Tony Iommi

Used on Black Sabbath's debut album, this guitar became one Iommi's iconic instruments throughout his career. It is a '65 custom.

This guitar was bought sometime in the mid to late 60s as a replacement for the Burns Trisonic. It can be seen during the 1968’s Rock’n’Roll Circus with The Rolling Stones, when Tony joined Jethro Tull for one gig before going back to the Black Sabbath (still named Earth at that time).

Tony’s Stratocaster was a 60s pre-CBS model with rosewood fretboard, and originally featured a sunburst finish. He modified the guitar over the years, and tried to make it easier to play since he had an accident where he lost the tips of his two fingers on his right hand while he still had this guitar. He filled the frets down and lowered the action, played with the pickups, and repainted the whole body white.

This guitar was used basically from the time the gig with Rockin’ Chevrolets ended in 1965, up until the recording of Black Sabbath’s first album in 1970. Unfortunately, one of the pickups on the guitar stopped working and Tony only ended up using it on one song, “Wicked World”. The rest were recording with a Gibson SG which Tony used as a spare up until this point.

Tony Iommi Rock aid Armenia, Black Sabbath, and Heaven & Hell, plays his JayDee Custom SG with a great view at 0:04.

Tony Iommi owned during a short time an early Gibson SG Custom cream finished (called Les Paul SG then) with three humbucker pickups and a maestro vibrato. It's said it was a gift from Leslie West in the early 70's. However, it can't be seen on photographs of Tony's collection taken in 1974 and later : it seems that it has been stolen.

(Here is a link to a fanpage with many details on this guitar : http://www.black-sabbath.com/vb/showthread.php?40353-Tony-s-white-Gibson-SG )

Built for Iommi in 1980. Features Dimarzio pickups, two built-in preamps, Iommi trademark cross inlays and 24 fret neck, scalloped by luthier Neal Moser. That guitar was used in Star Licks Master Series Tony Iommi Video, for Star Licks Productions. Iommi also had a left handed BC Rich Mockingbird.

A 1965 Gibson SG in red finish fitted with a Gibson P-90 pickup in the bridge position and a custom wound John Birch Simplux, a P-90 style single coil in the neck position. The guitar became Iommi’s main instrument after his white Fender Stratocaster’s neck pickup failed during the recording of Black Sabbath debut album;

The photo depicts Tony Iommi with his Gibson Les Paul Junior, highlighting his association with this iconic guitar.

Tony Iommi's Epiphone Tony Iommi G-400 SG was the brand's first signature model, released in 2007. This guitar is distinct from the Epiphone Ltd. Ed. Tony Iommi Signature SG Custom, launched around 2015. Both models are renowned for their impressive design and performance. Further details on the G-400 SG can be found on Epiphone's website.

Was made by luthier John Birch, and before Iommi has used predominantly his JayDee model, was one of his main instruments. The characteristic sound of this guitar can be heard on Never Say Die album.

This guitar was built for Tony by Gibson master luthier J.T. Riboloff. It was based on a SG Custom, but featured 24 frets and a floating Floyd Rose tremolo which Tony needed in order to play couple of songs live (Mob Rules is most often mentioned as an example).

Another SG with tremolo appeared sometime in the late 90s, this time a Custom version of the SG with white finish.

In this photo, Iommi holding a Gibson Les Paul.

In a 1989 live performance in Russia, Tony Iommi played a Steinberger GM4T while covering "Apache" by The Shadows.

The replica of the old "Monkey" built by American luthier Lou Moritz. The guitar was used on the recordings of the album "13", and on following tour.

The new JayDee SG Custom is a gift to Tony from Birmingham luthier John Diggins. Tony uses this guitar in Black Sabbath 2013 tour.

Tony has been seen using this guitar during Black Sabbath's 13 tour and The End tour.

Guitar built sometime in 1981 by John Diggins as a spare one for Tony’s main SG. It featured SG style body, custom headstock design by Diggins, two dual-rail humbuckers, locking nut, and what looks like a Kahler 2300 tremolo bridge.

In this photo of Tony with some of his guitars you can see a Gibson Barney Kessel on the far left. Youc an tell tis a standard model and not a custom ebcause it has nickel ahrdware, split block inlays and no music note inlay on the ehadstock .

In this video, Tony Iommi shows his new signature guitar by Epiphone. He explains the differences from his last Epiphone signature model and he shows the similarities.

The first black prototype was built by the Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville after Iommi’s specifications and finished in 1997.

Tony Iommi is seen holding his left-handed Washburn EC29. According to rockstarsguitars.com: "Tony Iommi’s Washburn EC29 that was used in all recording projects since the late 1980’s – late 1990’s."

Tony Iommi is seen with a Hamer Phantom GT in a user-uploaded photo on Dangerousminds, highlighting his ownership of this solid body electric guitar.

J T Riboloff (see story of the Gibson Tony Iommi Signature pick-up) took it into his workshop in the Custom Shop and extended the fretboard, adding 2 frets to complete the full 2 octave span that Tony is used to.

This was one of two prototypes built by Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville as a blueprint for Tony Iommi Signature SG. It was delivered to Tony in late 1997.

Tony used this guitar for the Born Again album and The Eternal Idol album. Photo courtesy of RockStarGuitars.com.

Tony replaced the Oldboy Relic with the Oldboy Standard in 2014.

His first guitar was a Watkins Rapier 22 LH. He talks about it at 2:10 in the interview.

Tony is a big fan of acoustic arrangements and in this interview you can see him playing the Taylor T5Z.

Tony Iommi can be seen with Epiphone Tony Iommi SG Special in this photo.

Tony Iommi is seen using the Gibson Tony Iommi SG Special, as shown in the user-uploaded photo.