Adam Jones

Adam Thomas Jones (born January 15, 1965) is a three time Grammy Award-winning Welsh-American musician and visual artist, best known for his position as the guitarist for Grammy-Award winning band Tool. Jones has been rated the 75th Greatest Guitarist of all time by the Rolling Stone and placed 9th in Guitar World's Top 100 Greatest metal Guitarists. Jones is regularly credited for a majority of Tool's music videos.

Biography

Early years

Jones was born in Park Ridge, Illinois, raised in Libertyville, Illinois. He was accepted into the Suzuki program, and continued to play violin through his freshman year in high school. He then began to play an acoustic bass for three years in an orchestra.

In addition to playing classical music, Jones played bass guitar in the band Electric Sheep, with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, until Jones moved to California (Morello soon followed). According to both of them, the band was quite unpopular at the time. Jones never received traditional guitar lessons, but instead learned by ear.

Film work

Jones was offered a film scholarship but declined and chose to move to Los Angeles to study art and sculpture. His focus of interest shifted to film, and he began to work as a sculptor and special effects designer, where he learned the stop-motion camera techniques he would later apply in Tool's music videos, such as "Sober" (on which he collaborated with Fred Stuhr), "Prison Sex", "Stinkfist", "Ænema", "Schism", "Parabola" and "Vicarious". He graduated in 1987.

After graduation, he went to work at Rick Lazzarini's Character Shop. During the next couple of years, he worked the TV show Monsters. He designed and fabricated a Grim Reaper makeup and a Zombie head on a spike (later used in Ghostbusters 2) among others. After that, he went to Stan Winston's special effects workshop, where he worked on Predator 2, sculpting a unique-looking skull for the Predator's spaceship interior.]

Jones worked on several other big films in Hollywood doing makeup and set design, including Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Dances with Wolves, and Ghostbusters 2. He did the "Freddy Krueger in the womb" makeup for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, as well as work for A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. He also worked on commercials for salad dressing (never aired), Olympic stain (Albert Einstein makeup), and Duracell (boxers and taxicabs).

Music career

Jones also toured with the Jello Biafra/The Melvins band and contributed to their albums Never Breathe What You Can't See and Sieg Howdy!. Jones and Melvins Guitarist/Vocalist Buzz Osborne are close friends. Jones also appeared on the Melvins album Hostile Ambient Takeover, the Melvins/Lustmord collaboration Pigs of the Roman Empire and the Isis album Wavering Radiant.

On Mr. Show, he appeared as the fictional guitarist of Puscifer along with bandmate Keenan, and can also be spotted in the audience seated at a table with Keenan in the series' first episode.

Playing style

Adam Jones is known for not predominantly using any particular guitar playing technique, but rather combines many techniques such as "alternately utilizing power chords, scratchy noise, chiming arpeggios, off-beat rhythm patterns, and a quiet minimalism". On Lateralus and 10,000 Days he made heavy use of triplets. Other techniques used to expand his band's sound repertoire require forms of instrumental experimentation, for example, on the Tool song, "Jambi", Jones uses a talk box. In the song Third Eye he makes use of a guitar slide for the opening. He has two synthesizers that are listed below in his effects section. Live, Adam can be seen with a large pedalboard full of effects, including a DOD FX-40B Equalizer (EQ) pedal, Boss BF-2 Flanger, Line 6 DL-4 delay, and an MXR Micro Amp among others.

Visual art

Jones created the liner art for the re-release of Peach's Giving Birth to a Stone, in which Jones's fellow Tool member Justin Chancellor played bass. He helped Green Jellÿ with their costumes. In 2007 he received the Grammy Award for 'Best Recording Package' as art director for his work on 10,000 Days. Adam came up with the make-up layout the actors wore on the videos for Schism and Parabol/Parabola. In his spare time, Adam shoots photography that is used for the visuals at live Tool concerts. Adam draws his own comics, a habit he began as a young child manipulating his ideas into 2-D form on paper.

Personal life

Jones was married to his high school sweetheart Antonia Maria Benyovsky for a short time. In 1999, Jones married the artist/singer Camella Grace. Jones had a Great Dane named Eon. But according to an interview with Danny Carey, Eon became ill with cancer and died. Adam dedicated the song Eon Blue Apocalypse from the band's 2001 album Lateralus in his memory. Adam's last Great Dane was called Diablo, but died after fighting bronchitis on the 3rd December 2009. He and his wife had a great love for the breed of dogs. He appeared on the April 2009 edition of Guitar World magazine with Kirk Hammett of Metallica. The two guitarists were on the front cover.

Equipment

Guitars

Adam Jones uses the Gibson Silverburst Les Paul Customs, of which he owns three (it has been believed that he owned five because of a Guitar World cover, but in actuality the last two were copied) as his main guitars for live performances and in the studio. His main Les Paul has a headstock ornament. It appears to be a blue mirror, which covers the usual split diamond inlay Gibson Les Paul Customs are known for. Another of his Silverbursts is a 1981 model and (as described by Jones himself in an interview in 2001 with Australian Guitar magazine) has an unsightly screw in it that Jones will not remove because doing so may hurt the unique tone of the guitar. (This guitar with its screw can clearly be seen twice on the cover of the above mentioned Guitar World Magazine.)

After making these Silverburst Les Pauls in the late seventies and early eighties, Gibson discontinued using this finish after complaints about the metal flaking changing the tone of the guitar. Jones says that this altered tone is part of the draw for him. In a March 1994 interview with Guitar School magazine, Adam states: "I use Gibson guitars; I prefer the Les Paul Custom. It's a black guitar with a greenish burst in the middle. They only made them for two or three years. I guess a lot of people complained that the metallic finish was affecting the sound. That's exactly why I like playing it. I have Seymour Duncan pickups, and I can't get the same sound with any other guitar, not even another Gibson, without that finish on it. I have five of them. I'd buy another if I could find one". Adam has admitted that his guitars are customized, but he has kept secret the exact nature of the modifications he has made to his guitars. Jones stated in 2001 that his pickups were "hot-wired" and would say nothing beyond this. Jones has admitted that the fret wire on the Gibsons is of the heaviest gauge. Gibson have stated that they will produce models based on Jones's Silverburst Les Pauls.

When playing live, Jones also uses a Natural finish Les Paul to play the songs "Prison Sex" and "Parabol/Parabola", which are in BADGBE and BEDGBE tunings respectively. When in the studio, Jones has said he has used other guitars, mentioning a Gibson SG electric guitar and a Guild acoustic guitar amongst others. It is rumored that he used a Fender Telecaster to record "Right in Two" on the album 10,000 Days, and a Fender Stratocaster to record "Pushit."

Amplifiers

The amplifiers that Jones uses to create his unique tone are uncertain, as he and the band are known for spreading misinformation about themselves and their music. What is known for certain is that he uses multiple amplifiers simultaneously. Of the amplifiers that he has cycled through, two have remained constant since 1995 and can be assumed to be "core" of his sound. These amps are a 1976 Marshall Super Bass amp and a 1995 Diezel VH4 Blueface amp, the blue faceplate models were made from 94-97, and have less presence and a darker tone than the current Silverface that are being made. The Marshall is his oldest amp, and was most likely used on all the Tool recordings, all the way back to Opiate EP. Adam has stated that this amp is of the "non-master volume" type and has had both channels wired together. He keeps this amp "in the freezer" when not in use to help preserve it. The Diezel has been in his live and studio setup since at least 1994. This is a four channel amp from Germany. From as early as 1994 until the late 1990s Adam can be seen live using a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier 2 Channel amplifier as a third amp. In some interviews from that period, Jones has confirmed that it is a Dual Rectifier. More recently, this Mesa/Boogie has not appeared on stage and appears to have been replaced with another more recent VH4 amp. The new model VH4's have a silver faceplate and are different in voicing and circuitry compared to the Bluefaces. Interestingly, he does not always appear to use this amp. During some shows, the blue Diezel's 'standby' clearly remains illuminated for the duration of the performance, while the amp is without a doubt on and being used at other shows. Other amps mentioned by Adam include a Sunn Beta Lead which he states he used in place of the Mesa/Boogie during studio recording in a June 2001 interview. More recently Jones has talked about using Bogner, Rivera, and Peavey amps in the studio as well as his Marshall and Diezel. He appears to use Mesa/Boogie cabinets exclusively with his amps, with the exception of a Marshall cabinet which is always seen sitting under his Marshall head.

Lateralus may have been recorded with the Diezel amp, along with the Marshall bass amp. Adam has made references to a Sunn head and may have also used his Mesa Boogie rectifier in the studio. By the time of the main Lateralus tour, the only Mesa Boogie equipment in sight was the two Mesa Rectifier Standard cabinets.

Mixonline.com's interview with Joe Barresi and Bob Ludwig discuss Adam's equipment and setup for the 10,000 Days album with great detail. When discussing the amps, Barresi mentions Adam's famous Marshall and Diezel, "a Mesa Boogie", a Bogner Uberschall, a Rivera Knucklehead Reverb, and "several others". In a Guitarworld magazine interview Adam also mentions an unspecified Peavey amp, which is probably one of the "several others" that Barresi mentions. As far as cabinets go, Barresi says that Mesa/Boogie cabinets were mostly used because of the better low end response. The Marshall ran through its Marshall cabinet and the Rivera ran through a Rivera cabinet. Barresi goes on to describe signal chain for tracking. He says that Adam would play through certain effects and then send the signal to a splitter. The sound would then go into three to five amps. The Marshall and Diezel would each get their own track, and a third track would be a mix of the other amps (usually the Bogner and Rivera). Each cabinet would have at least two to three mics on them. Rivera Amps also claims on its web page that he is using a Rivera Knucklehead Rev Mick Thompson model on the recording.

It is worth pointing out that Adam doesn't switch channels on his VH4. He uses only channel 3 when playing live. All changes in intensity are through his pick, his volume knob, or (as of recently) a volume pedal. Also, another point to mention about Adam's live rig is that he uses Mesa/Boogie 4x12 Stiletto Cabinets with a straight side, and slanted speakers which have a lip hanging over them. They are identifiable by the grey piping used around the cabinets grill, as opposed to the black piping used on the Mesa/Boogie 4x12 Standard Recto Cabinets.

Jones' tones

According to a Guitar School interview in 1994, Jones stated that he strongly disliked using effect pedals. During that time, he only used two pedals, a delay and an equalizer, in part to the reliability of simple live setups. He is known for subtle wah use, to only create slight tone and timbre bends. There is also an older Ibanez Flanger and Digital Delay present on much of Ænima and Lateralus. Flanger is definitely a staple of his live tone. Adam runs these pedals right into the front of the amplifiers as opposed to in the effects loop.

In the April 2006 edition of Guitar World magazine, Jones revealed that he used the Gig-FX Chopper Effects Pedal. He also mentioned that he had several pedals modified, and that he used an altered volume pedal to control the strength of some effects. A newer Ernie Ball Standard Volume Pedal is clearly visible on his stage setup. He also stated that he uses the Foxx Tone Machine Reissue and a Heil talk box on the song "Jambi", that he learned to use with Joe Walsh's help. Adam used a "pipe-bomb microphone" for the lead recording of the song Rosetta Stoned, which is a guitar pick-up wrapped in what is believed to be a piece of brass tubing capped at each end, which resembles a pipe bomb. Jones also uses a Dunlop CryBaby BB-535 Wah. In a recent Guitar World interview, he stated that he uses an Access Virus synth hooked up to a Moog Taurus (bass pedal synth). As an example, the Access V.B. can be heard in the introduction of the songs "Reflection," and "The Grudge".

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