are EQ pedal boosted (frown curve) prior to the distortion, in front of the amp, which gets his signature tone everyone talks about. Its the opposite of the traditional scooped EQ pedal (smile curve) metal tone.

By the VH4, its evident he likes "hi-fi" guitar amps. Probably the Soldano SLO-100 and Diezel VH4 only qualify in this area today. I think the high grade parts are a result of this "hi-fi" tone. But the real signature tone shaper is the pre-distortion EQ, which according to guitargeek.com is a Boss GE-7. *shrug*

Throw an analog EQ in front of a moderate high gain distortion and you should be good to go. I assume this is what you're doing in the video?

On a side note, I'm expecting my SLO-100 tomorrow and hope soon to throw a Boss GE-7 in front. :lol: :lol:

 

[csikira]

I've always run an EQ, but its always been in my FX loop.. Im going to try putting it in front of my distortion. .I never thought of that one.. I've always run my wah pedal out front.. it just sounds better in my opinion.. but thats really interesting, thanks for that ^^

 

[Mr_You]

I've been playing with a Marshall JVM 410H recently. It has a pre-distortion EQ. Dual Recto has post-distortion EQ. I can cop a decent Tool-like tone from OD2 Red with the mid knob cranked, but its not quite there. The amp is too grainy in OD1/OD2 overall, not hi-fi enough. Its on ebay.

Here's what the JVM sounds like in OD2 Red with the mid knob cranked, this isn't me. Over all, Marshall did a decent job with this amp.

 

[skyshark5858]

Hey fellas... if you really want to know what Adam uses gear and settings wise, check out opiateofthemasses on youtube... He has got it nailed. He shows his entire rig with details explanations of settings and effects Adam uses. Granted he is using a Hubert and not a VH4 but they sound almost identical. (after all both Diezels)

http://www.youtube.com/user/opiateofthemasses?ob=1

Just thought I would help...

 

[carlsoti]

Hey fellas... if you really want to know what Adam uses gear and settings wise, check out opiateofthemasses on youtube... He has got it nailed. He shows his entire rig with details explanations of settings and effects Adam uses. Granted he is using a Hubert and not a VH4 but they sound almost identical. (after all both Diezels)

http://www.youtube.com/user/opiateofthemasses?ob=1

Just thought I would help...

I have no idea how anyone could tell if he's got the right tone based on those clips. I've heard better recording come out of boomboxes set in the corner of the room recording to old-assed stretched out cassette tapes.

 

[dmt]

i seem to remember reading that AJ sets his eq on the amp to 4 8 6, bass/mids/treble. Probably on the marshall superbass as well as the VH4. Got to have that mid hump crunch before the amp too...

 

[jdurso]

Take it for what its worth but i had a chance to hang with him and Billy from APC/Ashes Divide last spring at a Tool concert (i have great friends... one works for guitar world and the other for the venue they played). Anyway i had the chance to sit in on my body from Guitar World interviewing him and I actually got to ask him a question... of course the first was what was his philosophy on getting his tone. What i got was pretty philosophical (i was expecting an easy answer) and went something like this: He doesnt believe just one amp has his tone so he uses "sets" of amps that each do something particular in shaping his tone. He likes using at least two if not three... one that handles his bass frequencies well, one that handles the mids and the other the highs. He says on tour he likes to try and keep it simple by using just the Diezel and heavily modded marshall... with the mashall handling the mids, one diezel the highs and the other the lows.

In the studio he uses way more and thats where his sets come into play... he likes to bring in boogies for his lows and mostly uses his marshall for mids but will swap out different amps for the highs... what ever caters the song. He want on further about how he believes in not playing just any guitar or amp but a particular guitar or amp... he said you can play 10 of the same amp and guitar and no two will sound alike so he plays them all till one "speaks" to him. Very cool guy... down to earth and very intelligent like all the guys in the Tool/APC circles.

 

[skyshark5858]

Thanks for the insight. I wish I could shoot the #@!T with the likes of him.

I will be retubing my Dual Rect real soon and was looking into different preamps and power combos (currently have GT EL34 and GT 12AX7's...all from Guitar Center). Im leaning toward going with the KT88/KT66 combo (Eurotubes.com) with the JJ ECC83 high gain front optioin, but also kicked around the JJ E34L quad as well (with the high gain front).

I read somewhere about the Ruby 12AX7AC5 HG+. Does anyone know anything about these guys. They are pretty new from what I gather and its hard to find anything about them . I even heard that is what Adam uses in his amps. (On that topic, does anyone know what tubes Adam does run in his VH4?)

 

[kiff]

He says on tour he likes to try and keep it simple by using just the Diezel and heavily modded marshall... with the mashall handling the mids, one diezel the highs and the other the lows.

man... I'd like to keep my rig "simple" too

 

[jdurso]

He says on tour he likes to try and keep it simple by using just the Diezel and heavily modded marshall... with the mashall handling the mids, one diezel the highs and the other the lows.

man... I'd like to keep my rig "simple" too

haha yeah i know right? when you hear what he used in the studio it would make sense to anyone how 3 amps is actually a simplified version of his setup. I actually got to shoot the **** with Billy Howerdel who was also a very very cool, modest guy. he is definitely a tone ***** and an experimenter... his touring rig is actually really simple. He runs his modded marshall through vht/marshall cabs and an axe-fx. Last I heard from my buddy adam (touring keyboard player for ashes divide), Billy almost exclusively moved to the axe-fx for touring, with his marshall providing some of the more raw sounds. Very cool camp of guitar players that Maynard hangs with.

 

[clutch71]

Wow, JD that must have been quite an experience sitting down with Adam Jones. Most interviews I've seen or read he comes of a pretensious, sounds like you had a different experience.

On his tone and my experience.
Pick ups...
The JB's really help. They are a very high output pick up. That and a crannked volume really give you that controlled feed back feel to his sound.

Amps...
Someone mentioned 4/8/6 if this was Treble, Mids, Bass that's not a bad eq setting. Reduce the Presence to almost nothing. I don't think he uses as much gain as people think. Heavy mids will add to the gain structure. His hi gain tone retains it's clarity and it've very warm. If your playing a dual, I'd leave it in vintage, tube rectifier, tube screamer out front (set gain to 0, tone to about 7, level to parity) gains about 1 0'clock and CRANKED.

Timing
This is key, if you don't get this down it won't sound right. His palm muting, pull offs and hammer on's are key.

The cool thing is since he blends so many different amps and uses other's in the studio it's not that hard to get elements of his tone. Dual Rectifiers (especially older 2ch's) and the Marshall DSL 50 seem to work the best IME. Never tried a Diezel and I'm sure that is probably the closest.

 

[jdurso]

Wow, JD that must have been quite an experience sitting down with Adam Jones. Most interviews I've seen or read he comes of a pretensious, sounds like you had a different experience.

Definitely not pretentious but he's very precise about his wording and he has a no BS attitude especially when it comes to stupid questions/topics (much like myself ). I could see how someone could say that about him and Maynard though... they dont seem to like all the attention and have a very very sarcastic humor about them and i think if you dont get it, you feel like your being mocked. Honestly though they a very kind, very down to earth and suprisingly modest. They seem to really be about the art going beyond just notes and lyrics, but kind of the pink floydian type art, where audio and visual comes together on a whole different level... they must take some rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaallllllll good drugs when they start writing.

 

[skyshark5858]

Awesome post Clutch.. I agree his gain is not over the top he just has set in a way that retains all the clearity with that "growl" that I am after. Most of his talent and tone comes right from what he does with the guitar. Vol pot down for clean, soft pick attack for clean hard for dirty, palm mutes, hammer ons, pull offs, etc. Ive always found that anything will always sound better if it is done at the guitar itself. (IE, lower vol pot will always sound better than a turned down vol pedal in your chain, even if its the first thing your plugged into)

About his JB's .. I dont think they are stock at all.. When asked, in an interview in 2001, if they were stock he simply said "No", but of course wouldn't go into any further detail.
So he modded it some how. Adam Jones is an absolute OCD when it comes to tone. He even left the little screw in that held the pick guard on (pick guard is removed of course) on one of his guitars because he feels like it effects the overall tone of that guitar. The silverburst itself was bought because the paint that was used back when they made them effected the tone of it. Some didn't like it but thats why Adam loves it.

I myself was contemplating swapping the Alnico 5 in mine for an 8 making it a JB8...I hear good things about it tightening up the low end, adding more mids, and curving out the high end "squeal" that people complain about with this pup (I never noticed it); all the while keeping the singing harmonics that this pup is known for.

Does anyone know any other way to mod a pick up other than mag swap. Ive heard of "hot wired" but I can only assume they rewound it perhaps "overwound" or perhaps a different gauge wire. But I cant be sure, this is just what Ive read.

 

[stephen sawall]

Take it for what its worth but i had a chance to hang with him and Billy from APC/Ashes Divide last spring at a Tool concert (i have great friends... one works for guitar world and the other for the venue they played). Anyway i had the chance to sit in on my body from Guitar World interviewing him and I actually got to ask him a question... of course the first was what was his philosophy on getting his tone. What i got was pretty philosophical (i was expecting an easy answer) and went something like this: He doesnt believe just one amp has his tone so he uses "sets" of amps that each do something particular in shaping his tone. He likes using at least two if not three... one that handles his bass frequencies well, one that handles the mids and the other the highs. He says on tour he likes to try and keep it simple by using just the Diezel and heavily modded marshall... with the mashall handling the mids, one diezel the highs and the other the lows.

In the studio he uses way more and thats where his sets come into play... he likes to bring in boogies for his lows and mostly uses his marshall for mids but will swap out different amps for the highs... what ever caters the song. He want on further about how he believes in not playing just any guitar or amp but a particular guitar or amp... he said you can play 10 of the same amp and guitar and no two will sound alike so he plays them all till one "speaks" to him. Very cool guy... down to earth and very intelligent like all the guys in the Tool/APC circles.

Thanx for posting that I am a big fan of the work.

I knew this was the case and ended up with my own tone well doing the same thing he does.

This the way it is done.

One amp set up for power amp distortion.
He uses the Marshall
I use a THD Flexi 50 or Bivalve with a Hot Plate to control the volume.

One or more set up for preamp distortion
The amps he has done this the most with is the Diezel and Dual Rectifier.
I use my Mesa Tremoverb, Mark IV or VHT Sig-X.

After a bit I keep it to two most of the time.

I have spent some time with the Diezel and was able to get pretty close to the tone with a Mark IV (side by side both going into Mesa standard 4X12's) by pulling both the 750 and 2200 down.
The Mark IV just does a lot more than the Diezel (great amp).

I also belive the only mod done to the Super bass is the two channels are jumped in the amp. You can do this by plugging the other input of the bright channel into the normal input.
This well let you use the gain from both channels.
This is called channel jumping a lot of people have done this with a lot of different amps.

Adam has stated He likes the Dual Rectifier better with the Marshall, but the other guys in the band feel it fits better in the mix with the Diezel.

Anyone else ever fight with band mates about bandwidth / mix / gear ?

The old amps were all very different in tone (like the Marshalls) this is not as true with the newer amps. But still is true.