Epiphone TONY IOMMI G-400 Leaflet

134 | TOTAL GUITAR | MARCH 2005

GEAR 

EPIPHONE TONY IOMMI G-400

£595

HAS EPIPHONE JUST RELEASED ITS GREATEST ROCK GUITAR YET? TG THINKS SO… 

WORDS: ED MITCHELL

Wash your mouth out with soap, foolish 

young whippersnapper! Your tart’s handbag, 

lollipop stick-necked, sad little widdle plank 

is no match for this mighty beast. This guitar 

sounds like a truck load of whup-ass and will 

keep on delivering its evil-hearted goods 

for years to come. Can you really say all that 

about your guitar?  In fact, this Epiphone 

Tony Iommi G-400 is like every Rocky fi lm 

ever made compared to your guitar’s Karate

Kid III. Locking trem, indeed… 

He’s only the bleedin’ Godfather of metal 

riffery. Look, years before he began 

shuffling around his Los Angeles mansion, 

dodging dog shit and shouting at the 

kids for his reality TV show, renowned bat 

muncher and self-styled Prince of Darkness 

Ozzy Osbourne was in a rather important 

band. We’re talking about the mighty 

Black Sabbath, of course. We say important 

because these guys pioneered that particular 

brand of grumpy metal – all doom-laden 

riffs and ‘you’re all gonna die’ lyrics – that 

keeps guys like Slayer’s Kerry King in protein 

bars and Bic razors to this day.

The engine of Black Sabbath was guitarist 

Tony Iommi, a genius with a heavy riff and 

pretty nifty lead playing ability to boot. Tony 

always liked to keep his riffs simple; just a 

few notes played with blinding intensity. You 

must’ve heard the blistering opening salvo

from Paranoid? And surely all you metal 

guitarists out there are familiar with the 

awesome sludge-fest that is Sweet Leaf? If 

not, go to the back of the class and write ‘Nu-

metal has rotted my brain’ 1000 times on the 

blackboard. The rest of you, walk this way… 

Sabbath’s line-up may have changed over 

the last 30-odd years but two things 

have always remained the same: the man 

himself, Tony Iommi, and his ever faithful 

SG. Although he occasionally played 

SG-style guitars from the likes of Patrick 

Eggle, Jaydee and John Birch, Gibson’s 

classic twin cutaway weapon of rock has 

always been his favourite. It’s now as 

much an Iommi trademark as the man’s 

fearsome facial hair and false fi ngertips. 

Tony lost the tips of his middle and ring 

fingers on his right hand in an industrial 

accident in the 1960s. But before you accuse 

us of being sick-ass gore-hounds, there is a 

very good reason why we’re dredging up this 

gruesome nugget of trivia. Put simply, that 

unfortunate injury greatly infl uenced Tony’s 

choice of guitar, his set-up and his unique 

‘dungeons of hell’ tone. 

Tony needed a guitar with a slim neck 

and an easy string tension – it had to be 

comfortable for his digits. Anyone who has 

played a Gibson or Epiphone SG will know 

that the strings are pretty easy to bend; 

even a set of 10s presents little trouble. Tony 

lowered the string tension on his guitars 

even more by fitting an unusual mix of light 

gauge strings (9, 9, 12, 22, 28 and 38) and 

tuning down to C#. Tuning low gives his 

guitar the booming voice that has become 

synonymous with Sabbath songs. Only thing 

was, such a low tuning and light strings 

had to be coupled with a meaty pickup 

to boost the signal to his Laney amp. A 

few years ago Gibson came to the rescue 

with the Tony Iommi humbucker – its fi rst

ever signature pickup. 

Yep, for your £595 you’re getting a kick-

ass SG loaded with two of Tony’s US-made 

Gibson humbuckers. Now that’s what we call 

value for money, and no doubt great news

for Black Sabbath fans on a budget. 

Probably the best Epiphone electric we’ve 

ever tried. The quality of finish is top class 

and the guitar has all the classic elements 

that we’ve come to expect from the SG. 

Underneath that glorious ebony finish – it 

should be called Sabbath Black, of course 

– is a mahogany body: a nice thick slab with 

those iconic devilish contours and sexy 

curves. The neck is glued to the body, as 

it should be, and is also fashioned from 

mahogany. The fingerboard is rosewood with 

funky crucifix inlays and 24 frets. Yes, that’s 

right folks, this is a full two octave SG! Every 

other SG has 22 frets, natch. 

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