How did Iommi get his tone?

[jimlp]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

Holy hell.

What the fudge are all those extra knobs and switch for? Preamp?

It is a right hand guitar, he probably put a set of controls on there for left hand operation.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

It is a right hand guitar, he probably put a set of controls on there for left hand operation.

That's my guess as well...left handed guitars were VERY hard to come by at that time.

 

[Fusion1]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

Yeaaah boy!

So wait, that was one of Tony Iommi's guitars? Odd as I was a huge Tony Iommi disciple and I don't ever recall coming across that one before. Are there any pictures or vids of him playing it?

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

This is the only video I know of where he uses it...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

This is the only video I know of where he uses it...

Wrong!

The SG from that clip is a factory lefty SG Custom with a Maestro vibrato unit...

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

Ok, then where did he play that guitar? I''ve never seen it.

 

[Khriss Bliss]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

He plays all his twonote 5 chords on the low Estring,( bcuz that form works for his index and pinkie.) And uses vibrato on the chords.

And i can imagine his two note trills would be superfast with the help of leathercover plastic extensions.

And cuz it hurts his fingers, he uses 8 8 11 18 24 32 for gauges, a little thicker on his super detuned H&H stuff.

So fingers are a factor. Lotta 80s players used various two chord combinations, and dissed Iommi at the time beforemetallica resurrected the root 5 form wholesale.

Also, Iommi separates his rockabilly and jazz approach from his doomrock approach.

 

[Bayou_Picker]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

It might be a right handed attempt at a copy. Here's a cool pic!

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

That guitar is so cool....

 

[guitarrob]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

I like to understand how all the great got their tones just for information sake.
I think alot of it in those days was just pushing everything to get more volume and more distortion. This was the approach by alot of the great guitarist from those days...

 

[TheLivingDead]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

That guitar just ****ing wins so hard.

 

[erksin]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

A treble booster is key

 

[xntrick]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

who makes pickups similar to what's in the photo?

 

[Bayou_Picker]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

John Birch used to sell these pickups for around 180$ a pop.

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: How did Iommi get his tone?

This is great. I tried to make it my signature, but it's too long. Maybe I'll just append it to the end of everything I post from now on.

People get hung up on gear for a specific player and try to cop that sound. They get a vintage Laney, SG with P-90's, Rangemaster, etc., then claim that there has to be something else because they can't get that tone. Then half a million fools on a forum tell them it's because they don't have Tony's hands, which is just stupid.

If you really want to nail that sound, forget the sound for now. Work your ass off, get into a band, play hard, get a record deal, make a lot of money, buy the gear, then play arenas. That's really the only way unless you can live alone on an island...with power.