Looking for that Tool sound...

[discofudge]

L

Hi guys, after some great advice for my LP, (mules), I'm turning to you guys to help me find the right pickup combo for my ash bodied fat strat to get that classic Tool sound.

If you are not familiar, here's the sort of thing I'm looking for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS7CZIJVxFY

All discussion encouraged and anticipated by you knowledgeable fellows.

Thanks in advance.

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

You probably want Holy Divers.  Can you describe anything else about the tone you want?  Output?  What do you play through etc.

[discofudge]

Output is irrelevant to me as I can always turn my amp up if it's not loud enough.

I play through a Marshall JVM head and cab so I've plenty of headroom.

Tone is all important, thick and 3 dimensional sound with plenty of mid, and a not too compressed tone.

Check out this from about 4 mins in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiV_ue-PbL4&feature=related

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

Yeah Holy Divers are perfect for you.  There may be something from the Vintage Hot section that could also do that tone well like Crawlers but I'm not too familiar with them.  Just get Holy Divers and don't look back!

[discofudge]

I already have a strat with a crawler in, and I was looking for something harder with more pronounced harmonics.

Listened to some clips and the holy divers do sound very nice...

[HairyChris]

Adam Jones plays with JB loaded LPs into Diezel + Marshall. Most of the tone comes from the amps, especially the Diezel, and his control of the guitar's volume. FWIW I can get a very Tool-esque tone from my Miracle Man loaded Blackmachine (which is about as far away from LP + JB as you can get)... but that's because I run an Einstein and the amp's response is similar to the VH4 that Jones uses.

The Holy Diver is probably a good call, mind you! ;)

[gwEm]

the holydiver has a few strings to its bow - it does that sort of tool tone really well

[discofudge]

OK, so I e-mailed Tim and he recommended a nailbomb which took me back a bit.

However I have a great deal of respect for his opinion, and am now in a quandry.

I'm gonna order on monday, so if anyone wants to weigh in on the tonal differences regarding the sound and versatility if these two pickups, holydiver and nailbomb, i'll post pics and clips when they're fitted.

[shaman]

you will be fine..soo much of the Jones tone is amp-massive sound,to me, doesnt involve a lot of compression....back off the gain a bit, turn up the master...speakers and cabs paly a huge role in this as well-and, people who havent seen them live might not realize that a lot of that massive tone comes from Chancellor and jones's interplay(JC has a super bar-steward bass tone!!-plays it like a geeetar/Mesa Boogie city!!)

[DimeZakk]

I can get thatexact sound with Nailbombsthrough my JVM, but I play a Les Paul...

[HairyChris]

you will be fine..soo much of the Jones tone is amp-massive sound,to me, doesnt involve a lot of compression....back off the gain a bit, turn up the master...speakers and cabs paly a huge role in this as well-and, people who havent seen them live might not realize that a lot of that massive tone comes from Chancellor and jones's interplay(JC has a super bar-steward bass tone!!-plays it like a geeetar/Mesa Boogie city!!)

Oddly enough I could get a JC-esque tone out of my guitar with a coil split Mule in the neck into a KT-88 loaded Meas Dual Rectifier's clean channel.

Spooky.

[discofudge]

Yeah, i think the Les Paul is a big part of the sound, but I've only just put mules into that, and my LP is my classic rock guitar. I'm very lucky to be in this quandry if you think about it.

I think I'm gonna nailbomb it, purely cos i prefer low gain and to drive amp with pickups.

Thanks to those who suggested HD though, that has made me make a mental note for the future.

I'll keep you guys abreast of the horrible noise I make.

[discofudge]

Bump

my shiny Nailbomb is on it's way.

Very excited!

[Acolmiztli]

I put in my order for my calibrated set of Nailbombs a few days ago. Hopefully Tim is working on them and I'll receive them by the weekend to go and get them fitted.

I'm going for a similar sound to you, although I think I like a little less mid's than AJ's tone in Tool.

[JamesHealey]

Adam's Marshall is as follows:

Its a 1959 late 70s with jj el34s and chinese preamp tubes. It is super lead spec w/ 100k feedback on the 4 ohm tap it has a .68 cap for the presence and a .68 for v2 also the caps out of v1 are both .022s. The amp is biased to 25ma and he jumps the channels with a cable.


just incase that helps.. y'know