Deep Dive into Adam Jones's Tones

[MirrorProfiles]

Thought this might be fun for those inclined to digging his tones. What I find amusing is the more I've gone down this rabbit hole, the more I find AJ's tone and approach is so meat and potatoes and there isn't too much to it.

I think the thing that's hardest to comprehend as a listener is we assume that he is playing one amp in any given song. Even if we know that isn't true, in our heads we just think "GODDAMN HIS MODDED MARSHALL/DIEZEL SOUNDS HUGE'. I think just paying attention riff by riff is the best way to go, and you can kind of hear the tone changes quite a lot, even within the same song based on what each part is calling for.

To me, the Marshall tone he uses is very much a typical non master volume Marshall sound. You can hear the poweramp working hard, its more saturated and kind of bloaty. The Diezel tone sticks out to me as the most compressed and quite modern sounding. The Rectifier tone on earlier albums has more bass and low mid thickness, with less poweramp distortion. The Rectifier tone to me sounds more like the orange channel than the red, and I think checks out with other information sourced about his tones.

I think the other big piece of the puzzle is the cab and micing. For whatever reason, I find it easier to start with a 421 and work out if its a Marshall cab or a Mesa cab. Once I have found something similar, I'll usually just blend in some 57 and it gets pretty close. I think the 421 is a key part of his overall tone and shouldn't really be overlooked.

I was thinking it would be cool to post examples of what I think certain amps are at certain moments in songs. Sometimes its a blend and hard to work out, but there are definitely plenty of moments where things are more isolated and you can hear the character more. Would be cool if anyone else fancies contributing too, I think we're all just guessing but it would be a good discussion on what we perceive various amps to sound like



This one (23 seconds in) strikes me as very much a Dual Rectifier tone. At that point in time he would have been using Mesa and Marshall, and that is quite clearly not a Marshall and very much typical of what a Dual Rectifier sounds like. I wouldn't bet against some Marshall being blended in in the choruses, the midrange changes slightly and has that grainy poweramp distortion texture.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

My guess is this one is predominantly the Marshall, possibly with some Rectifier blended underneath. It could well be the Mesa with the poweramp working a bit harder and squishings things out a bit. Guessing there may be 3 tracks of guitars, one main one in the middle, and then one slightly left and one slightly right. They typically arent playing at the same time, its just switching between different takes/layers/amps.

The tone at 2 minutes (and the solo at 3:40) has tons of that Marshall upper mid bite that is totally in contrast to the tone above. A good bit of volume from the guitar to adjust gain.

Around 4 minutes the tone is quite bright and aggressive panned very central. The bit just after 5 minutes has the left and right tracks

 

[DrewJD82]

Man, that’s a rabbit hole to go down!!!

I can’t remember if it was the last album or 10,000 Days I was listening to, but I remember at one point hearing the tones fading in and out depending on what was happening in the song and that little moment made me appreciate Joe Baressi all the more.

I’ll enjoy this thread from afar, I love pretty much everything Adam’s done on every album, but deciphering that stuff and trying to pinpoint when they used a specific amp or a pedal into an amp or a weird ass mic to get a sound, they kitchen sink that stuff!

 

[la szum]

Lurking.

I once had 2 FM3s and tried to use them individually to approximate his dual amp rig. That was fun.

He just does so much with his right hand. I just notice a TON of his dynamics/variations in gain are
all from him varying pick pressure and intensity. That and leaving a bunch of space.

Note to guitarists: You really don't have to play all the time. Take a breather now and then.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Man, that’s a rabbit hole to go down!!!

I can’t remember if it was the last album or 10,000 Days I was listening to, but I remember at one point hearing the tones fading in and out depending on what was happening in the song and that little moment made me appreciate Joe Baressi all the more.

I’ll enjoy this thread from afar, I love pretty much everything Adam’s done on every album, but deciphering that stuff and trying to pinpoint when they used a specific amp or a pedal into an amp or a weird ass mic to get a sound, they kitchen sink that stuff!

Something else I’ve sort of grown used to is they approach things from quite a boomer/dad rock approach. The arrangements are fairly sparse and the character and cool stuff is all in the actual performance rather than mindlessly stacking things up (which is maybe more common with unlimited track counts). The later albums probably go down the rabbit hole a bit more with blending amps I’m not familiar with, but I think there is still quite a fundamental approach of not having too much going on at once.

Lurking.

I once had 2 FM3s and tried to use them individually to approximate his dual amp rig. That was fun.

He just does so much with his right hand. I just notice a TON of his dynamics/variations in gain are
all from him varying pick pressure and intensity. That and leaving a bunch of space.

Note to guitarists: You really don't have to play all the time. Take a breather now and then.

sort of ties in with what I posted above, it’s quite funny when you pay attention to what AJ does, the tones are fairly plain, a lot of the riffs are kind of pentatonic classic rock inspired things but his taste, style and execution are what makes it come alive. I think his way of blending amps and changing things up riff by riff, section by section is really where the magic is. and absolutely, getting a ton of tones with the controls on the guitar as well as a few choice pedals. It’s all quite simple and minimal and about doing a lot with that. Also quite interesting to see how much is single tracked vs double tracked.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Note to guitarists: You really don't have to play all the time. Take a breather now and then.

10000000%, the best guitarist know when to get the fuck out of the way. The worst ones are the ones who just spew constant meaningless notes at you with no regard for what’s going on around them

 

[Jambi]

One of the hardest things to replicate is how LOUD he plays. Reminds me of the AC/DC approach. It’s not about the overdrive, it’s about cranking the power amp and letting your right hand bring the balls.

 

[la szum]

That's so cool. My takeaway from Adam was just to chill out and allow things to build and bloom.... and then blast!

But not to stay blasting all the time.

In a way it is very Floydian/Gilmour in that warm embrace of dynamics.

 

[la szum]

One of the hardest things to replicate is how LOUD he plays. Reminds me of the AC/DC approach. It’s not about the overdrive, it’s about cranking the power amp and letting your right hand bring the balls.

Totally! And without that massive amount of headroom you can't really work that right hand like he does.

I think it is why I tend to have an aversion to overly-compressed Modern guitar tones that have no peaks
or valleys----because the tone is already smashed and mashed to hell and back. Literally!

 

[DrewJD82]

It’s gotta be a fucking blast playing a live Tool gig, 10 feet in front of some badass, CRANKED amps that require being cranked to do what he does. Such a synergistic approach, the feedback is just as much of the music as the fretted notes are.

 

[la szum]

I mean, we all know that rhythm section does the heavy lifting in that band and AJ is kind of
just surfing the epic waves they make. Not a diss. Just saying.

Yeah, it has to be a blast for sure.

I try to get the guys I play with to do something more than just Sober, but asking a drummer
to hang with Danny and a bassist to hang with Justin, and then getting them to lock in together
is asking a lot.

 

[Jambi]

I was shooting the shit with a guy with a Lateralus tattoo at a Mastodon show about Jones Toans jonesing and our Silverbursts. Then he casually shows me his Blueface VH4. I think about that guy every time I think about Adam playing his amp more than his guitar at times. That guy gets it.

 

[riffy]

MirrorProfiles. I believe that you are totally correct. It sounds like the modern red channel cloned to vintage. I personally love that sound!

 

[MirrorProfiles]

MirrorProfiles. I believe that you are totally correct. It sounds like the modern red channel cloned to vintage. I personally love that sound!

There's some settings floating around that are on the Orange channel, mids and treble boosted. Orange set to clone the red channel definitely gets very close to that. Kind of blew my mind a bit looking at early Tool recordings and videos and matching that to when the Rectifier would have been released, he must have been among the first guitarists to record one.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Thought this might be fun for those inclined to digging his tones. What I find amusing is the more I've gone down this rabbit hole, the more I find AJ's tone and approach is so meat and potatoes and there isn't too much to it.

I think the thing that's hardest to comprehend as a listener is we assume that he is playing one amp in any given song. Even if we know that isn't true, in our heads we just think "GODDAMN HIS MODDED MARSHALL/DIEZEL SOUNDS HUGE'. I think just paying attention riff by riff is the best way to go, and you can kind of hear the tone changes quite a lot, even within the same song based on what each part is calling for.

To me, the Marshall tone he uses is very much a typical non master volume Marshall sound. You can hear the poweramp working hard, its more saturated and kind of bloaty. The Diezel tone sticks out to me as the most compressed and quite modern sounding. The Rectifier tone on earlier albums has more bass and low mid thickness, with less poweramp distortion. The Rectifier tone to me sounds more like the orange channel than the red, and I think checks out with other information sourced about his tones.

I think the other big piece of the puzzle is the cab and micing. For whatever reason, I find it easier to start with a 421 and work out if its a Marshall cab or a Mesa cab. Once I have found something similar, I'll usually just blend in some 57 and it gets pretty close. I think the 421 is a key part of his overall tone and shouldn't really be overlooked.

I was thinking it would be cool to post examples of what I think certain amps are at certain moments in songs. Sometimes its a blend and hard to work out, but there are definitely plenty of moments where things are more isolated and you can hear the character more. Would be cool if anyone else fancies contributing too, I think we're all just guessing but it would be a good discussion on what we perceive various amps to sound like



This one (23 seconds in) strikes me as very much a Dual Rectifier tone. At that point in time he would have been using Mesa and Marshall, and that is quite clearly not a Marshall and very much typical of what a Dual Rectifier sounds like. I wouldn't bet against some Marshall being blended in in the choruses, the midrange changes slightly and has that grainy poweramp distortion texture.

Gosh, I haven't heard that track in yeeeaaarrrss. Love that album. Would be funny though if it's a DS-1 boosting a Marshall.

 

[Life Eats Life]

Whomever produced etc the records is responsible for Adam’s tone on that record.
C’mon, they layered it all up.
For what, a saturated killer sounding D chord
in the song “Sober”.
I actually fell asleep in my seat at the concert in Tampa..soooo boring.
The band members barely moved, it was like a Vegas wax museum.
His edgy’ break-up parts are the best
- Stinkfist-with the breakdowns, that’s the dope stuff

 

[woody]

It helps that his rhythm guitar is basically the loudest thing in most of the tracks.
He does not have to compete for space. The drums are pretty dry and have no ring or sustain to them. The bass is doing percussive low end stuff, mostly, too, and the vocals are not big, either.
It's not that hard to sound huge in that context.

 

[dronerstone]

Freaking awesome tones there, but that's no surprise.

Especially the Mesa/Diezel combination sounds rad!

And I know exactly what you mean by "meat and potatoes", I felt the same way when I've spent years chasing some very specific QOTSA guitar sounds, and then discovered things that made the whole setup seem rather simple. And no, I don't mean the Peavey Decade.

Nothing out of the ordinary, yet with a few twists that aren't widely known.

Also, yeah the volume does a good part of the heavy lifting.

 

[Whizzinby]

I absolutely love Tool. I appreciate AJ more for his vibe, than a killer tone. Unique arrangements with plenty of air to let everything breathe

 

[la szum]

Whomever produced etc the records is responsible for Adam’s tone on that record.
C’mon, they layered it all up.
For what, a saturated killer sounding D chord
in the song “Sober”.
I actually fell asleep in my seat at the concert in Tampa..soooo boring.
The band members barely moved, it was like a Vegas wax museum.
His edgy’ break-up parts are the best
- Stinkfist-with the breakdowns, that’s the dope stuff

I am one of those damn fools that thinks they peaked with Undertow.

I can see how they would be less than compelling live. That's one thing Rush did
so well. They had the meandering Prog that went on and on and on without being
statues on stage.

And why is Maynard even on stage? Just put a Mannequin back there and he can
pipe in his vocals from backstage where he can stomp grapes and make some Wine.