Adam Jones Thumb Position... Options

[Spock]

Trip on this, i just noticed it.

So, this is a new part to the song Hooker I believe, and Adam says a new album will be out this year - but I saw this part and noticed how he holds his thumb, then looked up pics of him and sure enough, you can see his thumb down low all over the place - what a bizarre way to hold the guitar. He started his musical life on violin, but I can't see that making this peculiar style.

To each his own, and the man has a net worth of $40 million.

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[Todd Simpson]

Looks similar to my "THUMBLESS" technique Have you see the posts about that?

Trip on this, i just noticed it.

So, this is a new part to the song Hooker I believe, and Adam says a new album will be out this year - but I saw this part and noticed how he holds his thumb, then looked up pics of him and sure enough, you can see his thumb down low all over the place - what a bizarre way to hold the guitar. He started his musical life on violin, but I can't see that making this peculiar style.

To each his own, and the man has a net worth of $40 million.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

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[Cosmin Lupu]

Trip on this, i just noticed it.

So, this is a new part to the song Hooker I believe, and Adam says a new album will be out this year - but I saw this part and noticed how he holds his thumb, then looked up pics of him and sure enough, you can see his thumb down low all over the place - what a bizarre way to hold the guitar. He started his musical life on violin, but I can't see that making this peculiar style.

To each his own, and the man has a net worth of $40 million.

Hehe! The amazing Mr. Jones Well, there are two possibilities here:

- he needs more span for stretching out on the fretboard and bringing his thumb like this, helps him achieve that stretch
- he is just having fun - I noticed my mate in Days of Confusion sometimes doing this for fun. How do I know it's for fun? Because I've seen him play the same phrase with a normal grip

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[Ben Higgins]

I've noticed that dropping the thumb down real low allows you to clear your fingers over the higher strings so you're not accidentally scrunching them up. So if you need to play some intricate chordal arpeggios it can often make sure you're separating the notes and not having your fingers fouling on any adjacent frets.

Having said that, that was damn sloppy. $40 million ? Damn, practice more !

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[PosterBoy]

I have to have my thumb pretty low due to short fingers (especially my pinky) but bloody hell! not that low!!!!1!!ONE

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[Gabriel Leopardi]

This guy is very unique. His riffs and guitar lines are totally original and that's one of the things make Tool such an amazing band. I have no idea why he uses the thumb like that, but one advantage that I see there is that he can reach the higher frets of his les paul without his thumb disturbing. I own a les paul and I can say that playing the higher frets isn't very comfortable and using the thumb like that could help.

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[Todd Simpson]

I've noticed that pulling the thumb off the neck does allow me MUCH great stretch. Per this example 7 frets of stretch.

Hehe! The amazing Mr. Jones Well, there are two possibilities here:

- he needs more span for stretching out on the fretboard and bringing his thumb like this, helps him achieve that stretch
- he is just having fun - I noticed my mate in Days of Confusion sometimes doing this for fun. How do I know it's for fun? Because I've seen him play the same phrase with a normal grip

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[Cosmin Lupu]

Never seen him approach such great stretches, but I think Gabi nailed it with the cumbersomeness of the Les Paul in respect to reaching out near the end of the neck. If you want some samples of hammer on/pull offs a la Adam Jones, here's what I have in mind - Jambi is one of my favorite Tool songs:

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