Adam Jones Rig via Youtube

[EXPcustom]

God dammint I need those older pre-2003 Mesa cabs.

What's so great about em?

Metallica and everyone still use the pre 2003 Mesa cabs on the road because after 2003 Celestion started stamping all the frames in China, also the wattage rating for the Mesa speakers changed by ten watts. They were 65 and are 75 now, or the other way around I cant remember right this second?

 

[EXPcustom]

...the more I hear about his rig, the more I'm convinced that if all the AJ tone chasers could have the opportunity to play his setup alone, a lot of them wouldn't like it at all.
Don't misunderstand me, I love his tone but to me it has more to do with his playing style, the guitar parts he create for their songs and above all the close interaction between him and the other members of Tool; when I think about their music I imagine it like a "net" of sounds that works incredibly good together and imho this is the unique beauty of Tool.

What I'm trying to say is that in my opinion if we had the chance to play his Blueface alone through a bass cab, we probably wouldn't like it; same with his Marshall or even the entire rig. The magic really happens when HE plays his rig in THAT particular band...to me it's a waste of time trying to analyze his gear separating it from the rest of the band and extrapolating it from that specific context, because in this case it really matters. Just my 2 cents anyway

Thanks for sharing and long live to Adam Jones!!!

I bet if you used his rig to play high speed shreddin EVH style leads it would sound like ass.

 

[EXPcustom]

DT

 

[VH4paul]

...the more I hear about his rig, the more I'm convinced that if all the AJ tone chasers could have the opportunity to play his setup alone, a lot of them wouldn't like it at all.
Don't misunderstand me, I love his tone but to me it has more to do with his playing style, the guitar parts he create for their songs and above all the close interaction between him and the other members of Tool; when I think about their music I imagine it like a "net" of sounds that works incredibly good together and imho this is the unique beauty of Tool.

What I'm trying to say is that in my opinion if we had the chance to play his Blueface alone through a bass cab, we probably wouldn't like it; same with his Marshall or even the entire rig. The magic really happens when HE plays his rig in THAT particular band...to me it's a waste of time trying to analyze his gear separating it from the rest of the band and extrapolating it from that specific context, because in this case it really matters. Just my 2 cents anyway

Thanks for sharing and long live to Adam Jones!!!

I bet if you used his rig to play high speed shreddin EVH style leads it would sound like ass.

ahahaha bet it too!!!

 

[stephen sawall]

My vintage 30's are the old ones ....it's the lower watt's. I have never compared the sound. They are always the speaker I use with a microphone.

This is the first I have heard his VH4 is modified.

 

[EXPcustom]

My vintage 30's are the old ones ....it's the lower watt's. I have never compared the sound. They are always the speaker I use with a microphone.

This is the first I have heard his VH4 is modified.

Mesa V30's are different than the regular Marshall v30s, always been like that. Then in 2003 they fucked everything up when they moved production to China.

 

[Tvd]

Great lol, now I need to hunt for a pre-2003 cab... FK!

 

[stephen sawall]

My vintage 30's are the old ones ....it's the lower watt's. I have never compared the sound. They are always the speaker I use with a microphone.

This is the first I have heard his VH4 is modified.

Mesa V30's are different than the regular Marshall v30s, always been like that. Then in 2003 they fucked everything up when they moved production to China.

Mine are from a old Marshall cab. I have compared them with the ones in the old Mesa cabs and could not tell much difference. I did it in different cabs ....so not a fair comparison.

Most of my Celestion's are completely from England. I picked up several before the change over. None are from after the move to China.

 

[EXPcustom]

My vintage 30's are the old ones ....it's the lower watt's. I have never compared the sound. They are always the speaker I use with a microphone.

This is the first I have heard his VH4 is modified.

Mesa V30's are different than the regular Marshall v30s, always been like that. Then in 2003 they fucked everything up when they moved production to China.

Mine are from a old Marshall cab. I have compared them with the ones in the old Mesa cabs and could not tell much difference. I did it in different cabs ....so not a fair comparison.

Most of my Celestion's are completely from England. I picked up several before the change over. None are from after the move to China.

Celestions for Mesa are different than the Marshall in a few minor ways but different enough to be be different so to speak

I am real intrested in these phasing issues, I want to try to replicate them but I got to wait for my friend to come by and give me a hand. He knows all bout phasing and doing that 9 volt battery test with speakers etc...

 

[EXPcustom]

One thing I am confused on is that Adam was using the 2x15 bass cab this tour, Peter mentions bass speakers/cab but he says that was two years ago when he was working on Adam's amp. So did he have 12" bass speakers in his middle cab then?

 

[boba fett]

little more @ all the tool-nerds (including myself! Jones seems to have the bass-pot on the marshall on 0,0. (Video at approx 4:10). Looks like the LF are amplified purposeful by the VH4...
but in the end its certainly hard to tell whats goin on on theirs stage . I remember a gig in switzerland when only the marshall-powerlights where "on" during the whole set. so what?
the band as a unit is incredible and so are their records (i think aenima was the only thing i could listen to during 7 months or so in the 90s). hope there is more to come
cheers!

 

[PhilipJ]

to pickguard screws hahahaha
Opiateofthemasses is super close though, I haven't seen the band in person but i've heard a lot of his YouTube stuff and it's good. In my opinion, unprofessional haha, Adams playing is just as much about the effects he's using as his amps. When the amps do get thrown into the mix I think it has a lot to do with finding that sweet spot on the crunch on w/e amp you're using. All the rest is just "dysfunctional insecure practices."

Hahah, I always thought that he was saying, "fuck all these insecure, dysfunctional ACTRESSES" because he is going on a rant about the things that are shallow and don't matter and I thought he was talking about all the screw-ups in Hollywood that people fall over and pay so much attention to.

 

[EXPcustom]

On a unrelated note I did lose the pickguard screw to my 81 Silverburst and spent two hours tearing up my house to find it. True story happened last week.

 

[Tvd]

to pickguard screws hahahaha
Opiateofthemasses is super close though, I haven't seen the band in person but i've heard a lot of his YouTube stuff and it's good. In my opinion, unprofessional haha, Adams playing is just as much about the effects he's using as his amps. When the amps do get thrown into the mix I think it has a lot to do with finding that sweet spot on the crunch on w/e amp you're using. All the rest is just "dysfunctional insecure practices."

Hahah, I always thought that he was saying, "fuck all these insecure, dysfunctional ACTRESSES" because he is going on a rant about the things that are shallow and don't matter and I thought he was talking about all the screw-ups in Hollywood that people fall over and pay so much attention to.

On a unrelated note I did lose the pickguard screw to my 81 Silverburst and spent two hours tearing up my house to find it. True story happened last week.

Pickguards are for pussy's anwho, adam doesnt do it... why should anyone else

 

[MOOSEHEADS]

to pickguard screws hahahaha
Opiateofthemasses is super close though, I haven't seen the band in person but i've heard a lot of his YouTube stuff and it's good. In my opinion, unprofessional haha, Adams playing is just as much about the effects he's using as his amps. When the amps do get thrown into the mix I think it has a lot to do with finding that sweet spot on the crunch on w/e amp you're using. All the rest is just "dysfunctional insecure practices."

Hahah, I always thought that he was saying, "fuck all these insecure, dysfunctional ACTRESSES" because he is going on a rant about the things that are shallow and don't matter and I thought he was talking about all the screw-ups in Hollywood that people fall over and pay so much attention to.

On a unrelated note I did lose the pickguard screw to my 81 Silverburst and spent two hours tearing up my house to find it. True story happened last week.

Pickguards are for pussy's anwho, adam doesnt do it... why should anyone else

The tone is in the SCREWS!

 

[Tvd]

I'll sell you a pick guard screw from 81 for 350.00, things older than you are! Let me know

 

[Ultradeaf]

If you use your ear, you can just hear what amps were used for what songs.

Example:

Super Bass= "Sober", "Opiate", "Prison Sex", older stuff. Much rougher, 2203-ish tone

VH4= "Jambi", new stuff. A lot tighter.

I think the Dual was used on a lot of the mid nineties stuff. Mesa was the "high gain" amp of choice back then and I would think Adam came across Diezel and fell in love with it. He may have had to slowly purge himself of the Dual just like you slowly fall out of love with someone when you meet someone you like better.

I know when I saw Tool in '07 he was only using the Marshall and the Diezel. A very wise man.

 

[FourT6and2]

If you use your ear, you can just hear what amps were used for what songs.

Example:

Super Bass= "Sober", "Opiate", "Prison Sex", older stuff. Much rougher, 2203-ish tone

VH4= "Jambi", new stuff. A lot tighter.

I think the Dual was used on a lot of the mid nineties stuff. Mesa was the "high gain" amp of choice back then and I would think Adam came across Diezel and fell in love with it. He may have had to slowly purge himself of the Dual just like you slowly fall out of love with someone when you meet someone you like better.

I know when I saw Tool in '07 he was only using the Marshall and the Diezel. A very wise man.

The Marshall is on EVERY song. And EVERYTHING on Lateralus and 10,000 Days is AT LEAST two or three amps at a time. No song is only one amp. And it wasn't his choice to stick with Diezel. He said the rest of the band liked the Diezel in the mix more than the Mesa and that's why he's stuck with it.

But, from what Peter said, this is the first I've heard of 6L6's being used in the amp.

Also, Dave Friedman's been into Jones' Marshall and (again) that info is all over the net.

 

[EXPcustom]

I am pretty sure he did have a JCM800 that he ran with the Superbass on the early stuff. Pre-94 then he went to the Recto.

Looks like he was using 3 amps for a while, the Diezel, Recto and Superbass up until around 2002. I am still not 100% sure if the Recto was a backup for the Diezel or if he did really run all three at once.