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FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Jim root | History Defined

“We were packing up, then all of a sudden he goes, ‘Have you been down to the basement?’” The iconic EHX Holy Grail has been championed by Jim Root and John Frusciante – and now the lost prototype has been found

The classic reverb pedal can be found on pedalboards the world over, but JHS Pedals' Josh Scott has tracked down the first one

Guitar World

“I wanted it to be a workhorse I could bash around, beat up, hit with metal pipes and get thrown into kegs without breaking in half”: The making of Jim Root’s Telecaster, the guitar that brought Fender into the modern age

Some metal players prefer the traditional high-performance brands. Others favor medieval shapes. Not Root. The Slipknot guitarist wanted something old-school, classy… indestructible

Guitar World

Long-delayed Slipknot project Look Outside Your Window will finally drop in 2026, Shawn “Clown” Crahan promises

The “experimental”, “melodic” album was recorded in 2008 and has been delayed again and again and again over the last seven years

Metal Hammer

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“There’s no special effects – there were kids falling through ceilings, flying through glass, jumping off roofs”: From kicking booze to an anarchic video shoot, the story of Slipknot’s biggest single, Duality

Slipknot were one of the biggest names of the nu metal era – then the lead single from their third album made them immortal

Metal Hammer

“Fender needed something to bring them into more modern times”: How Jim Root’s radical signature Telecaster updated a Fender mainstay for the 21st century

The Slipknot guitarist was originally pushed towards Charvel, but he had his sights set on reinventing a Fender classic

Guitar World

“Some might say a guitar at this kind of price point has no business resonating so well”: Harley Benton ST-80FR MN review

Harley Benton pays homage to the golden age of shred with this single-pickup and Floyd Rose-equipped firecracker

MusicRadar

Slipknot’s Jim Root once asked Diamond Rowe of nu metal up-and-comers Tetrarch for guitar lessons: “I was like, ‘OK, dude, come on!’”

Rowe’s nu metal revivalists have also been endorsed by members of Fear Factory and Hatebreed

Metal Hammer

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“Six finished arrangements”: Slipknot are putting together a new record after all

Jim Root says he wants to make a “raw” album

MusicRadar

Jim Root wants Slipknot’s new album to be made like the debut and Iowa: “I would like to revisit the raw energy of how those first two records were recorded”

The guitarist also reveals that he has “six finished arrangements” for the nu metal icons’ eighth studio album

Metal Hammer

“The last thing you want to do is play a widdly-widdly riff that’s getting in the way of the vocal”: Those Damn Crows’ Ian ‘Shiner’ Thomas on how to write a No.1 album, what he learned from Nirvana, and the Slipknot riff he wished he wrote

With the Welsh rockers' latest album, God Shaped Hole, topping the charts, we check in with riff-master Shiner to talk song structure, grunge inspirations, and knowing when not to play

MusicRadar

Slipknot wrote “a bunch” of new music during the pandemic – and guitarist Jim Root says they’re scrapping all of it

“We need to just kind of, like, maybe sweep all that shit under a rug and start fresh”

Metal Hammer

“You might laugh a little. The post office shipped your guitar to Jim Root”: This metal fan ordered a new guitar from Sweetwater – but it ended up with the Slipknot guitarist

Root randomly received a new Jackson that was destined for another player, after it went missing for a number of weeks

Guitar World

“For some reason, the post office shipped your guitar to Jim Root of Slipknot”: Sweetwater mailed a metal fan's Jackson guitar to a metal legend

He received a flight case but no guitar

MusicRadar

“I just want to roll into it with an energy like it’s all starting again”: Slipknot’s Clown teases new album (and Look Outside Your Window) coming soon

“We got a new album,” the percussionist and Slipknot co-founder declares

Metal Hammer

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“I keep telling Clown that I’m just gonna throw it up on Youtube”: Slipknot guitarist Jim Root often threatens to leak long-delayed album Look Outside Your Window

Sick of waiting for Slipknot’s atmospheric rock album to come out? So is guitarist Jim Root!

Guitar World

“A lot of people are feeling the same way. They're like, ‘I’m covered with Superstrats and Strats, but I don't have an offset…’”: Misha Mansoor on the emergence of offsets in metal music – and why he should have seen it coming

The Periphery guitarist recently worked with Jackson to produce one of 2024's most talked-about custom builds – but he's not the first player to have dragged the offset into heavy territory over the past few years

Guitar World

“The sound quality is incredible; it can be quite hard to tell the difference between the Kemper and a real amp”: Tony Iommi has been experimenting with digital amp modelers – and he’s used one to record new material

The guitarist has been using a Kemper in the studio, and his new music features a blend of both tube and digital amps

Guitar World

“I started playing $150 Ibanez guitars because onstage I would take damage… Clown used to use metal bars. We were very unsafe”: Mick Thomson reflects on 25 years of Slipknot’s incendiary debut – and what it was like to see his solos erased

If Slipknot's debut remains a true face-ripper all these years later maybe it is because they brought the chaos of the stage show into the studio. Thomson can remember it vividly, the gear, the danger, the risk to his guitars from stray iron pipes, and he wouldn't have it any…

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Metal Hammer

"We were nobodies but in that moment, it felt like we had a shot." How Slipknot overcame jealousy, substance abuse and trauma to become metal's most important band

25 years on from their self-titled debut, Slipknot look back at the years that helped them define 21st Century metal

Metal Hammer

“They would tell us directly to our faces, ‘You’re not going to last’”: Other bands hated Slipknot on their first Ozzfest tour – but Sharon Osbourne saved them

Jealous bands would “shit talk” Slipknot when they made their breakout appearance on the 1999 Ozzfest

Guitar World

“When you first pick up a Tele or a Jazzmaster, you’re not thinking about neoclassical scales or shredding. But the more you play them, it’s like, ‘Wow! They kinda rip!’” Jim Root on upsetting metalheads and Fender purists, and his amp modeling conversion

The Slipknot guitarist’s come to Jesus moment with the Quad Cortex doesn’t mean he’s selling his Orange amps just yet. He just likes to keep his options open. You might even see him shred on a Gretsch…

MusicRadar

"The Quad Cortex is working really well": Jim Root tell us about introducing amp modelling to his Slipknot rig for the first time – and his verdict on the Fender Tonemaster Pro

"I have noticed, ironically enough, that I like using it better direct than I do with a power amp through a speaker cabinet"

MusicRadar

"It's like a jack-of-all-trades thing": Slipknot guitarist Jim Root reveals more to us about the Player Series Strat he liked the look of so much, he bought one from Fender's website

"If you're in a band, and you're playing cover tunes, and you go from metal to pop or even country, you could cover it with this guitar"

MusicRadar

“Outta the box awesome... Pretty much an all around versatile guitar. It’ll only get better after I spend some time with it”: Jim Root on his new Strat

Jim Root praises new Strat on his Instagram feed

Guitar World

“An all around versatile guitar. It’ll only get better after I spend some time with it”: Fender has quietly rolled out a hardtail Player Plus Strat – and Jim Root has already taken one for a test drive

The Slipknot guitarist has given the Web Exclusive HSS Strat his seal of approval

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