Adam Jones
Adam JonesAdam Thomas Jones (born January 15, 1965 in Libertyville, Illinois) is best known as the guitarist for the band Tool. He is the creative mind behind the guitar riffs and music videos of Tool. Besides his reputation as a musician, Jones is also well respected as a visual artist. He directed and worked on all of Tool's music videos except for "Hush" and "Sober".
Biography
Jones was born 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 played a stand up bass for three years in an orchestra. In addition to playing in an orchestra, Jones played bass in a band called Electric Sheep with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine in high school until Jones moved to California (Morello soon followed). According to both of them, the band was quite unpopular at the time. Both Morello and Jones did not receive traditional guitar lessons, but instead, learned from each other. Jones received a film scholarship but declined and chose to move to Los Angeles to apply at an art school instead to improve his sculpting and sketching abilities.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 videos Sober, Prison Sex, Stinkfist, and Aenema. He graduated in 1987.After graduation, he went to work at Rick Lazzarini's "The Character Shop". During the next couple of years, he worked on a TV show called ''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. There he worked on ''Predator 2'', where he sculpted a unique looking skull for the Predator's space ship interior. Jones worked on several other big films in Hollywood doing makeup and set design, including ''Jurassic Park'' and ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day''. After Tom Morello introduced Jones and his friend Maynard James Keenan to Danny Carey in 1990, they - along with Paul d'Amour - formed Tool.
Trivia and Side Projects
- 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.
- Jones has toured with The Melvins as a guitarist and has contributed to music on some of their albums.
- Jones toured with the Jello Biafra/The Melvins band and contributed to their albums ''Never Breathe What You Can't See'' and ''Seig Howdy''.
- Jones has a special talent at drawing caricatures.
- Jones is a big Devo fan.
- He worked on a salad dressing commercial (it was never aired), Olympic stain (Albert Einstein makeups), Duracell (Boxers and Taxi cabs), Terminator 2, Dances With Wolves, Jurassic Park, ''Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5'' (He did the Freddy Krueger in the womb makeup), and ''Ghostbusters 2''.
- Jones had a pet Jackson's chameleon and a Great Dane named Metro. Adam's current Great Dane is called Diablo.
- He helped Green Jello with their costumes.
- Jones collaborated with Fred Stuhr in the creation of "Sober", but receives no credit for work on "Hush". Watching "Hush" reveals immense stylistic differences between itself and all other Tool videos, making it clear that Jones's creative input was not involved.
Equipment
Guitars
Jones owns two Silverburst Gibson Les Paul Customs, one of which is from 1978. These guitars are rare and sought after by collectors as their "silverburst" finish will turn to green over time - Silverbursts that have the original "silverburst" color are somewhat valuable. The color will change mainly when exposed to sunlight over long periods, since there was a special process used in the production of these guitars. Gibson reissued this guitar and sold it for exorbitant prices in 2003. Adam Jones' Silverbursts have had new pickups put in, a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck and a JB model in the bridge.Amps
Jones owns and uses a vintage Marshall head, which is a non-master volume bass amplifier from 1976, Mesa Boogie dual rectifier (original, 2 channel version) and a Diezel VH4 amplifier.
On ''Undertow'' and the ''Opiate EP'' the Marshall bass amplifier was used, as the mesa boogie dual rectifier and the Diezel were not around in 1993 or before.
On ''Ænima'' the Marshall amplifier was used for high frequencies treble. The Diezel VH4 was used to contribute the bass and mid range frequencies. The two amps were mixed accordingly to level out the frequencies.
''Lateralus'' was recorded with the Diezel amp, along with the Marshall bass amp. Occasionally, a SUNN head was used instead of the Mesa Boogie rectifier in the studio, but the Mesa Boogie is still used on stage. When playing live, Adam Jones' amps are all on at the same time, and are all on a "dirty" setting (distortion or commonly referred to as gain). To switch to a "clean" tone (undistorted) he simply rolls the volume on his guitar back enough to get a semi clean tone, and then plays the notes very gently without much attack on the strings from the pick to achieve a somewhat clean tone.