Tool is arguably one of the most unique and innovative rock groups that the ’90s produced. Though their sound is characterized primarily by Danny Carey’s complex time signatures and Maynard Keenan’s aggressive vocals, the band’s tone is largely a result of Adam Jones’ guitar playing.
We'll seek to capture that tone.
Let's first take a wistful look at the gear he commonly uses.
You can checkout a graphic of everything on our rig diagram page for Adam Jones.
Adam Jones Typical Gear (most responsible for his tone)
Gear | Title | Rated | Browse |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Gibson Les Paul Custom | n/a | |
 | Diezel VH4 Amp Head | 97.0 | |
 | Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier Amp Head | n/a |
More Affordable Alternatives
Gear | Title | Rated | Browse |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Epiphone Les Paul Custom | 88.1 | |
 | Blackstar HT20R Amp Head | n/a |
Just distortion?
Jones, a graphic artist having contributed work to Jurrasic Park, Terminator 2 and almost all of Tool’s bizarre music videos, crafts a penetrating distortion that drops plenty of low end and punchy half mutes.
Emulating it may seem simple.
Just use distortion, right?
Well, yes - do that - but we should also go a step further by trying to capture the aggressiveness of Tool’s sound and the rhythmic energy of Jones’ guitar.
The Les Paul Factor
Jones uses Gibson Les Paul Customs almost exclusively on Tool’s albums. At least some of that extra “bite” you hear in an otherwise bottomed out tone, is simply due to the Les Paul sound. If you don’t have one, you’ll have to improvise a bit with whatever guitar you own.
- Make sure your pickup selector is switched to the bridge position.
- Cut your tone knob back, somewhere around seven or eight.
- Keep volume all the way up.
You’re looking for heavy saturation but you also want a high, penetrating tone that’s going to make your chord changes distinct. If you do happen to have a Gibson or Epiphone Les Paul, you might have a little more room to experiment with the tone knob and pickup selector.
Otherwise, I’d keep them steady just to make sure you’ve got that extra bite.
Amp Settings for Adam Jones
To encourage the upper end of your tone, you’ll want to keep your mids pretty high.
Possibly the most crucial component to Adam’s sound, your mid knob should dial in around eight or higher.
Keep bass at eight and treble at seven.
Adam uses a Diezel amplifier and you can see his settings pictured here on the third channel.
A picture of settings on one of Adam's old VH4 amp heads. Image Courtesy of Rig-Talk
Your settings should look pretty similar, though you can make adjustments depending on the tendencies of your own rig.
General rules are to keep the bass and mid high.
Here are a couple configurations to experiment with. Images are courtesy of the Positive Grid.
Start with high mids and a more balanced tone profile
High bass and cut treble for a thicker EQ.
Adam’s Multiple Amp Setup
In an interview with Guitar World, Adam stated that he uses multiple amps and settings for their varying strengths.
For example, a different amp for high end, mids and low end.
I’ve always played with two or three amps: one for high end, one that’s good with midrange and one that kicks in with the low; or I use one that’s got that good solid-state Metallica crunch and one that’s got that warm Marshall tube sound. - Adam Jones
Since most of us don’t have multiple amps, we’ll need to do our best to get that combination of lows and highs out of the same amplifier.
Even if you’re working with a small practice amp, you can still get close.
The distortion is what makes a bigger difference.
If you do have the luxury of two different amps, set one at an optimal low end configuration, with the other at a high end configuration.
Effects
I haven’t seen what I would consider a reliable shot of Adam’s pedalboard (if you’ve got any information on that let me know over at Twitter), but his tone is almost always distorted, which comes from either the Diezel or Mesa Boogie amplifier.
High gain on a Marshall amp will come close, and I’ve found that the “insane” setting on most Line 6 Spider amps will sound close as well.
If you use a distortion pedal instead of your amp, go with something modern with heavy saturation.
Think Boss ST-2 Power Stack or a tube distortion, like the Hughes and Kettner Tube Factor.
Keep in mind, light or bluesy overdrives won’t capture Adam’s sound.
Conclude
Adam’s amps alone are likely a five figure investment.
If you can put that kind of money into your rig, then you’re lucky and the exception to the norm. Otherwise, you’ll want to strike a balance between the low and high end tones of your amplifier.
The key is to have a direction to go in and be willing to experiment.
Even Adam is never really done crafting his tone.
As you can tell, there's a lot of experimenting that goes on. - Adam Jones
So push the mids and bass up and do some tinkering.
Maybe you’ll fall into some money and be able to afford two different top-of-the-line amplifiers.
Other Settings?
Do you have your own settings to contribute or other thoughts about replicating Adam’s tone?
Share it with us in the comments section below.
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Written by Bobby on Amp Settings
Written by Bobby on Amp Settings
And, very sorry, what frequencies are meant to be distorted, and which arent?
See my answer to your previous question. Adam’s amps are not broken up by frequency.
Also, I’ve read that he uses a bogner amp as well, and runs his amps through messa cabs.
I think he uses several different amps, but his most typical setup is diagramed here: https://www.guitarchalk.com/adam-jones-rig-diagram/
Thank you, very much for clearing that up for me. No, you were pretty clear, i just confused myself with possibilities. If one is using three amps, and using gain on two…which amp would you try to leave clean? Low? Sorry for all of the questions.
No worries. I think Adam uses one of the Mesas for his clean tone.
incorrect as he uses his marshal for his clean
I’m a little confused on a certain aspects. Say, I’m using three amps as Mr. Jones does. Do I, for example, turn everything but the highs on my high amp all the way down? Or do you blend them? Meaning does he literally cut all frequencies but one for each? In the picture of that doesnt appear to be the case.
Also, you say if youre using multiple amps to set one up for highs, another lows. How does that fit in? Because if I do that how am I maintaining the previously mentioned frequency guide lines? Thanks.
I don’t think he does it that way, and that’s not what I meant to communicate.
If you have three amps, I’d use one for clean tones and then the other two for different levels of distortion. The three-band preamp EQ for all three amps should be somewhat similar.
I have an Eleven Rack. Is there any preset or expansion preset out there that emulate Adam’s tone from Lateralus, 10,000 Days or Fear Inoculum?
Thanks
To be honest, I don’t know of a specific preset, but his setup is fairly simple. I would start with something high gain with mids pushed up. Then tweak as needed. “Fear Innoculum” (the song) is a little smoother with more bass, as compared to Adam’s more traditional tone.
Thanks for the reply.
Can anyone help me? I have a Katana 50 Mk 2 and I’d really like to achieve the Adam’s sound. Besides the great tips in this article, some other suggestions maybe? My guitar is a Jackson Monarkh
What do you get if you just crank the gain? Does that sound close, in your opinion?
Hey guys, i just picked up a guitar for the 1st time about one year ago. Squire strat & small fender amp. Now i own a dub cut gibson LP studio & a brand spankin new boss katana 100, 2 × 12″ with the boss effects pedal & a cry baby wah. Should i have 1st channel on crunch or ? Thanks
Hey Ryan – do you mean to get a Tool-style distortion? I would probably do Lead or Crunch, then just turn the gain up really high.
The bass is not maxed out. Whoever drew those reference lines got the bass and gain wrong. His gain is always maxed and bass is set between 10 and 11 O’clock. He uses the Superlead (Modded Superbass) for the heavier bass sound in his tone.
I’ve seen videos during the Aenima era where one of his amps is a Mesa Rectifier. While you obviously can’t tell the revision (E, F, etc), the time frame is obviously a generation 1. So back when they were two channel amps.
Just got back into Tool and wanted to play some old tracks. If you have a gen 2 or 3 Mesa Rectifier, channel 2 (orange) set to “Vintage” is what you want to use. This setting is the equivalent of what he would have been using in the 90s. Before channel 3 (red) or the “Modern” modes were introduced.
I have the back end of the head was set to bold/hi-power. Channel 2 Vintage with gain set to 1 or 2 o clock. On my custom shop Telecaster with Dmarzio humbuckers, bass at 2 o clock, mids at 1 o clock, highs at 11 o clock. Presence at 1 o clock. (As is with rectos, bass all the way up would be too flubby, and the highs need to be restrained to contain the buzzy and shrill aspects of the amp). This got a really good starting point to the Aenima era sound.
IMO. The Modern setting is too fuzzy/buzzy for his sound sound.
Hope this helps anyone out there.
Cheers
That’s a really interesting take on the Mesa generations and the vintage setting. I agree that Jones sound was a lot less fuzzy and almost more subtle than the modern modes, especially for Aenima and Lateralus.
In those videos, did he have the Diezel amp head as well, or was it just the Mesas?
“On my custom shop Telecaster with Dmarzio humbuckers” …. you’re kidding, right? Getting a Tele to mimic a LP Gibson is like rubbing a cat’s hair backwards.
Disagree. It’s a good sound. HH Teles are awesome.
Am I missing something? On ch. 3 he has the bass nearly maxed out.
As shown in the photo of Adams Diezel amp, you are SO wrong about the bass! Bass is all the way down on ch3 and lower than half on ch2. Ch1 I guess only Adam knows about.
There is a lot of bleeding on both guitar and bass tracks, which makes them blend so well together, that it is hard to hear that Adams turns the bass way down.
Hi everybody, so I’m gonna buy an amp soon, and I’m on a very limited budget and I found something. Can I sound like Adam Jones with a solid-state Fender Champion 100 and a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal?
The DS-1 won’t cut it. If you can, bump up to the MD-2 (Mega Distortion) or Boss Power stack.
Thank you, I’m probably gonna go with the Power Stack 🙂 Can I achieve tone like his with Marshall CODE 50? It’s a nice modelling amp that has a Plexi preset, and I know he used Marshall Plexis
Hey, Matt – yeah, I think the Power Stack is your best bet for a Marshall-esque drive with a modern edge. Depends on which amp you’re running through.
Let me know how it goes.
He uses an SG in the studio a lot.
I’ve heard that too. Just curious, but do you have a source for that? Can’t remember where I’ve read/heard it.
There is an old rig rundown video on YouTube of Adams setup. His pedal board is/was pretty much just a flanger, delay, wah, volume and eq.
From what I understand his rig changes quite a bit, at least the one he uses in the studio. He actually runs a lot of gear, including the bands’ synth sounds.