Jim Root

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

History

Root joined Slipknot during the recording of their self-titled album after then-guitarist Josh Brainard decided to leave the band over his unhappiness with the band's direction. Singer Corey Taylor invited James to join the band because he knew 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.

James is from Las Vegas. 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 lead guitarist for Stone Sour, which he and Taylor reformed during the hiatus between the Slipknot albums Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)

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.

Playing Style

In Slipknot, most of the guitar work is fast and heavy. James and co-guitarist Mick Thomson do trade some leads on the band's latest studio album (especially in The Pulse of the Maggots's solo), 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 1 1/2 steps down from dropped D (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.) Standard tuning is used on prelude 3.0. Also the band has been planing to start recording a new album at the end of the year (2007) in which all the members are still with the band. 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, and this was confirmed by James Root in a recent interview in the January '07 issue of "Total Guitar" magazine.

Guitars

SLIPKNOT

Fender Flat Head Telecaster HH Black (Main)(Custom model [2 vol nobs])
Fender Flat Head Telecaster HH Black (Dropped A Tuning)(Custom model[same as above])
Fender Flat Head Showmaster HH Black ("JR" on 12th fret) [1]
Backstage Custom Charvel San Dimas HH model built by Fender. (It has a traditional Stratocaster look, but a thinner neck and 2 humbuckers).
Jackson SL1 Soloist Black guitar (In Slipknot Tour)
Jackson SL3 Soloist Grey guitar (In Slipknot- IOWA Tour)
PRS Private Stock Black (Based around the Standard 24)(In Slipknot- IOWA Tour)
Maverick JR-4

STONE SOUR

Fender flat head-black
Fender H/S/S Strat with EMG pickups-all black
Fender Custom Telecaster Flame Mapel Top HH Black Cherry burst
Fender american H/H tele with EMG pickups-black w/white scratch plate
All jim's guitars are down tuned electrics to drop B and C#
Various martin acoustics
Jim uses Ernie Ball strings in custom sets 11-56 electric lies

Amps

Rivera Knucklehead Reverb 100 KT88 Tubes (Master Amp)
Rivera Knucklehead Reverb 100 6L6 Tubes (Slave Amp)
Rivera 4x12 (Celestion G12T-75 Speakers)x2
Randall ISOlation Cab
Orange Rockerverb 100 & 4 x 12 cab.(with Stone Sour)

Effects

SLIPKNOT Effects Rack:

Voodoo Labs pedal power supplier
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)
Electro-Harmonix Small Stone
Maxon AF-9 Auto Filter
Maxon OD-9 Overdrive
Digitech Synth Wah
Dunlop JH-3S Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz
MXR Auto Q Wah
Digital Music Corp. Ground Control Pro
Digitech hyper phase