I’ve been a fan of Tool’s Adam Jones since hearing their album Undertow in 1993. Jones seems to make his Les Paul sound larger than life on all of their recordings. In 2006, Mix magazine interviewed Joe Barresi and Bob Ludwig, who were responsible for recording Tool’s most recent album 10,000 Days. They discuss how they recorded the album. Of particular interest to me was the gear that Jones used in the studio:
The signal chain for tracking guitar was a bit complex. “Adam would play into whatever pedals he needed,” Barresi says. “That signal then went into a Systematic Systems Splitter. Then it would go to between three and five heads. The signal from the heads went to their own individual cabinets. Each cabinet had two or three microphones on it. Then all the microphones came back to the console, and they were blended down as separated for each amp. The Diezel amp went to its own track. The Marshall amp went to its own track. The third track was a blend of the Bogner and the Rivera, or whatever I liked for the song. And that would be one take — three tracks of guitar.”
Also discussed in the interview is how Jones recorded the talkbox solo in the song “Jambi.” In addition to talking about how they recorded the guitar parts, Barresi and Ludwig also discuss how they recorded Danny Carey’s drums, Justin Chancellor’s bass, and Maynard James Kennan’s vocals. Check out the interview here.