Jim Adkins

Guitar Center's page on the Fender Telecaster JA-90 says, "When platinum-selling Jimmy Eat World guitarist and frontman Jim Adkins cheerfully challenged Fender by throwing down the gauntlet of designing his perfect electric guitar, a collaboration began that resulted in the Fender JA-90 Telecaster. Fender sat down with Adkins and went over his old Fender TC-90 spec by spec, making some important changes that subsequently produced this unique new model. The Jim Adkins Telecaster guitar has a mahogany neck set into a semi-hollow ash body, Seymour Duncan Soapbar pickups, independent volume and tone controls, an Adjusto-Matic bridge and anchored tailpiece. The high-output Custom Soapbar SP90-3 pickup uses two large ceramic magnets for extra output, compressed dyanamics, and sharper attack. The full frequency response delivers extra punch. The Vintage Soapbar SP90-1 has short, wide bobbins for higher output and more powerful midrange than Strat or Tele single-coils. The tone is sweet and smooth."

Jim Adkins uses a Cole Clark FL1, according to Guitar Geek.

"Getting up is something the band does exceptionally—Adkins, weaned on punk’s attack and alt-rock’s melodic exploration, elevates the straight and driving Les Paul barre-chord brawn with a vocal approach that’s slick and controlled, but infused with expressive emotionalism."

From Premier Guitar's Jimmy Eat World rig rundown: "When Adkins goes for an acoustic tone, he grabs a Maton 808 Concert Grand prototype, which he picked up on tour while visiting their factory in Australia."

This was his main guitar during the Futures era. He used it for drop C# songs like Pain and Work.

Used a lot in the early days of the band.

In this interview with Vox Amps Jim Adkins states at :22s, "I've been using the AC30 Custom Classic from Vox lately" also commenting that, "it's a pretty versatile amp."

"It's a pretty versatile amp. You can dress it up or down for any occasion," says Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World, about his VOX AC30 Custom Classic, at 0:34 in this video.

In this post, Jim can be seen fiddling around with a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III.

This detailed gear diagram of Jim Adkins' 2012 Jimmy Eat World stage setup includes a Boss RC-50 Loop pedal.

This detailed gear diagram of Jim Adkins' 2012 Jimmy Eat World stage setup includes a Fishman Aura Spectrum.

According to this detailed gear diagram of Jim Adkins' 2012 Jimmy Eat World stage setup, he uses a Korg Chromatic tuner.

According to this detailed gear diagram of Jim Adkins' 2012 Jimmy Eat World stage setup, he uses a Line 6 DL4 occasionally.

Jim Adkins uses a TC Electronic G-Force, according to Guitar Geek.

This photo, posted to Jimmy Eat World's Facebook, shows Jim Adkins with a Pedaltrain Jr.

According to Guitar Geek, Jim Adkins used a Tech 21 MIDI Mouse Pedal on Jimmy Eat World's 2012 tour.

At 0:12 minute mark, the RJM Music MasterMind controller is visible. Apparently, everyone uses this controller in the band.

At 0:12 minute mark, Adkins's Mission EP-1 pedal can be seen near the RJM controller.

The pedals made by JHS and Walrus are totally neutral, there’s one called The Spark [by TC Electronic] that we used a lot. It’s a very subtle thing but just enough to make a difference.

That’s it, except for the occasional subtle boost and the Metasonix Butt Probe. That pedal has been on every record of ours since it came out! For amps, it’s a mixture of a Marshall 1979 JMP and Axe-FX.

In this photo from Jimmy Eat World performing at the Egyptian Room in Indianapolis in 2013, the Tech 21 MIDI moose controller can be visible.

This is a Premier Guitar Rig Rundown. Starting at 18:27 on the video, Jim gives a detailed demo of how to use the Mastermind GT 22 MIDI Foot Controller.

In the rig rundown, JIm and Tom explain how they were introduced to Axe FX and that they have started using them live to spend more on production and less on hauling gear around.

Jim uses Dunlop Tortex 0.6mm picks, according to Guitar Geek.

At the 3:30 mark, he states that, "I've always thought that the heavier strings just feel better -- not just for the sake that they'll stay in tune better, but sonically, I just think that they feel better."

At 3:55, he states that he now plays the medium gauge strings (13-56), joking that "...if this is medium, I'd hate to see heavy."