Watch 9-year-old guitarist Maya Neelakantan play an awe-inspiring medley of 15 clean Tool riffs – on a guitar given to her by Adam Jones

Maya Neelakantan
(Image credit: Maya Neelakantan)

Earlier this year, when nine-year-old Maya Neelakantan covered Tool’s 16-minute epic, 7empest, it caught – along with the attention of thousands of viewers – the gaze of the band’s guitarist Adam Jones, who was so impressed he sent the young player his signature Gibson guitar, the Adam Jones Les Paul Standard.

Neelakantan was understandably buzzing at receiving the gift at the time – describing the day she opened it as “the biggest day of my life” – so it’s not at all surprising that she’s putting the gloriously appointed – and in this case, prestigious – six-string to good use.

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Sam Roche

Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.