ADAM JONES

'Adam Thomas Jones' (born January 15, 1965 in Park Ridge, Illinois) is a Grammy Award-winning musician, guitarist and visual artist, best known for his work with the band Tool. Jones was rated the 75th Greatest Guitarist of all time by ''Rolling Stone Magazine'' and placed 9th in ''Guitar World's'' Top 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists [1]. He is also responsible for most of Tool's music videos.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Film work

Music career

Playing style

Visual art

Personal life

Equipment

Guitars

Amplifiers

Effects

External links

References

Biography

Early years

Jones was born in Park Ridge, Illinois and raised in Libertyville, Illinois, and played violin in elementary school. 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 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 makeup effects.
Jones' studies began in 1983 at the Hollywood Makeup Academy by learning "straight make-up", because he thought it would help him out. 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: "Sober" (on which he collaborated with Fred Stuhr), "Prison Sex", "Stinkfist", "Ænema", "Schism", and "Parabola". 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'', '', ''Dances with Wolves'', and ''Ghostbusters 2''.
He did the "Freddy Krueger in the womb" makeup for '','' as well as work for ''.
He also worked on commercials for salad dressing (never aired), Olympic stain (Albert Einstein makeup), and Duracell (boxers and taxicabs).

Music career

Main articles: Tool (band)

After Tom Morello introduced Jones and his friend Maynard James Keenan to Danny Carey in 1990, they -- along with Paul d'Amour -- formed Tool.
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'' and the Melvins/Lustmord collaboration ''Pigs of the Roman Empire''.
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 not known for predominatly using any particular guitar playing technique, but rather combines many techniques^[1] such as "alternately utilizing power chords, scratchy noise, chiming arpeggios, and a quiet minimalism".^[2] Other techniques used to expand his band's sound repertoire require forms of instrumental experimentation, for example, on the Tool song, "Jambi".^[3], Jones uses a talk box. Adam along with all members of Tool love experimenting with new things. 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, Boss DD-3 Digital 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 for 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

Since 1999, Jones has been married to the artist/singer Camella Grace.[2] He was previously married to his High School sweetheart Antonia Jones, born Antonia Maria Benyovszky. [3]
Jones had a pet Jackson's chameleon and a Great Dane named Eon. But according to an interview with Danny Carey, Eon became ill with cancer and passed away. Adam dedicated the song Eon Blue Apocalypse from the bands 2001 album Lateralus in his memory. Adam's current Great Dane is called Diablo. He and his wife, Camella Grace, have a great love for the breed of dogs.

Equipment

Guitars

Adam Jones famously uses the Silverburst Les Paul Customs made from 1978-1985, of which he owns 5, confirmed by the cover of Guitar World Magazine, the June 2006 issue which features Jones standing with 4 Silverburst Les Pauls behind him and one he is holding. His main Les Paul has a different headstock inlay, it appears to be a blue mirror, which covers the usual split diamond inlay Gibson Les Paul Customs are known for. Gibson discontinued using this finish after complaints about the metalflaking changing the tone of the guitar, however Jones says that this altered tone is part of the draw for him. The bridge pickups have been swapped for Seymour Duncan pickups, which are widely rumored to be the SH-4 JB model or a Seymore Duncan Trembucker, but not confirmed by Jones. Jones also uses a Natural finish Les Paul, for "Prison Sex" and "Parabol/Parabola", which are in BADGBE and BEDGBE tunings respectively. When Adam wrote ''Prison Sex'' back in 1992 this confirms Adam was the 1st guitarist of the 90's to utilize ultra low guitar tunings. BEDGBE and BADGBE tunings are actually made for 7 string guitars, but the song was wrote way before the 7 string craze. Jones has recorded using a Gibson SG, but does not use one live. Although rare, Adam has used Acoustic guitars for Tool's music. On the song ''Disposition'', an acoustic guitar can be heard. Jones describes it as a Guild. An Acoustic guitar is also used in the hidden track, on Tool's Salival album, called Maynard's Dick. This is a mix of both Electric and acoustic guitars and Tool has been known to play it live on occasion. The song ''Intension'' from 10,000 Days, is rumored to have been recorded using a Telecaster, according to what Jones told one of his close friends.

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 amplifers that he has cycled through, two have remained constant since 1994 and can be assumed to be "core" of his sound. These amps are a 1976 Marshall Super Bass amp and a Diezel VH4 "blueface" amp, the blue faceplate models were made from 94-97. 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 amplifier as a third amp. In some interviews from the period, Jones describes this amp as 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 appears to not always 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 always use Mesa/Boogie cabinets with his amps. The only exception here is a Marshall cabinet which is always seen sitting under his Marshall.
''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. All changes in intensity are through his pick, his volume knob, or (as of lately) a volume pedal.

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, in part to the reliability of simple live setups.^[4] 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... not in the effects loop. Adam also uses a Line 6 delay to loop certain sound clips, as he did in the demonstration at the recent "Shred School" event in L.A. He's also been seen using an MXR Micro Amp.
Adam stated that he uses an Epilady, (specifically the Epilady TRIO), an electric hair remover designed for women's legs. "An Epilady is even better than an E-Bow," he said. "It makes great sounds when you push it against the pickups."^[5]
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 uses a pipe-bomb microphone for the lead recording of the the song ''Rosetta Stoned'', which is a guitar pick-up wrapped in, what I believe is a piece of brass tubing. The pipe-bomb mic is most prominent in the solo of ''Rosetta Stoned''. Jones also uses a Dunlop CryBaby BB-535 Wah.^[6] In a recent ''Guitar World'' interview, he stated that he uses an Access Virus B pedal hooked up to a Moog Taurus (bass pedal synth). As an example, the Access V.B. can be heard in the intro of the songs "Reflection" and "The Grudge".

External links

★ Personal website

References

1. Mysterious Ways Jon Wiederhorn
2. Sober Song Review Steve Huey
3. The Making of Tool's "10,000 Days"
4. "Tool Guitarist Adam Jones is a Master of Many Trades"
5. "Tool: Open Your Mouth And Say "Ugh"" Crisafulli, Chuck
6. "Adam in Guitar World" Smith, Matt