Sober
Tool · Undertow · 1993
Sober's main riff is a bridge-humbucker Les Paul Custom straight into a cranked, channel-jumped mid-'70s Marshall Super Bass — no distortion pedal, just power-tube crunch through big bass-cab speakers. Set the gain at the edge of saturation rather than into modern scoop-metal territory: mids forward, bass moderate so the low D stays tight, treble just enough for pick attack. Keep it dry, and let the palm mutes and dead stops do the work.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Drop D
The main riff sits almost entirely on the dropped sixth string, with the fifth/fourth strings used for the open D5 stabs.
Guitar
- Gibson Les Paul Custom Silverburst (1979) · Seymour Duncan JB · bridge pickup
Amp
Marshall Super Bass 100 (1976, modified)
The Super Bass has no gain knob — the 9 stands for both channel-jumped volume controls near max, which is where the dirt comes from; a photo of Adam's panel shows mids near maxed and bass very low. A widely repeated second account says a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier was blended in on Undertow, though other sources place the multi-amp rig from Ænima onward.
Amp
Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier
Contested for this record: gear roundups list an early two-channel Dual Rectifier blended with the Marshall on Undertow, while other sources say Opiate and Undertow were the Super Bass alone. Use it only as a second layer under the Marshall.
Pedals
- DOD FX40B Equalizer · EQ · Slight low boost and a lift around 2–4 kHz for bite; unity level
- MXR M-133 Micro Amp · clean boost · Level around 11 o'clock, just to push the front end and tighten the low D
Tone character
thick low-mid grind · tight palm-muted chug · moderate tube breakup · dry, few effects · dark bridge humbucker
The notes are simple two-fret moves on the low string, but the riff is built on tight palm-muted sixteenth groupings with legato hammer-ons and hard stops, so it lives or dies on right-hand timing and mute control.
Want this on your own amp?
These are the record's settings. Tell us what you play through and we'll translate every knob to the amp you actually own — free.
Adapt it to my gearSources
- Sound Like Tool Without Busting the Bank – Andertons
- Gear Rundown: Adam Jones of Tool – Mixdown
- Adam Jones Silverburst Les Paul in production – Guitar World
- Adam Jones – Equipboard
- Tool / Adam Jones Sound – Mesa Boogie Forum
- Adam Jones' Super Bass – Rig-Talk
- Adam Jones flanger/delay placement – The Gear Page
- Sober transcription (Power Tab)
- Sober (Tool song) – Wikipedia