James Root

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James Root
James Root
Born	October 2, 1971 (age 35)
Alias(es)	Number 4
Genre(s)	Heavy Metal Alternative Metal Rap Metal Nu Metal
Affiliation(s)	Stone Sour Slipknot
Label(s)	Roadrunner Records
Notable guitars	Fender Flat Head Telecaster
Years active
Official site	Slipknot website Stone Sour website

James "Jim" Root (born October 2, 1971) is the current rhythm guitarist for Slipknot and the current lead guitarist for Stone Sour.

1 Masks
2 History
3 Playing Style
4 Guitars
5 Amps
6 Effects
7 Trivia
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Masks

When James first joined Slipknot, he adopted ex-guitarist Josh Brainard's mask. It was a black bondage mask that covered most of his head. He had purple hair at the time and used to pull parts of it up through a hole in the top of the mask. After a couple of shows and one photo shoot, he decided to change masks, as the bondage mask was too uncomfortable to allow him to concentrate on playing. He adopted a jester's mask, said to represent that side of his personality. His most recent mask is a variation of this mask. It is still a jester's mask, but this one lacks the red diamond detailing around the eyes and a zipper in between the lips.

[edit] History

He joined during the end of the recording of the self-titled album. At this point, former guitarist Josh Brainard had decided to leave the band due to his unhappiness with the direction of the band. Singer Corey Taylor invited James to join the band, knowing him from their previous effort together, the first incarnation of Stone Sour. The only track on the self-titled album on which James can be heard is Purity, but this song was removed from the album due to a lawsuit and subsequent copies of the album do not feature any of James' playing.

Like the rest of Slipknot, James is from Des Moines, Iowa. At 6'6", he is the tallest member of the band. He worked as a screen printer, waiter, and busboy before joining Slipknot. James has played in previous bands such as Deadfront, Anal Blast, and Atomic Opera. James is also the co-guitarist for Stone Sour.

He and Corey reunited the band during the hiatus between the Slipknot albums Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)

[edit] Playing Style

In Slipknot, most of the guitar work is fast, heavy, rhythm guitar. James and co-guitarist Mick Thompson do trade some leads on the band's latest studio album, but their music is otherwise almost completely devoid of guitar solos. Guitars in Slipknot rarely take the spotlight, rather, Mick and James fill in the sonic territory not occupied by the band's other seven members. All guitars in Slipknot are tuned to C# tuning dropped B (Low to high, B, F#, B, E, G#, C#,) except for on the songs My Plague, The Heretic Anthem, Skin Ticket, New Abortion and Iowa, on which they are tuned to B tuning dropped A (Low to high, A, E, A, D, F#, B.) James's playing in Stone Sour concentrates more on building melodic metal anthems. It has been rumored that he will be releasing a signature Fender Telecaster in early 2007, although this is yet to be proven.

[edit] Guitars

Fender Flat Head Telecaster Black (Main)
Fender Flat Head Telecaster Black (Dropped A Tuning)
Fender Flat Head Showmaster Black (This Guitar has a JR in the 12th)
Backstage Custom Charvel San Dimas two-humbucker model built by Fender. (It has a traditional Telecaster look, but a thinner neck and dual humbuckers).
Jackson SL1 Soloist Black guitar (In Slipknot Tour)
Jackson SL3 Soloist Grey guitar (In Slipknot- IOWA Tour)
Custom PRS Black (In Slipknot- IOWA Tour)

[edit] Amps

Bogner Uberschall
Rivera Knucklehead Reverb 100 KT88 Tubes (Master Amp)
Rivera Knucklehead Reverb 100 6L6 Tubes (Slave Amp)
Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier Backstage
Mesa/Boogie 4x12 Backstage
Rivera 4x12 (Celestion G12T-75 Speakers)x2
Randall ISOlation Cab

[edit] Effects

Effects Rack:

Furman PL-Plus Power Conditioner
Audio-Technica AEW-R5200 Receiver
Dunlop Crybaby Custom Shop DCR-2SR Rackmounted Wah w/ Expression pedal
Korg DTR-1000 Rackmounted Tuner
Digital Music Corp. GCX Switcher(Single effect pedals looped to GCX)
Maxon AF-9 Auto Filter
Maxon OD-9 Overdrive
Digitech Hyper Phase
Dunlop JH-3S Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz
Electro Harmonix Small Stone
MMX Auto Q Wah
Digital Music Corp. Ground Control Pro(Switched by Jim)
Planet Waves cables
Jim outfits all his guitars with EMG 60 pickups in the neck position and EMG 81 pickups in the bridge position.

[edit] Trivia

At 6'6", "Jim" towers over his 6'2 guitarist counterpart Mick Thompson.
His natural hair color is sandy blonde.
Previous to Slipknot, James was in the bands Dead Front and Atomic Opera.
Currently dating Italian vocalist Cristina Scabbia from the popular band Lacuna Coil.
He is a smoker.
Matthew Helson and James have occasionally have mock "sword fights" with the ends of their guitars.
He is one of the best guitarists in the metal genre