Adam Thomas Jones is a three-time Grammy Award-winning 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 also the director of the majority of
Tool's music videos. Biography
= Early years and personal life= 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. It was
said that as a child he was very different from other children. He would
always skip church in favor of reading Sunday comics. As a child he had an
interest in animation, turning his ideas into three dimensional sculptures, which
explains why Tool's music videos often had 3D-clay effects. He later began to
play the acoustic bass 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. According to both of
them, the band was quite unpopular at the time. Jones never received
traditional guitar lessons, but instead learned by ear.
On January 27, 2013, Jones became engaged to his girlfriend, painter Korin
Faught. The marriage proposal took place before the Royal Rumble event. Their
wedding took place on July 6, 2013. = 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", "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 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 II. 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, Olympic stain, and Duracell.
= 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. On August 14, 2011, Jones performed the
National Anthem of the United States at the outset of WWE's SummerSlam wrestling
event in Los Angeles. = Playing style=
Adam Jones is known for not predominantly using any particular
guitar playing technique, but rather combining 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 and
applications of non-instrumental experimentation as well,such as his use
of an Epilady as a plectrum on the Aenima and Lateralus albums for example;
continuing in this direction 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 pedal, Boss BF-2 Flanger, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, MXR Micro Amp,
Dunlop BB535 and two Boss Master switch/power supply pedals among a few
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. An
X-Files/30 Days of Night crossover in 2010 was co-written by Jones and 30 Days
creator Steve Niles with artwork by Tom Mandrake.
Equipment = Guitars=
Adam Jones uses Gibson Silverburst Les Paul Customs, of which he owns three 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 has an unsightly screw in it that Jones will
not remove because doing so may hurt the unique tone of the guitar.
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. 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.
= 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.
According to Dave Friedman, who has worked on Adam's Marshall, the amp is a
"1959 [bass circuit], late 70's with JJ EL34's and Chinese preamp tubes
[Shuguang]. It [has been modified to] Super Lead spec. with 100k negative
feedback on the 4 ohm output tap. It has a 0.68 cap on the presence and a 0.68
cap in V2, also the caps in V1 are both 0.022's. The amp is biased to 25ma and
he jumps the channels with a cable." 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 2000s 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. 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 does
not 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 a volume
pedal. Also, another point to mention about Adam's live rig is that he uses
Mesa/Boogie 4x12 Oversized Rectifier straight front/slant baffle cabinets
with his VH4's. = Effects=
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, due 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.
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 Roland PK-5 midi
controller. As an example, the Access V.B. can be heard in the introduction of
the songs "Reflection," and "The Grudge".
External links Adam Jones on Myspace
Adam Jones at the Internet Movie Database
References