Tool fans .

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dyllheaven88
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Bxlxaxkxe said:
Boosted 800 is right on the money for my taste, moreso than a VH4 honestly. Cranked Wizard does it well too.

Newer tones are much more saturated - feel like any good high gain amp works well here. Uber, Friedman stuff, herby, etc etc
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Yeah I feel like some people way over think his tones. I got an MT15 to sound damn close to his newer tones once, so I think like you said that any high gain amp with decent saturation will get you close enough.
 
FourT6and2 said:
Boosted JCM800 will get you any of the tones from Opiate, Undertow, some of Aenema, and Salival. For more of the modern sounds from Lateralus, 10K Days, and Fear Inoculum... well, you can really make it work with a lot of amps. The key is to just push the mids super high, go easy on the bass, treble, and presence, and use some mid-heavy speakers like G12M-25 Greenbacks or G12H-75 Creambacks.

My all-time favorite tones from Tool are from the live JC Dobbs show on YouTube. And there he's just using the Superlead. Probably boosted with a simple Boss SD-1. Easy.

These days, I just run my Jose mod 800. Mid-heavy guitar with SD Nazgul straight in. Bogner cab with Creambacks.

Used to have all the other amps, including VH4 and Norlin Silverbursts and all that shit. But it's hard to beat a boosted 800.

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Is that one of the amps you built that I played? If so, incredible!
 
It's not the amps.....it's the speakers and cabs is how he gets his sound.
 
stephen sawall said:
It's not the amps.....it's the speakers and cabs is how he gets his sound.
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I don't think there's any real confirmation on what speakers he uses. An assumption would be stock Mesa V30s in the Mesa cab and maybe V30s in the Marshall, or maybe Greenbacks or something else. I do know from a reputable source that the mics he uses live play a big pat in it. There is some intentional phasing going on there.

But at the end of the day, an LP into a boosted Marshall is gonna get you 90% there for a lot of their catalog.
 
FourT6and2 said:
I don't think there's any real confirmation on what speakers he uses. An assumption would be stock Mesa V30s in the Mesa cab and maybe V30s in the Marshall, or maybe Greenbacks or something else. I do know from a reputable source that the mics he uses live play a big pat in it. There is some intentional phasing going on there.

But at the end of the day, an LP into a boosted Marshall is gonna get you 90% there for a lot of their catalog.
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Completely agree the Marshall.

Any decent Celestion 4x12 can be useful. I don't think he uses open back combos a lot. I tend to look at the guitar, amp and cab all being a single piece in a rig.
 
I quit using rigs with more than one amp over a decade ago because of the grounding and phase issues. The guy mixing the sound never mixed them right, etc.. Sure it's easy to get around some of these problems. But after running several amps for decades I went back to using a single amp.
 
stephen sawall said:
I quit using rigs with more than one amp over a decade ago because of the grounding and phase issues. The guy mixing the sound never mixed them right, etc.. Sure it's easy to get around some of these problems. But after running several amps for decades I went back to using a single amp.
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and many people actually prefer Adam's tone when he was using 1 amp too
 
One thing I’ll say; one of the best damn recorded tones ever is that riff from ‘The Pot’ ….incredible.
Of course, he used like 6+ amps on that record. Saw them in 2012 in St Paul, tone was very nice but didn’t floor me. VH4 + SuperBass.
 
Thomas Anderson: What else can I say, it's ok, you're welcome!?
 
Racerxrated said:
One thing I’ll say; one of the best damn recorded tones ever is that riff from ‘The Pot’ ….incredible.
Of course, he used like 6+ amps on that record. Saw them in 2012 in St Paul, tone was very nice but didn’t floor me. VH4 + SuperBass.
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I'll tell you what. I have seen them four times. This last Fear Inoculum tour had probably the clearest, most phenomenal live tone we have heard. One of the best live sounds of any show I have seen. It was that good. And Maynard came out a lot more in the open like the old days.
 
glip22 said:
I'll tell you what. I have seen them four times. This last Fear Inoculum tour had probably the clearest, most phenomenal live tone we have heard. One of the best live sounds of any show I have seen. It was that good. And Maynard came out a lot more in the open like the old days.
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For live is adam just using heil p30 mic on cabs?
 
Racerxrated said:
One thing I’ll say; one of the best damn recorded tones ever is that riff from ‘The Pot’ ….incredible.
Of course, he used like 6+ amps on that record. Saw them in 2012 in St Paul, tone was very nice but didn’t floor me. VH4 + SuperBass.
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I often use that riff to see how clear, or muddy, my tone is when swapping out different boost pedals. Also to help point out some sloppy picking I might have that day.
 
glip22 said:
I was maybe 35' in front of his cabs and I did not see a mic. His cabs were pointed right at me and it sounded awesome
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that live sound is something else, I remember seeing them in 2001. Before the show their sound guy hit 3rd fret power chord on adams guitar, it was full volume and through the pa. It was amazing, so angry and punchy, been chasing that tone ever since
 
I dug the the early tone the Marshall, and when he added the Recto. Where he's at now, not so much.
 
I was chasing his tone, and settled finally on 50W JMP Lead build to spec Friedman mentioned, the reason 50W generally sound different than 100W is B+ voltage and nfb. I have 450V plate voltage on 50W and it sounds bigger, meaner and more raw than 400V which is generally where 50W Marshalls are which are more compressed and less clear, also to have the same rate of nfb as AJ 100w, 100k at 4 ohm tap, that is equivalent to 100K at 8 ohm for the 50W amp, but the 50W usually have 47K at 8 ohm.

Had the Diezel Einstein 50W and that gets you close for Aenima type sound but generally enjoyed playing 50W lead much more so I sold the Diezel. I am a bedroom player only btw, cab I use is 2x12 greenback 25W. Had no problem playing at low volume, I use PPIMV on the Marshall and Einstein had channel volume and master so It was easy to dial in the sound at low volume because of the 2 volume options.
Also have Ceriatone Chupacabra 100W, which is again great for more saturated sound, but still Marshall Lead 50w sounds more raw and my ears just love that sound. Ceriatone is unplayable at 60's mode for bedroom playing, it has no channel volume only master so it is hard to dial in without sounding too loud, 80's mode is playable and easier to dial in because the diode cut volume.

Also had smaller amps like 1W JCM1c, 5W marshalls and always Diezel and Marshall 50W sounded better at lower volume than those smaller 5W and 1W amps, they sounded tiny. 50W is around 10db louder than 5W, so you cannot crank the 5w either without reaching 100db.

I played at around 85db measuring near my ear and it sounded great, now play at 75 db to save my hearing. The issue that amp has to played loud is just in pushing the speakers more so they work better and your hearing changing for some frequencies the louder it gets.
So, 50W at small volume sounds the same as 1W at the same volume (the way it pushes the speaker), just the quality of the sound, harmonics, thumping bass sounded better on 50W.

Regarding what AJ used on JC Dobbs clips, which is my favorite sound from him, just the superlead, I saw pictures from those earlier shows and he only had Boss Delay and EQ pedal, so maybe he was pushing the level on the EQ which boosts the signal.
 
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