Jim Root (Slipknot)

Having spent over 20 years as one half of Slipknot’s guitar attack, Jim Root has carved out a name for himself as one of this centuries premier metal guitarists. Pulling together a guide to the guitar gear used by Jim Root of Slipknot over the course of his 20 plus year career was not an easy task.

As this guide to Jim Root’s guitar rig is quite long, I’ve broken it down by album cycle. If you want to jump to a particular album cycle please use one of the links below.

Slipknot (self titled)

For the first album cycle Jim Root was most often seen playing a green flametop Jackson DR-3 Dinky reverse head stock or a Jackson SL2 that was more of a back up guitar.

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“My approach in 1999 was basically to play what I had, that was all I could do. At the time I was broke. I think I only had one guitar, a flametop green Jackson and I had these DC-10 Mesa Boogie heads. I think I had a cheap Shure wireless.

That was what I played with the whole time. I think Corey bought me a Jackson SL2 or something like that so I could have a back up. It was kind of just necessity, I didn’t pick what I played, I played what I had.”

“Slipknot’s Mick Thomson and Jim Root talk gear, tone and being flat broke“, Music Radar, August 02, 2013.

Effects wise things were sparse with a Digitech WH-1 Whammy Original and Dunlop Rotovibe on his board.

For the first album cycle Root was using a Mesa/Boogie Dual Caliber DC-10 into a Mesa/Boogies 4×12 straight cabinet and Carvin 4×12 straight cabinet.

Iowa

Jim Roots gear evolved once the band started out on the Iowa cycle and he started getting opportunities to work with different brands and companies. Guitar wise, going in to Iowa he was still using whatever he could get his hands on, and as he said, that didn’t often translate all that well in the studio.

“In the early days the guitars I was using live didn’t sound the greatest in the studio so I would have to, like on the Iowa record I had to use one of Mick’s BC Rich guitars for all of my tracking.”

“Slipknot’s Mick Thomson and Jim Root talk gear, tone and being flat broke“, Music Radar, August 02, 2013.

Root briefly had an endorsement deal with Jackson, which saw him playing a bunch of Jackson guitars including a Custom Jackson SL-1 Soloist with ‘Root’ fret inlays.

By the later half of the Iowa cycle Root was using a black Paul Reed Smith (PRS) Private Stock guitar. It was a 24 fret hard tail model with an EMG 81 in the bridge and an EMG 60 in the neck. You can see him playing the PRS Private Stock guitar throughout the majority of the Disasterpieces DVD.

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“My tone and gear was dictated by the situation until somewhere in the middle of the Iowa cycle. That’s when I started making enough money so that I could reach out to different guitar companies and buy stuff at an artist price.

The step up from the Boogie was the Rivera stuff, I was happy with that stuff for a whole. I rolled with the Rivera and then combined it with Diezel, a Diezel Herbert and a Rivera Knucklehead Reverb. That worked quite well.”

“Slipknot’s Mick Thomson and Jim Root talk gear, tone and being flat broke“, Music Radar, August 02, 2013.

Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)

The Vol. 3 cycle is probably where there was the most change in terms of the gear Jim Root used, guitars in particular and where is association with Fender really kicked off. It was during this tour cycle he was primarily using a Fender Flat Head Telecaster as seen during their Big Day Out sets in Australia early 2005. During the Vol.3 cycle he was also seen playing a black Charvel San Dimas live. The San Dimas can also be seen in the film clip for ‘Before I Forget’.

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For the most part of the Vol.3 touring cycle he continued using the Rivera Knucklehead Reverbs, with two heads running in a Master/Slave setup, the Master running on KT88 power tubes and the Slave 6L6 power tubes.

In the case of Jim Root’s setup, the FX send from his Master head (running KT88 power tubes) was fed in to the FX return of his Slave head (running 6L6 power tubes). The output of the Slave head then ran out to his on stage Rivera cabinets, while the output of his Master head ran in to a Randall Isolation cabinet.

His touring rig was controlled by a GCX Control Switching system and included:

• Maxon AF0-9 Auto Filter
• Maxon OD-9 Overdrive
• Digitech Hyper Phase
• Dunlop JH-3S Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz
• Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor
• MXR Auto Q Filter
• Digitech Synth Wah Envelope Filter
• MXR Bass Auto Q Filter
• Rack mounted Dunlop Crybaby Custom Shop Wah

During the Vol.3 cycle Jim Root was featured in the old Guitar World column, A Vulgar Display of Power. A scan of his rig diagram from that article is below.

All Hope Is Gone

“On this album it was an Orange Rockerverb 100, and I blended that with a Diezel Herbert using a Little Labs PCP Instrument Distro box. I used an Orange Rockerverb combo for some clean tones here and there. It was a basic, simple setup.”

“Slipknot: the futility of hope“, Guitar World, September 29, 2008.

For his touring setup he was most often seen playing his Signature Telecasters with EMG 81/60’s but would also play his Signature Stratocasters as well.

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Orange Rockerverb 100 heads. One of the Rockerverbs was powering an Orange 4×12 cabinet in an ISO box. While the other was powering two Orange 4×12 cabinets on stage.

Through this tour cycle he was also running the GCX switching system.

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Front (left to right):

• Boss Acoustic Simulator AC-3 (used during ‘Dead Memories’)
• Maxon Auto Filter AF-9 (used during ‘Sic’)
• EHX Small Stone
• Digitech Synth Wah (used during ‘Eyeless’)

Back (left to right):

• Boss Noise Suppressor NS-2
• MXR GT-OD/Dunlop JH-3S Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz (* see below)
• MXR Auto-Q Filter
• MXR Carbon Copy Delay

There was also a Dunlop Crybaby Custom Shop rack mounted wah.

*The back slot in Root’s pedal drawer changed mid-tour cycle. Depending on the time the it may have been the Octave Fuzz or the GT-OD (which was released around this time) that Root references the Gear Talk interview he did backstage for Fender early 2009.

During the later half of the All Hope Is Gone cycle he again featured in the Guitar World A Vulgar Display of Power column.

.5: The Gray Chapter

Throughout touring for The Gray Chapter, Root continued to use the Orange Rockerverb 100 heads with the Rockerverb 100 MkII as a backup.

Pedal wise his rig was very similar to his previous rig as well, with a couple of new additions.

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Front (left to right):

• Maxon Auto Filter AF-9
• Maxon PT2 Pro+ Phaser
• MXR Carbon Copy Delay x 2 (one for a shorter delay, the other set longer)

Back (left to right):

• MXR Auto-Q Filter
• Boss Noise Suppressor NS-2
• Electro Harmonix Micro POG
• Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Nano
• T-Rex Fuel Tank Classic

Around this time he also started using a ‘satellite board’ onstage, connected to the GCX switching system.

Back (left to right)

• MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay (with the rubber ring on the delay knob so he can manipulate the delay time live with his foot)
• MXR Custom Audio Electronics Buffer

Front (left to right)

• Maxon Fuzz Elements Void FV-10
• MXR GT-OD
• Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Wah

We Are Not Your Kind

For the recording of We are not your kind, Jim Root relied heavily on his Jazzmaster Signature fitted with the prototypes of what would become his EMG JR “Daemonum” signature set. The Daemonum’s were inspired by a modifed set of Retro Active pickups, that combined the elements of the EMG81/60 combo he liked with the benefits of the new Retro Active design. For occassional overdubs he also used his Telecaster signature with EMG 81/60s.

Amp wise, departing from his stage rig he relied heavily on a modded Bogner Uberschall, the same one used on 2004’s Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses.

Reinhold [Bogner] brought it to me when we were recording that album [Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)] and it’s the only one like it. He kind of played around with the EQ section a bit and changed some of the parameters, and it sounds like an Uberschall on steroids. I’ve asked him to make me another one, but he doesn’t remember what he did the first time. But that amp is on about 70 per cent of the record.

“[For] the other 30 percent, I used another Bogner Uberschall with a ‘purple mod’ and combined it with an old Mesa Boogie Mark IIC head that I think has been on a bunch of Metallica records.”

“Slipknot: “You can either evolve with us and get with it, or maybe you’re just not there yet, and maybe we’re not your band“, Guitar World, August 19, 2019.

Jim Root’s touring rig was an evolution of what he’d been using for the tour cycles before. Guitar wise he leaned heavily on his Jazzmaster signature models, including the white ‘No. 1’ guitar and the sandblasted red/black one off model seen on previous tour cycles.

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On tour he also had what is likely a one off Signature Jazzmaster model fitted with a Floyd Rose tremolo which would be used whenever ‘Spiders’ is ever on the set list.

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For amplifiers, the Orange Rockerverb 100 MkIII was used for the main tone with an Orange Rockerverb 100 with gain set low blended with the MkIII. The Rockerverb 100 MkIII’s have been removed from their head shells so they can be rack mounted.

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In the rig rundown Jim Root did with YouTuber Stay Metal Ray (see below), he walked through his amp set up and talked about how he’d just received a Friedman to try out so he’d been blending that in with the Rockerverb MkI as well. The Friedman was a Brown Eye Deluxe 100 watt head.

His racked effects were largely the same with a couple of additions and new power supply.

Front (left to right – looking front on at the board):

• MXR Auto-Q Filter
• Maxon Auto Filter AF-9
• Boss Noise Suppressor NS-2

Middle (left to right)

• MXR Carbon Copy Delay
• EHX Small Stone
• Way Huge Saffron Squeeze Compressor WHE103
• CIOKS DC7 Power Supply

Back (left to right):

• Eventide H9 Harmonizer
• Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Nano

Other gear in his rack included:

• Ampete 444 Amplifier and Cabinet Switching System
• Two Notes Torpedo Live
• Radial JX44 (a guitar signal manager and switcher)
• Dunlop Crybaby Custom Shop rack mounted wah