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Gear Avail

Progressive metal

Adam Jones

Tool, 1993 onward

A board with one genuinely unusual box on it. The talk box routes the guitar through a tube into his mouth, so the vowel shapes come from his own vocal tract rather than from a filter circuit trying to imitate one.

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The chain

Shown in conventional signal order rather than the order the sources list them, so it reads the way it would be wired: guitar on the left, amp on the right.

  1. 1
    Wah / filterNo photo available

    Dunlop Cry Baby

    Wah / filter

    Slow and deliberate, usually under a riff rather than over a solo.

    Not stocked by any store we track

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  2. 2
    ModulationNo photo available

    MXR Phase 90

    Modulation

    Slow movement under the sustained, droning sections.

    Not stocked by any store we track

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  3. 3
    DelayNo photo available

    Boss DD-3 Digital Delay

    Delay

    Long, precisely timed repeats that lock to the odd time signatures.

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  4. 4
    UtilityNo photo available

    Heil Sound Talk Box

    Utility

    Guitar signal into a tube held in the mouth, shaped by his own vowels and picked up by a vocal mic.

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Documented on

  • Undertow

    album · 1993

    • Sober
    • Prison Sex

  • Ænima

    album · 1996

    • Stinkfist
    • Forty Six & 2
    • Ænema

  • Lateralus

    album · 2001

    • Schism
    • Parabola

Editorial gear history, assembled from interviews, rig rundowns, live photography and liner notes. Adam Jones is not affiliated with Gear Avail and nothing here is an endorsement. Rigs change between tours and between takes, so this one is scoped to 1993 onward rather than presented as a career-long setup. In most cases what is documented is that a pedal was on the board during those sessions or that tour, not that it is audible on a specific bar of a specific take.