I hope by now you’re all experimenting
with anything and everything that comes
to mind when it comes to “honing your
tone!” This month, we’re going to jump into
the land of light strings and heavy sounds.
You may recall that last month I used Paul
Kossoff as our tonal reference point to illustrate
how he used slightly heavier strings
to get his particular sound. This month, we
will look at Tony Iommi’s vast influence on
heavy metal and ultimately compare him to
others in the genre.
In my opinion – and I’m certainly far from
alone with this view – Tony Iommi can be
crowned as the inventor of heavy metal
guitar, both because of his unique feel and
his heavier-than-thou sound. Although this
may be an understatement, his sound has
been the reference point for heavy metal’s
musical development ever since Black
Sabbath’s debut album hit record stores
way back in the fall of 1970 (although it
doesn’t seem all that long ago to me).
Did you know that Tony Iommi uses a
ridiculously light gauge of strings? By
“ridiculously,” I mean they are much lighter
than most other guitarists would even consider
using. When I ran into Black Sabbath
in the early ‘90s, Tony was using a set that
was gauged .008-.008-.010-.016w-.024w-
.032w. Yes, you read it correctly – he uses
a wound .016 D string! When coupled with
his liberal use of dropped tunings, things
become even more twisted.
However, this special combination of
detuning and ultra-light gauge strings on
his Gibson SG, played through massively
distorted Laney amps, was a big part of
the tonal equation. Additionally, by the time
Black Sabbath’s sophomore effort, Paranoid,
hit the shelves, Tony was using replacement
pickups made by a fellow Englishman
named John Diggins. These pickups were
among the first to feature an increased
number of windings around the bobbins,
and they had more than the standard number
of pole-pieces (six), if I recall correctly. In
fact, Carvin’s current humbuckers are very
reminiscent of Diggin’s custom pickups.
Detuning tends to sacrifice treble and
this is where a treble booster comes in
handy. Iommi used one of these units
in Sabbath’s early days. At that time,
many British guitarists were exposed to,
and therefore tended to use, the Dallas
Rangemaster for their treble boosting
needs – Rory Gallagher in particular was
known to use one. Treble boosting was
one of the first non-time-based effects
and as such began life in the Vox AC30
combo amps of the later ‘50s and early
‘60s. These treble boosted combos (i.e. the
AC30 Top Boost) would be used at first by
Hank B. Marvin of the Shadows, and eventually
by the Fab Four as well. Keep this
in mind while we go back to Tony Iommi’s
uniquely derived style.
I would feel remiss in our tonal discussion
if we glossed over an unfortunate accident
that further distinguished Iommi from his
contemporaries. Early in his life, while Tony
was working in a factory, two fingertips on
his right hand were truncated. This traumatic
event was almost enough to drive
him away from the instrument, but a friend
convinced him to carry on, turning him
onto Django Reinhardt in the process (who
also lost some fingers in a campfire accident).
As a result, he had to overcome the
fact that he was going to have challenges
playing the guitar – eventually using soft,
plastic fingertips to fret the strings (he was
left-handed). His perseverance is staggering,
let alone his level of success. In a way,
Iommi could be considered the Django of
his genre.
I recall seeing Black Sabbath play at the
Fillmore West in San Francisco during their
first U.S. tour and clearly being able to see
what was going on with his fretting hand.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest
that the various prosthetic fingertips he
used throughout the different stages of his
career have contributed to both his technique
and his sound. When I first heard of
Tony’s string gauge choice, I immediately
wondered how much (if any) feeling he
had under his “thimbles,” and also how
much control he would need to keep his
strings from going out of tune.
Last month, we discussed how a string’s
mass affects overall sustain. In Tony’s
example, we can see how super-light
string gauges, a very calculated touch and
massive amounts of amplifier gain worked
to his advantage. Detuning has gained
popularity in modern rock genres like “numetal,”
with most new guitarists reaching
for heavier gauges to accommodate
their dropped tuning needs. However, this
will not sound the same as Tony’s lighter
gauge choice. As you’ll recall from our last
column, heavier strings die off much more
quickly than lighter strings, and using Black
Sabbath’s sonic output as a reference
point, we can obviously hear that Iommi
has sustain galore; it just keeps going until
he commands it to stop.
Next month, we’ll discuss the use of treble
boosters and their effect on tone, and offer
up more advice about how to put this
information to good use. After all, this is
about finding your own signal path.
Dean Farley
Dean Farley is the chief designer of "Snake Oil Brand Strings" (
www.sobstrings.net) and has had a profound influence on the trends in the strings of today