Working on a Tool (Adam Jones) tone.

So, I'm a big believer of creating your own tone, which I've made many of. But I'm trying to create Adam Jone's guitar tone on the Axe just for experimentation purposes. I know he blends a blue face Diesel VH4 with a vintage Marshall Bassmaster. Diesel for high end, bass master for low end. I have it pretty close. I'm using the amp called "Big Hair" in place of the bass master and it seems to be pretty good. Finding the right EQ's and volume settings for the blend took a while. I have it pretty close.

I'm wondering if anybody else has dabbled with this re-creation and had any luck. What did you do?

Thanks

-Dan
 
Experimenting with cabs will get you the rest of the way. I have gotten close with the Diezel Blue face and a Friedman HBE using the OH HGE Diezel IR's. Unfortunately Kevin at OH recently revamped his site and delisted those cabs. Maybe if you emailed him you could get your hands on it. Specifically the Diezel v30 16ohm HGE. It was only $5. My mix in my signature is using this combo.
 
Experimenting with cabs will get you the rest of the way. I have gotten close with the Diezel Blue face and a Friedman HBE using the OH HGE Diezel IR's. Unfortunately Kevin at OH recently revamped his site and delisted those cabs. Maybe if you emailed him you could get your hands on it. Specifically the Diezel v30 16ohm HGE. It was only $5. My mix in my signature is using this combo.

Thanks, if I have to go that route then I will, for now I'm looking to create this sound so I can use it with my power amp and cab. No IR's. I'm damn close now to getting it, but I don't think anybody will ever be able to re-create it perfectly unless they go steal his gear haha. Thanks man!
 
Yeah I made one a little while back that I was pretty happy with. I basically just used the exact same amp and cab setup as close as I could get it with the amps in the axe. One of which was the silverface diezel vh-4 and is one of the actual amps that adam uses and for the marshall I used a brit super and I looked up his settings for each and kinda went from there. I just tweaked it a little bit for Quantum and it sounds pretty good. I would just mess with treble and presence a bit to get it close to his newer album tones. Overall its a pretty solid rhythm sound for lots of things .

Axe-Change - Download Preset - Adam Jones - by sirus1987
 
Yeah I made one a little while back that I was pretty happy with. I basically just used the exact same amp and cab setup as close as I could get it with the amps in the axe. One of which was the silverface diezel vh-4 and is one of the actual amps that adam uses and for the marshall I used a brit super and I looked up his settings for each and kinda went from there. I just tweaked it a little bit for Quantum and it sounds pretty good. I would just mess with treble and presence a bit to get it close to his newer album tones. Overall its a pretty solid rhythm sound for lots of things .

Axe-Change - Download Preset - Adam Jones - by sirus1987

Ah man, I WISH I had an XL. Only Mark II. I can't open that from what I understand.
 
I took some screenshots of the different blocks if you wanna try and dial it in yourselves. I only did basic tweaking on the amp blocks and I dont think I changed anything else. You should be able to get everything from these. The only thing is that I recommend boosting some of the higher frequencies depending on the recording you're referencing it to. And also, it shows a drive and delay block, but I didnt use these for the tone at all. I was just messing around with those. But heres a link to the screenshots- Adam Jones Preset - Album on Imgur good luck
 
I took some screenshots of the different blocks if you wanna try and dial it in yourselves. I only did basic tweaking on the amp blocks and I dont think I changed anything else. You should be able to get everything from these. The only thing is that I recommend boosting some of the higher frequencies depending on the recording you're referencing it to. And also, it shows a drive and delay block, but I didnt use these for the tone at all. I was just messing around with those. But heres a link to the screenshots- Adam Jones Preset - Album on Imgur good luck

Adam puts all of his effects, including delay, before the amps preamp. Not afterwards. You wont be able to nail his lead tones without doing that. Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hPnebOrTx0

The trick is to keep the mix fairly low, so it doesn't get too muddy at the front end.
 
I know that this is going to sound pretentious as fuck, but in my opinion, Adam Jones' tone is more about an idea than the particulars. His live rig has been unchanged for years, but his studio rig is always changing. He usually records with whatever happens to be lying around the studio space, and mixes up the amps differently at different points of a song to get a desired effect. It's not about WHAT he records with, but HOW he records it that really gives you the Adam Jones sound.

So don't get too caught up on the particulars. What's most important is that you use two different amps into two different cab IRs, panned hard left and right. That massive stereo spread is essential for replicating his tone. Above and beyond that, play around with different high gain amps with relatively low gain settings, layer them and see how it sounds.

As far as amps go, regardless of what he actually uses, I've had the best luck replicating his style of sound using these amps:

RECTO2 RED MDN - Run the MV high, gain low, and EQ bright with a clean boost in front of it, so it's pretty percussive and mid-rangey.

HERBIE CH2+ - Run it fairly flat in the EQ, but put a Peak EQ filter between the amp and cab to replicate the "mid-cut" function.

SPAWN NITROUS - Dial out almost all of the base and gain and run a clean boost in front of it. This model has the perfect chunkiness on the bottom end and gives you a bit of more of that midrange. It also plays very nicely with pretty much any amp you pair with it.

Anyway, that's my take on it. Your mileage may vary. Good luck.
 
That massive stereo spread is essential for replicating his tone.

Go and listen to Aenima. So many of the heavy riffs on that album are panned straight down the middle, with a double track. That's how he gets that really thick sound. Checkout 46&2 for example, when Maynard is singing "I ... choose to live and to..." - the guitar riff there... straight down the middle.
 
I took some screenshots of the different blocks if you wanna try and dial it in yourselves. I only did basic tweaking on the amp blocks and I dont think I changed anything else. You should be able to get everything from these. The only thing is that I recommend boosting some of the higher frequencies depending on the recording you're referencing it to. And also, it shows a drive and delay block, but I didnt use these for the tone at all. I was just messing around with those. But heres a link to the screenshots- Adam Jones Preset - Album on Imgur good luck

Awesome man! Thanks!
 
My $.02 is that Adams tone(s) on 10,000 Days is the ultimate modern rock guitar tone. Specifically The Pot at 3:13 and Rosetta Stoned around 10:28. Like candy for the ears
 
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My $.02 is that Adams tone(s) on 10,000 Days is thended ultimate modern rock guitar tone. Specifically The Pot at 3:13 and Rosetta Stoned around 10:28. Like candy for the ears

Truth. But that's where it gets really wacky with the rig too, and a lot of that sound is a coordination between Jones and Baresi too. At any given time the first would be routed through thre the Diezel, the Rectifier, the Marshall, and a rotating few various amps. And then all that was routed through three different cabs with between 2-3 mics on each one. Baresi is a freaky did wizard...
 
He does use Recto v30 cabs but also mixes in SUNN cabs in the studio. Another thing is there is a shiver in his sound that seems to be a combination of the Diezel CH3 with gain maxed and a digital flanger in the mix. I think having the Diezel Blue is key and the second amp is about finding the low end combo. I think the second most likely would come from a Recto or a Marshall that has thicker low end with very low gain to offset the high gain of the Diezel. Also he uses a Gibson which he has said in interviews is the only one he will record with because its the only one that sounds the way he wants. So ya the guitar make a difference. Also he uses a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge.
 
He does use Recto v30 cabs but also mixes in SUNN cabs in the studio. Another thing is there is a shiver in his sound that seems to be a combination of the Diezel CH3 with gain maxed and a digital flanger in the mix. I think having the Diezel Blue is key and the second amp is about finding the low end combo. I think the second most likely would come from a Recto or a Marshall that has thicker low end with very low gain to offset the high gain of the Diezel. Also he uses a Gibson which he has said in interviews is the only one he will record with because its the only one that sounds the way he wants. So ya the guitar make a difference. Also he uses a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge.

And then on top of that, you have a band that is known for spreading misinformation about themselves, so God only KNOWS what is actually going on in the recording side of things.

I often ask myself what would happen if Adam Jones got a couple of Axe-fx IIs what would happen, or if he'd even like them. He's actually pretty old school. As mentioned already, all the effects in front of the amp and other than routing for various tones and a rather obscene amount of pedals on the board, pretty straight forward.
 
I'm convinced that there is plenty of 5150 on 10,000 Days. It was recorded and engineered by Joe Barresi who is a big fan of the 5150 according to his recording and mixing rock DVD's.
 
This is his live rig:
Adam%20Jones%20Rig%202%20with%20signal%20path%20and%20lables%20edit%202.jpg
 
I'm convinced that there is plenty of 5150 on 10,000 Days. It was recorded and engineered by Joe Barresi who is a big fan of the 5150 according to his recording and mixing rock DVD's.

From what I've heard, they used a TON of different amps on 10,000 Days. Aside from his usual mix, he also used a good amount of the 5150 and a Rivera Mick Thompson signature.
 
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