Jim Root of Slipknot demos the Rockerverb 100 MK3 guitar amp live at Download Festival. Find our Rockerverb series here.
Tag Archive for: jim root
It’s #VoiceOfMetal month and we’re focusing attention on our hard rocking, dope-smoking dooming, metal shredding artist Ambassadors. Here are a few of the metal albums we know for a fact were dripping in Orange tone, some with quotes from the artists themselves about how they used their amps.
Monolord – “No Comfort” (2019)
“For bass, Mika used an AD200B into an Orange OBC810. And just listen to the new record, the bass tones are thick yet clear with lots of string. Mainly he used the Dunable R2 model bass.
Rhythm guitars were put down with one OR100 into an 8ohm PPC412HP cab. The Dual Dark went in to a 90’s Orange cab at 16ohm.
For lead guitar we recorded the whole thing with the Black Country Customs Tony Iommi Boost (and sometimes a few other boosts/overdrives) through the Micro Dark and the PPC112. The tone is really angry in the low-mids and I love it.”- Thomas Jager
Slipknot – “All Hope Is Gone” (2018)
Jim Root had been using a Rockerverb 100 MKI for live touring before Slipknot recorded 2008’s All Hope Is Gone. However, that record would be the first time Root used an Orange for the majority of his guitar parts in the studio. He used the Rockerverb 100 MKI, along with a Diezel Herbert, for rhythm and lead. For the more subtle clean parts he used a Rockerverb 50 MKI 2×12” Combo.
SLEEP – “Holy Mountain” (1992)
Many people think the resurgence of Orange in the 90’s was due to Noel Gallagher using the amp in Oasis. That might have some truth to it, but before that came the liner notes of SLEEP’s Holy Mountain and the Orange OR120 guitar amp featured therein. Matt Pike famously used both the OR120 and a Matamp on Holy Mountain. For a whole new generation of stoner rockers vintage Orange amps became a must-have.
Beartooth – “Aggressive” (2016)
“The Micro Dark has honestly been an amazing tool for me in the studio. It is crazy how much air I can get moving between the speaker and the microphone with this head. It takes pedals great and can be as transparent or violent as you want. The reason I used it was for that pushed crunchy sound in the power section. The sheer amount of volume needed in something like a 50 or 100 watt head for that sound without an attenuator is unrealistic for a basement studio like mine. I’d be tearing the walls down. The Micro Dark has all that beef, low end, and air that I needed without being so loud it’s offensive to the entire neighborhood.
Tube screamer, eq pedal, micro dark through a 4×12… If you want the Beartooth guitar sound, that’s all you need.”- Caleb Shomo
“We used a pair of Rockerverb 100 MKIII heads—one into an Orange 4×12, one into an Atlas 2×12 + 1×15—for all of the guitars on Desolation. On our previous records, Phil and I both ran dirt pedals into vintage clean amps for a big, raw wall of guitars. We began using the RK100 as we incorporated more complex chord shapes and single note lines in our new material, as they allowed those nuances to shine through without compromising our ability to be heavy. Not only did the Rockerverbs yield gnarly rhythm and lead sounds, the clean tones we dialed in were glassy and articulate.” – Ben Hutcherson
Chron Goblin – “Here Before” (2019)
“I think an overall goal for the production of ‘Here Before’ was to have it real and organic sounding, avoiding the use of digital enhancements as much as possible. There was a strong focus on capturing the organic input as opposed to editing the output with after effects, which you can hear in the guitar tone. I only used two of Orange’s finest guitar heads, Orange Rockerverb MKIII and OR15, and no other guitar pedals and very minimal after effects. We also made a conscious effort to only have a very moderate amount of gain and treble (opposed to all of the previous Chron Goblin albums in which they were cranked) to ensure the individual notes are very clearly defined, while still maintaining a vicious bite in the tone. For all clean guitar sections we used the Jimi Hendrix approach of rather than use a clean channel, we just turned down the volume and tone knobs of the guitar, which creates that warm, toned-down clean sound while keeping the gain channel settings intact. I think the result is a very organic and honest guitar tone throughout the album that we are super pumped about!” – Darty
“I went into recording the new album knowing the tone I wanted to hear. I tried out a couple basses, and decided to go with my stock 1972 Gibson Grabber (complete with a sliding pickup). After talking with our engineer and general studio jack-of-all-trades, I went with the AD200B with a relatively standard EQ – extra mid and treble, gain around 10 o’clock and master at noon). We re-amped it through the head and OBC810 … and VOILA!” – Richard
It’s October and ‘Voice of Metal’, this might get heavy – which we do well, really well. This one doesn’t really need an introduction, so without further ado, let’s get to it.
Sleep and High on Fire, Matt Pike
Rockerverb100 MKIII
Crush Mini
PPC412
You’re probably not surprised we started this list with Matt Pike, are you? Our favourite shirtless hero and alien expert, singer of songs and player of electric guitars. Whenever Matt Pike comes to town we clear out our backline suppliers within a 50 mile radius before his crew gets given the most exhausting job any road crew has had since the days of Terry Bozzio touring with Frank Zappa, a heavy load (in – and out..). Matt Pike has pioneered doom and metal with his bands Sleep and High on Fire, and has become sort of a legend while still alive. His average Sleep set up, which is bigger than the High on Fire one, normally contains of nine heads, mostly Rockerverbs and Dual Darks, and twelve cabs. Haters will say they ain’t all plugged in, but haters are wrong. For those of you who’s ever been lucky enough to attend a Sleep show and have had the same religious out of body experience as oh so many others while watching Matt Pike tear shit up, you know they’re plugged in and turned up to 11.
Slipknot, Jim Root
Rockerverb100 MKIII
Signature #4 Jim Root Terror Head
Signature #4 Jim Root PPC212
PPC412
Shock rockers Slipknot have been twisting stomachs, turning heads and upsetting parents since the 90s, and Jim Root has been on the front of it all since ’99. Jim, who’s also known by his number #4 is a massive Orange fan, so much that we developed a head and cab for him, the Signature #4 Jim Root Terror Head and Signature #4 Jim Root PPC212.
“I really like the creamy mid-range, big headroom, and ‘less is more’ philosophy of Orange amps. And all I have to do is plug straight into it with my guitar. That’s my tone.”
-Jim Root, Slipknot
Mastodon, Brent Hinds
Mastodon’s Brent Hinds might just have one of the most famous face tattoos out there, alongside Mike Tyson, a feature we included on his signature Brent Hinds Terror. Orange and Brent have a longstanding relationship of working together, we’re good to Brent, and Brent’s good to us – just look at all the stupid shit he agrees to do for us!
KoЯn, Brian ‘Head’ Welch
KoЯn were one of the first bands to pioneer nu metal and bring it to the masses, with guitarist Brian Welch playing a key role in how the bands sound developed, defining the nu metal sound of the early 90s.
“KoRn has always been in the game of matching different amp tones and blending them together in the studio. And Orange has always been right there in the mix! One of the reasons I started using Orange amps live is because I was able to get such a smooth tone for my clean channel on classic KoRn songs like “Falling Away From Me” and “Here to Stay.”
– Brian ‘Head’ Welch
Sepultura, Andreas Kisser
The year was 1983 when Andreas Kisser attended his first gig, seeing one of his all-time favourite bands in his hometown playing his football team’s stadium. The band was KISS on their ‘Creatures of the Night’ tour, and that night changed everything for him. Picking up guitar, his initial goal was to be able to play ‘Stairway to Heaven’. Starting out with acoustic Brazilian music, Andreas swiftly found Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Jimi Hendrix who’s vintage sound influenced him massively. When given the opportunity to play Orange, he instantly took it;
“You can watch Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ video where both Iommi and Geezer Butler are using Orange, so when I was given the opportunity to try it for myself I took it straight away – Orange always just had that ‘aura of the masters’. Orange offered more of an organic sound then what I was used to, because what I really love is when I’m able to just plug in and play. There is a lot of demand for distortion and heaviness with Sepultura, and I was very surprised that the Rockerverb II had all of that. A warm, and heavy guitar sound that kind of seemed to expand a bit more.“
– Andreas Kisser, Sepultura
My name is Daniel and I have been at Orange for nearly four and a half years, when you put it like that it sounds like a prison sentence! Over the years I have had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting to a lot of artists in my role of European Artist Relations at Orange. A lot of these artists I have grown up listening to, which is I am very much aware i’m in a very lucky position. So I thought I would go through a few of my favourite interviews and some of the background to them.
Tim from Prophets of Rage
I have been a fan of Rage Against the Machine for as long as I can remember, I saw them and nearly died in the pit at Reading Festival 2008 and it is still one of the best shows I have ever seen. So when there was a chance to interview Tim from Prophets of Rage I jumped at the chance, we were in the artist area of Download Festival in 2017 and managed to get 10 mins of Tim’s time. Tim was a gentleman and complete professional, speaking with real enthusiasm about his style of finger playing and how he feels the advent of YouTube is helping to teach new players. What also made me really enjoy his interview was how even after lots of years in the industry he still enjoyed played music in a band. Shortly after interview I got to see the band destroy the Main Stage at the festival and saw how the band hasn’t lost any of its original groove when Tim and Brad lock in. The fact that Tim uses an AD200 live is for me one of best bass players we have on our roster.
Brian ‘Head’ Welch from Korn
I drove all the way to Nottingham for this interview… or it could have been Birmingham, any way it wasn’t in the warmth of London. But it was worth it, to sit down and chat with at the time, our newest endorsee Brian from Korn. Brian had just started to play the Rockerverb MKIII Head, after his guitar tech had come and chatted to us at festival the year before. The Rockerverb was in Brian’s rig and I enjoyed hearing how he called it a ‘Buttery tone’ and also how the band unknown to all of us at Orange has been using our gear since the early 90’s on their records. Jim Root gets an honourable mention as well from Brian and not only was the interview great to shoot but the show was so much fun. Perfect lighting for footage and I was able to get some great live shots. Not only this but the band were playing on a bill with ‘Madball’ and ‘Limp Bizkit’ which is enough of a reason to drive wherever in the UK to go see.
Pepper Keenan from Corrosion of Conformity
Pepper has been a guitarist I have followed through his many different bands and projects, I have always felt that for me, COC was the pinnacle of his work. When he rejoined a few years ago, I straight away bought tickets to the show at the Electric Ballroom as I couldn’t miss it. With Orange and my previous employment, I have on and off worked with Pepper but finally I got to interview him properly just last year when the band came into town. You always know with Pepper you will get a great interview and his description in previous interviews of Orange amps being like “petting a snake” has always made me laugh. In this interview you can really see his love for Orange, which I can honestly say was done with minimal prompting, I really only needed to ask “what do you think of Orange?” and leave the camera rolling and he waxed lyrical!
Matt Pike from Sleep, High On Fire
This was a very last minute interview request, i remember being asked if I was able to get down to Kentish Town to chat to Matt Pike, well I really couldn’t say no! Within a couple of hours i was one of the only people in an empty Kentish Town forum (capacity of 2.5K people) hearing Sleep soundcheck. It is still one of the loudest things I have ever heard, I was stood in front a wall of Orange amps being cranked, while Matt was shredding. After I had recovered, I got to chat to Matt about exactly how he controls that amount of noise. His understanding of guitar frequencies and feedback was one of the most interesting points of the interview, he spoke for at least 10 minutes about bringing different amps in to the mix and how they can be used to project different frequencies. Thinking back on it there is still so much from this interview I wasn’t able to put into the edit. The band show that night was a masterpiece in stoner rock and left the whole building shaking. It’s still one of my favourite video interviews I have ever done, due to me being personally incredibly interested in the thought process of building massive amp rigs.
Jim Root from Slipknot
Jim Root has been a guitar player I have been listening to since Slipknot’s first album and when he strolled into the portacabin at Download I was knocked back how friendly and funny he was but also how whatever amp he plugged into it, sounded exactly like the record. He was coming in to try the new Rockerverb 100 MKIII that had just been released and sat down with one of his personal guitars and played for at least a ½ hour. Only stopping to tell me how earlier that week he had been jammin with Josh Homme by playing the classic ‘Better Living Through Chemistry’. Then came the interview and playthrough, which just became every Slipknot hit played note perfect. After the interview Jim was so enamored with the amplifier he took it to play that night in front of 120,000 people, what a way to try a new amp!! This is one of my favourite videos because one, it’s the most popular and two it’s not great quality (one shot is a phone camera!) but it still works. Jim’s playing is great and he speaks from the heart, we really need to film a new Jim Root video!!
Sergio Vega from Deftones
Honestly I think Deftones are one of my favorite bands, they combine so many different elements of music that I love and I feel have consistently made great albums from their first till latest release. So being able to spend time chatting to them about gear, look at the their touring rig and sometimes see them rehearse for shows has been something that I have had to keep cool about during these times. I think this was either the second or third time I had shot Sergio and this was at the end of the day with the band while they were rehearsing before 2018’s Meltdown show at the Southbank in London. We spoke about his use of Orange in Deftones and Quicksand, Sergio also played through a few of his favourite bass lines from his career. The reason why this is one of my favourites is I think it came out really well, the day was long but throughout it all Sergio was fun and an utter pro about getting the right shots and sounds.
Tag Archive for: jim root
Amp of the Year 2012