Jim Root

Slipknot and Stone Sour guitarist Jim Root plays a Fender Jim Root Signature Telecaster.

"My signature models are basically a Telecaster, mahogany body, string-through, hard tails, EMG 81, EMG 60 in the neck, three-way selector, one volume knob... They're essentially modeled after the custom shop model which used to be called the Flathead, which they discontinued. I love that guitar so much, we just kind of went with those sort of specs"

-Gear talk with Jim Root".

According to the Fender website, the signature model has an ebony fretboard, or a choice of maple on the black model, a 12" fretboard radius, medium jumbo frets, and locking tuners.

Jim Root discusses his Fender Signature Jazzmaster electric guitar (in Satin Black finish):

“I've been infatuated with guitars, with Stratocasters, with Telecasters, with Fender guitars, Charvel guitars, I mean that whole thing since I was a child. My earliest memories are of rock bands and influential guitar players. I mean from the time I was like 14 when I got my first one, until I got into my first bands when I was like 15-16 years old, all the way up until now it's been the the constant in my life that has never changed.

I was totally stoked to even just have the Strat because we came up with the compound fretboard radius and the different contour on the body and all that stuff, and it’s killer. I love my Strats, they’re amazing and they're a different animal from the Tele, which makes valid… variety to me is the spice of life. So Alex [Perez] sent me, just out of the blue, he sent me this white Jazzmaster with a flame maple fretboard on it. And it had my signature specs. I was like hmmm this is interesting. I kinda blew it off because I was so into the Strats at the time, and I was in Iowa and I didn't have all my guitars with me. My guitars tend to get spread out sometimes because the two bands. Some will be at the Slipknot warehouse, some will be shipped to Australia or whatever. But I didn't have enough guitars with me to do all the tunings that we had for Stone Sour, so I grabbed that white Jazzmaster and took it to rehearsal. I did the entire rehearsal with that guitar and it felt so comfortable. It completely changed my opinion of that guitar, like all of a sudden that instantly became my absolute favorite guitar. I started blowing em up, “This guitar’s awesome, you need to make me a black one or a red one, I wanna do this and I wanna do that,” I had all these ideas and we just started throwing ideas around for months and months.”

Jim Root continues to talk about the aesthetic characteristics of his signature guitar:

“I am in Slipknot, ok, and we tour a lot and there's a lot of things getting thrown around on stage. If I had a really shiny beautiful custom paint job the that was just really amazing, it would get destroyed within a matter of months on the road. What I like about these finishes is they’re very simple, very roadworthy, it’s classic, to me. They lend themselves to taking on the characteristics of the player. It'll very quickly start to show you where you like to rest your arm, how you grab your volume knob, how often you're down here messing with the pickup selector, if you're up in here a lot it'll start wearing in right there nice and good. You know it just it really starts taking on the personality of the player. It's a big giant heavy Jazzmaster because it’s mahogany. I love mahogany, it's just a really great tone wood for recording and for live. For the heavier music that we're doing I don't need all that brightness and brilliance, and that's part of the reason I’ve shied away from the maple boards a little bit, they'd add a little bit of a snapiness to the top end that - for engineers and producers, they tend to wanna die all that stuff out a little bit because everything has to sit in the mix a certain way. So we did mahogany, just as we did. And it's got a weird contour, it’s not as contoured as a regular Jazzmaster, it’s very thick and boxy kinda, but it still has like the belly cut and the arm cut so it’s still comfortable while it’s hanging off of you on stage.”

Root goes on to talk about the electronics and detailed specs:

“We did the EMG's too and I went with the brushed aluminum on the black guitar because it looks killer, kinda pops. One volume knob, of course 3-way selector like I like, keep it simple. It is really just a stripped-down modern guitar. Compound fretboard radius like the Strat, so you can get the action right down on top of the frets if you want. Jumbo frets, ebony board, rock maple neck, locking tuners, it’s got the contour in the neck heel so you can reach. And that’s the other thing too is you can really reach that 21st fret easy on this guitar.

Sometimes with the Teles and the Strat it’s kinda hard to get up there and grab 22 and bend it up into happiness… easy, easy fret board access, and it’s a tone monster. I love these guitars, they’re just amazing.”

Fender's YouTube channel profiles and interviews Jim Root and his signature Stratocaster in black. The Jim Root Stratocaster features a compound radius neck (12"-16") without fingerboard dot markers, active EMG pickups, black hardware, jumbo frets and satin lacquer finish.

In this video, Jim Root of Slipknot discusses the various guitars that he owns. At 1:25, he identifies a Billy Corgan Strat that he said he used in the music video for the song "Sulfur". However, it was modified with a different pickguard and a double-humbucker design to emulate a Jim Root signature stratocaster.

In this interview with Jim Root of Slipknot (3:05), Jim pulls out a vintage Fender Jazzmaster produced in 1966. He has never used this on any records, but rather has it along with his collection of guitars.

Jim Root also uses an off-the-shelf Fender Jazzmaster Blacktop, tuned to Eb. He has had the bridge pickup cut out and replaced with and EMG humbucker.

In the video, "Jim Root: The Sound and the Story", Jim talks about this Kelly guitar that he was sent and used on the Iowa tour.

In this photo, we can see Root playing Fender Toronado.

Jim Root is playing a Black Gibson Explorer in this video.

In this photo you can see Jim root playing a Jackson Soloist SL1. It was only used during the 1999 Slipknot tour.

In this photo you can see Jim with his Black Gibson Flying V Guitar . It was used during the summer 2009 tour.

Jim Root used to play through a PRS Private Stock (seen in the photo) during the Iowa days of Slipknot before he got signed to Fender

In this video, Jim Root explains that this was his oldest guitar that he picked up in a pawn shop in Des Moines, Iowa, which used to belong to an old man who was deceased. Together with the guitar was a picture of the person who used to own it. Also, he mentions that the guitar is noisy as hell. You can see it in the 4:25 mark of the video.

seen at the 5:42 mark of the video, Jim Root shows an unopened box of a Gibson Silverburst Firebird V. He says that he wants to keep it in sealed/mint condition so that in a span of many years, you won't get to see a Gibson Silverburst Firebird V "still in the box."

"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.”

There are additional information about the SL-2 from this thread: http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f19/mij-grover-jackson-soloist-40974.html

At the 0:30 mark you can see Jim playing through an RG-8 in the song "Got Money"

In the article, Jim stated that he owned a Charvel Model 1, his first "real" guitar, at the age of 15

In the video, "Jim Root: The Sound and the Story", Jim talks about his Warrior guitar that he was sent and used on the Iowa tour.

At 1:00, a clear shot can be seen of the headstock, showing the "Grover Jackson" inlay.

This was Jim Root's main guitar in Slipknot from 1999 - 2001. It has been modified with a single EMG 81 bridge pickup and a single volume knob.

"They’re pretty cool. If you’re afforded the opportunity to have a company like Fender take one of your ideas and then they can do it, it’s a pretty cool spot to be in. So while we were out on this last run, I saw they were doing these sandblasted guitars, and I threw it by the guys in Fender. “What if we did one of my signature models that way?” They have all the specs of my signature models, but with that grain from the mahogany showing through. I did put a set of Hetfield EMGs in it, which is similar to the EMGs that I have in my signature models. They sound killer and they look killer." -Jim Root

In the "Before I Forget" video, Jim Root is shown playing the Charvel Custom Shop San Dimas in Black with Maple Fingerboard and Gold Hardwares.

In the "Before I Forget" video, Jim Root is shown playing the Charvel Custom Shop San Dimas in Black with Maple Fingerboard and Gold Hardwares.

In the pic you can see Jim using a Fender Flathead Telecaster which was one of his guitars of choice before he got his endoresment with Fender.

He talks about his Squier Signature Telecaster in the video.

He switched to using this instead of his normal E flat guitar

Photo from Jim's official Instagram showing his work on this guitar

Photo from Jim's official Instagram shows this guitar