tmjns796

Hi guys and gals :-)

Compiling a thread on your personal taste in regards to guitar amps,settings, pedals, pickups and technique for that holy grail of early sabbath sounds.... think Fairies wear boots, war pigs, iron man, children of the grave, sabbath bloody sabbath, black sabbath.

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Cort M600
Tele Classic Vibe
Les Paul Custom
SG G-400
Laney GH100TI full stack
Laney TF700 11 half stack

tmjns796

Ill start with what I know,

the story goes that when Iommi was 17 he cut off the tips of his ring and cursing finger ( what else would you call it? ) on his right (fret) hand
This lead to him having to change his playing style.
Whilst his fingers where healing he made some leather thimble type things to cover the scars.
I know on the later albums with R.J.Dio he was down tuning, but i believe in the early days he would use the lowest gauge strings he could find as it would be easer for him to bend and play in E tuning. also playing most parts on the low E string and high up the frets.
this is i guess where a lot of the drone type sound comes from.
thats about all i know, and thats probably from 'pub talk' so most of it could be bull crap.

__________________
Cort M600
Tele Classic Vibe
Les Paul Custom
SG G-400
Laney GH100TI full stack
Laney TF700 11 half stack

stykerwolf

i hear he used the bass input of his laney amp and a rangemaster

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Cathbard

The main thing is P90's into a large old Laney valve amp cranked up to demolition levels for some serious power amp distortion. With your GH100TI, turn the volume up full and use the gain knob as your volume control - then turn it up until it hurts.

__________________
Gilchrist custom guitar
Yamaha SBG500
Telecaster
Ibanez Iceman
Roland GP-8
Quadraverb
Abbey Harmonic II
Marshall JTM45 clone
Marshall JCM900 4102 (modded)
Marshall 18W clone
Fender 5F1 Champ clone
Marshall 1960A

Cathbard Amplification

EpiExplorer

There's a big lack of mid in his tone, with a bit of treble but mostly full bass. The bass input thing is supposedly true as well.

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tmjns796

I thought there wasn't masses of gain involved though my GH100TI is a gain monster

I need to get some p90's, im just unsure about retro fitting them in my Sg.

Ill be honest, when i got the TI i wasnt a massive sabbath / iommi fan. It was just at the right price and different. now though, I am a huge sabbath fan. its crept up on me.
I was brought up on rainbow LP's to mute out my screaming as a child, hence my Dio obsession as a teenager :-) which led me to Sabbath properly. of course every young metal head learning guitar knows paranoid... but thats not 'proper' sabbath hahaha.

I found rolling the tone down on the guitar, and the bass up on the amp gets me somewhere near, but like i say not masses of gain. but thats what i think, though @ Cathbard the guitar tech.... you have the experience !

__________________
Cort M600
Tele Classic Vibe
Les Paul Custom
SG G-400
Laney GH100TI full stack
Laney TF700 11 half stack

CodeMonk

He used a rangemaster.
Most of the bass was from Geezer.
Often Tony would also play clean and dirty and mix, generally with dirty just a bit more prominent on one channel and the clean a bit more prominent on the other channel.
His clean signal was quite a bit on the treble side.
The dirty side was where most of his bass sound came from.

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Jehannum

Iommi was downtuning to C# long before the Dio years - Master Of Reality, Vol. 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath all feature examples.

The sound is largely in the fingers, not just the equipment. When he plays a lead line to emphasise certain notes his pick attack is often halfway towards a pinch harmonic.

Tony has a distinctive vibrato (which I copied unconsciously. It's mine now!)

He used trills a lot in the early days.

Light-gauge strings, bridge pickup. I don't think he used too much distortion. Try playing the arpeggio sections from War Pigs or Snowblind. If it's too mushy-sounding then the distortion is too high.

BlitzkriegAir

he used a Treble Booster pedal too if im not mistaken

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Last.fm

Cathbard

The thing about your amp is that it has more gain stages than the old Laney that Iommi was using. That's why you need to crank the master volume and then add in the preamp gain gradually until it all starts to scream. Otherwise the ratio of preamp distortion vs power amp distortion is all wrong. He had both sections pumping hard, to do that - volume up, gain down.
It will never be quite right but it will be your best bet to get close. For newer Sabbath you've got the exact right machine. Awesome amp btw, I love the TI's.
You can get humbucker sized P90's that will fit your guitar. Take a look at what GFS have to offer.

__________________
Gilchrist custom guitar
Yamaha SBG500
Telecaster
Ibanez Iceman
Roland GP-8
Quadraverb
Abbey Harmonic II
Marshall JTM45 clone
Marshall JCM900 4102 (modded)
Marshall 18W clone
Fender 5F1 Champ clone
Marshall 1960A

Cathbard Amplification

311ZOSOVHJH

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sea`

You should be able to copy Iommi pretty well using a fuzz pedal as well, will give you that really thick tone on the first Sabbath album.

Cathbard

He's got a GH100TI so thickness is not likely to be a problem.

__________________
Gilchrist custom guitar
Yamaha SBG500
Telecaster
Ibanez Iceman
Roland GP-8
Quadraverb
Abbey Harmonic II
Marshall JTM45 clone
Marshall JCM900 4102 (modded)
Marshall 18W clone
Fender 5F1 Champ clone
Marshall 1960A

Cathbard Amplification

ChucklesMginty

Also, 8 gauge strings.

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tmjns796

@Cathbard what humbucker sized p90's on guitarfetish.com would you recommend? oh its thick alright..... if the 6260 bugera where water , the GH100TI would be syrup :-)

__________________
Cort M600
Tele Classic Vibe
Les Paul Custom
SG G-400
Laney GH100TI full stack
Laney TF700 11 half stack

Cathbard

The Dream 90's.

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Humbuck...ckups_c_26.html

__________________
Gilchrist custom guitar
Yamaha SBG500
Telecaster
Ibanez Iceman
Roland GP-8
Quadraverb
Abbey Harmonic II
Marshall JTM45 clone
Marshall JCM900 4102 (modded)
Marshall 18W clone
Fender 5F1 Champ clone
Marshall 1960A

Cathbard Amplification

tmjns796

Not the Mean 90's? better off with the more vintage output?

__________________
Cort M600
Tele Classic Vibe
Les Paul Custom
SG G-400
Laney GH100TI full stack
Laney TF700 11 half stack

Cathbard

With your amp, yeah. The last thing you need is high output. You'll probably have to cut back on the guitar volume even with the normal output ones.

__________________
Gilchrist custom guitar
Yamaha SBG500
Telecaster
Ibanez Iceman
Roland GP-8
Quadraverb
Abbey Harmonic II
Marshall JTM45 clone
Marshall JCM900 4102 (modded)
Marshall 18W clone
Fender 5F1 Champ clone
Marshall 1960A

Cathbard Amplification

J-E-M

For the early stuff, neck pickup for rhythm, bridge pickup for solos. Boost the mids.