Adam Jones on Lateralus...

[stringyo]

I need somebody with a better tuned ear to help me out here.

There are parts on that album where I think I hear SM57s and V30s...but on the song Lateralus at about 7:18...that doesn't sound like an SM57 to me at all. The high end is a little different I think, sounds a bit more open and brighter than I'm used to hearing with 57s.

Have I completely lost my ears? Somebody else tell me what they hear...

 

[Exocaster]

I don't have Lateralus with me at the moment, but if you're not familiar with his rig:

1971(? This is what I remember) non-master volume Marshall Superbass 100 watt head, through Marshall 4x12 cab with G12H30s.

2 Diezel VH4 heads through Mesa Traditional 4x12s with Vintage 30s

In the past, he's used a Mesa 2 channel Dual Recto through one of the aforementioned Mesa cabs. He replaced it with a second Diezel around the time of the Lateralus tour; don't know if he used the Recto on that album. He's also said to have used a Sunn Beta Lead on Lateralus as well.

Apparently he just uses the gain channels and rolls back the volume knob for cleans. I don't know what channels he's using on the VH4 and Recto, or whether he jumps the inputs on the Marshall. I'm guessing probably for the latter. As far as I know, that Marshall is up all the way.

Hope this helps some. I'll give Lateralus a listen later. I love Tool; I think their mixes sound excellent.

 

[stringyo]

Yeah I've followed his rig. Jones' rig is what sparked my obsession with Silverburst Les Paul Customs, lol.

I'm just quite curious about the tracking of the guitars for Lateralus...which IMO, the production on Lateralus is leaps ahead of 10,000 Days or any of their other albums. I do say that the production on Lateralus is my absolute favorite out of anything I've ever listened to.

The harder I listen to the tone on that album the more I think SM57 and V30. I guess there are just parts on the disc where the guitar is playing solo that I think I hear a bit of condensers and such. I attribute this to the fact that his tone really isn't even all that bass heavy, it just seems to have a lot of low end because of the perfect mixing of the bass guitar. Thus, when the guitar is playing solo it's actually quite thin making it sound brighter...which threw me off. It fits in the mix beautifully though.

There are millions of people obsessed with Eddie Van Halen's tone off the first VH records...I'm obsessed with the Lateralus tone, my holy grail.