Jeffrey Allen Ament (born March 10, 1963 in Havre, Montana) is an American bassist and songwriter. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of the American rock band Pearl Jam. Ament is well known for his work in grunge rock bands based in Seattle through the 1980s prior to Pearl Jam, and is particularly notable for his work with the fretless bass, upright bass and twelve-string bass guitar. On September 16, 2008, Ament released his first solo album entitled Tone. The album features ten songs written over a span of 12 years. 3,000 copies of Tone were pressed and will be distributed through independent record stores across the United States as well as through Pearl Jam's official website.