Hard rock & high gain
Gibson SG Standard
Lighter than a Les Paul, nastier in the upper mids, and with upper-fret access that actually makes sense. The SG is the reason a lot of heavy music sounds the way it does.
BitingMid-forwardRaw
Tony Iommi's Sound
The inventor of heavy metal guitar, built out of an industrial accident.
Downtuned SG through treble-boosted Laney amps — dark, thick and doom-laden
The rig
The gear associated with the sound. Each item opens a live Reverb search — vintage examples where they exist, modern equivalents where they don't.
Guitars
- Gibson SG Special 'Monkey'Find on Reverb
- Jaydee Custom SG 'Old Boy'Find on Reverb
- Gibson Iommi signature SGFind on Reverb
Amps
- Laney Supergroup 100Find on Reverb
- Laney GH100TI signatureFind on Reverb
- Marshall (early Sabbath live)Find on Reverb
Effects
- Dallas Rangemaster treble booster (modified by Iommi)Find on Reverb
- Tycobrahe Parapedal wahFind on Reverb
- Boss chorus and delay (1980s onward)Find on Reverb
Pickups
- John Birch and later Gibson Iommi humbuckersFind on Reverb
Other
- Homemade leather fingertip thimblesFind on Reverb
- Extra-light gauge strings, banjo strings in the early yearsFind on Reverb
Why it sounds like that
Black Sabbath
Sparse, reverberant and almost clean in places — the horror comes from the interval and the space, not the gain.
Iron Man
Rangemaster into Laney: mid-forward and grinding, with the riff doubled by bass to make it immovable.
Symptom of the Universe
The proto-thrash tone — tighter, faster and more aggressive than anything else in 1975.
Heaven and Hell
The Dio-era refresh: cleaner low end, more sustain, arena-scale rather than basement-scale.
From the shop floor
Similar sounds
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