Deep Dive into Adam Jones's Tones

[LCW]

I did not know there was such a thing as AJ tone chasing, personally i like Tool as a band, AJ's tone?? I don't find anything outstanding about it
but that's me

There’s a FB group full of AJ tone chasers. There’s a Tone Chaser Handbook too.

 

[SonVolt]

I've always found it hard to hear Cantrell in the mix. His tone is so dark and the vocals so forward.

 

[LCW]

Dual Rectos (maybe one is a backup?). (His plexi is there too)

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[James Freeman]

Slash

eastwoodewww:
Use your illusion is the worst tone ever recorded.
Sounds like one sm57 dead center on the brightest v30 in the cab.

 

[LCW]

eastwoodewww:
Use your illusion is the worst tone ever recorded.
Sounds like one sm57 dead center on the brightest v30 in the cab.

And don’t forget the S.I.R. #34 Marshall that is one of the brightest tones I’ve ever heard…

 

[DrewJD82]

I’d agree about Adam’s tones not exactly being desirable to the majority. They’re fucking outstanding for Tool songs and I’m sure plenty of tunes can be played utilizing them in general, but they’re really conjured up to fit what they’re actually doing.

Listening to the last several albums with headphones on and man, they put some serious work into the mixing of those tones, from a mix standpoint AND the combination of amps working together. I’d imagine the dry erase board in Baressi’s studio gets filled up pretty quickly making a road map of what mics/amps are being used, when they’re being used and how they’re being blended at which particular time. Really, really creative use of both the tones and the studio. I highly doubt there’s a lot of happenstance going on there.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Listening to the last several albums with headphones on and man, they put some serious work into the mixing of those tones, from a mix standpoint AND the combination of amps working together. I’d imagine the dry erase board in Baressi’s studio gets filled up pretty quickly making a road map of what mics/amps are being used, when they’re being used and how they’re being blended at which particular time. Really, really creative use of both the tones and the studio. I highly doubt there’s a lot of happenstance going on there.

I’d be amazed if they aren’t making decisions on this stuff very early on in the process otherwise they’d just end up with an overwhelming amount of shit to deal with, and quite often, only one solution makes sense anyway. I’d imagine a lot gets decided as they’re tracking, and AJ can perform and lean into whatever sound they’re getting. If it’s not happening for a section they’ll blend other mics or amps and find what they need, and then commit that down. I can’t imagine they’re recording loads and loads of tracks with no purpose on what to do with them until later.

And I’d imagine the same is true for the rest of the band, a lot of the crazy interesting stuff will get printed down so it’s consistent each time they play it back and they can build other stuff around it.

The mix itself is probably way more straightforward than it sounds, I don’t think you can really make it sound as good as it does by deferring decisions and not building them into the production.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

another cool one where at the start you can hear different sounds panned left and right. Start has a thinner/more aggressive tone to the left and deeper more gainy sound to the right. Verse drops down (mostly) to the L guitar which sounds more Marshall to me.

 

[EOengineer]

another cool one where at the start you can hear different sounds panned left and right. Start has a thinner/more aggressive tone to the left and deeper more gainy sound to the right. Verse drops down (mostly) to the L guitar which sounds more Marshall to me.

This song transports me every time I hear it. The Rollins middle section blew my 12 year old mind apart listening to it the first time with the space, flange, and delay. I was sure these guys were aliens.

I’d love to listen to the multitracks to hear what’s happening more closely. I think the Marshall tone is straightforward, but I’m less certain about the recto tone.

A Mesa rep I spoke with in ‘97 told me Adam was using EL34s in his Mesas. I’ve not seen much to confirm that. As far as I can tell he’s using the orange channel vintage gain for everything. I’d really like to hear it on its own.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

As far as I can tell he’s using the orange channel vintage gain for everything. I’d really like to hear it on its own.

Definitely sounds like orange channel to me, and I think it kind of needs weird settings to work. He seems to dial the recto much as he would the Marshall and Diezel, where things are fairly cranked on the eq. Vintage mode on orange channel needs that anyway IMO.

This is from one of those tone chaser guides, I think it sounds pretty appropriate:

 

[EOengineer]

Definitely sounds like orange channel to me, and I think it kind of needs weird settings to work. He seems to dial the recto much as he would the Marshall and Diezel, where things are fairly cranked on the eq. Vintage mode on orange channel needs that anyway IMO.

This is from one of those tone chaser guides, I think it sounds pretty appropriate:

View attachment 39233

Thanks for this. Now that you post it I’m vaguely recalling this image. Maybe it’s subliminal programming but this is actually VERY close to where I have mine set up when I’m playing Tool, though it’s usually the red channel cloning vintage mode so I can use the red channel presence to fold in a bit of the Superlead top end and attack.

 

[mbugbee]

another cool one where at the start you can hear different sounds panned left and right. Start has a thinner/more aggressive tone to the left and deeper more gainy sound to the right. Verse drops down (mostly) to the L guitar which sounds more Marshall to me.

I’m in awe of your ears man.

 

[dronerstone]

My impression of Adam's sound, especially in the earlier days, was it's a lot less gainy than one might think. Which helps with the percussive nature.

100% agree, and I found the same thing to be true about early QOTSA toanz, which I've been chasing since the early 00's.

Both are much cleaner than you'd think, although they're not exactly overdrive territory, rather low-gain distortion, if that expression makes sense?

The overall mix and EQ do a lot of the heavy lifting, that's for sure. More than one might suspect.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

The overall mix and EQ do a lot of the heavy lifting, that's for sure. More than one might suspect.

having a great bass player with killer tone is the secret for great guitar sounds

 

[la szum]

having a great bass player with killer tone is the secret for great guitar sounds

If that's true..... then post MOP Metallica has no great guitar tones.



I agree. So much of what makes for great guitar tones is the bed those tones
are laying on top of, or laying together with. A lot of the presumed fatness of
a guitar tone is really just the ooomph of the bass underneath---especially with
any unison lines (albeit 1 or 2 octaves down).

Then you have the cymbals eating up a lot of top end in the guitars that is
actually there in the Iso'd track, but gets melted into submission and tempered
by competing frequencies.

I may be off the mark, but I have come to generally conclude that guitar tones
are both brighter and less bassy then we assume based on the completed mix
we hear. The ooomph we presume is guitar is bass, and the absence of brightness
we presume is not there actually is, but gets mellowed/softened by the splish splash.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

If that's true..... then post MOP Metallica has no great guitar tones.

I mean…. in the context of the album it works great, and the album is iconic. But otherwise, I don’t really envy that guitar tones, it just sounds fine to me. As part of the bigger picture, for sure it’s classic.

I may be off the mark, but I have come to generally conclude that guitar tones
are both brighter and less bassy then we assume based on the completed mix
we hear. The ooomph we presume is guitar is bass, and the absence of brightness
we presume is not there actually is, but gets mellowed/softened by the splish splash.

Not sure I agree with that. There’s enough instances where that isn’t true at all to balance the times it is true. The bigger picture is all that matters, that might be with massive guitars or it might be small guitars that sound massive because of everything else. Way too complex and deep to say it’s always one thing or another. Often songs cut to just guitars and they still sound enormous. Great guitars always sound great to me. Sometimes weird/shitty sounding guitars can work well in the right mix, but they’re still shitty/weird.

 

[la szum]

Huh?

Where did I say "always??" What you quoted me as saying actually includes me writing.... "generally."





Carry on!

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Huh?

Where did I say "always??" What you quoted me as saying actually includes me writing.... "generally."





Carry on!

Generally still implies “more often than not”. I’m just saying, in my opinion, if anything the opposite is true (but I’d say circumstances vary too much to say).

I’d just say dial tones that sound sick. Usually the right drum and bass sounds can accommodate great sounding guitars and they all live harmoniously without needing to sacrifice the bottom and top end too much. If you need to carve a bit out, it’s way easier than trying to add stuff that isn’t there.

 

[deadpool_25]

DEADPOOL GONNA YELL AT U

I did not know there was such a thing as AJ tone chasing, personally i like Tool as a band, AJ's tone?? I don't find anything outstanding about it
but that's me

 

[deadpool_25]

I actually kinda agree though. Adam's tone is cool but not that special. I'm honestly at that point where there are very few guitar tones are all that special to me. It's more so the songs and performances I think are special.

For example if I hear someone covering a song I love using gear that's completely different and a tone that's in the right ballpark, but they're killing the vibe and timing and dynamics of the song I'm gonna be very happy with it.

On the other hand, if someone exactly replicates the tone but the playing is off....meh.

Hell, there are instances of covers where while I love the original, I prefer the cover version due to both performances and tone. A couple that come immediately to mind are Voodoo Child (Slight Return) where SRV's version is ridiculously awesome, and Holy Diver where I actually like KSE's version more.