Tony Iommi

xtremehardy388

Is anyone else impressed with this guy? He's got such a great tone and an amazing ability. Does anyone know his influences?

Brisk.

fuck yeh to his tone

I totally love sabbath 1970-79

aweesome Listening to BS now

MLC2006

xtremehardy388 wrote:

Does anyone know his influences?

do you mean, the artists that influenced him? well, I know Sabbath got started covering blues songs and British invasion songs like Beatles songs, etc. but insofar as creating heavy metal the way he did, I'd say drugs, alcohol, and depression were the biggest influences.

I'm sure you knew this already, but he is missing 3 fingertips from the knuckles to the tips on his frethand due to a machinery accident before Sabbath released their first album. he invented some kind of tips out of leather that he wears over his finger/nubs. he said that is the biggest reason that powerchords are such a huge part of Sabbath's music. pretty impressive that he can play so well with parts of 3 fret fingers missing.

Anon

xtremehardy388 wrote:

Is anyone else impressed with this guy? He's got such a great tone and an amazing ability. Does anyone know his influences?

He sure is impressive. You've got to be impressed with anyone that plays that good with 3 fingertips missing from his fret hand. Very talented.

His main influence was Hank Marvin from Cliff Richard and the Shadows, that's what got him into playing and later on he got into blues and jazz and was a big fan of Django Reinhardt. He also has said he was a fan of Clapton when he was with John Mayall.

xtremehardy388

Wow. I knew about the accident but I just thought it was the tips, not down to the knuckle. I'm diggin' the influences. I didn't know they covered Beatles and blues stuff.

lucylespian

Yeah, the downtuning and the sludgy riffs are largely a result of his finger injury.

BetterManningNYG

MLC2006 wrote:

but insofar as creating heavy metal the way he did, I'd say drugs, alcohol, and depression were the biggest influences.

geezer butler was really interested in the occult (possibly for the reasons you mentioned), and he convinced the band to go darker and heavier with their sound.

tony iommi might be my favorite guitarist. if not, he's definitely in the top three. he proved that you don't have to play fast to play heavy, and that's something that a lot of guitarists just don't get.

i'm still waiting for that new sabbath album... any day now...

xtremehardy388

BetterManningNYG wrote:

tony iommi might be my favorite guitarist. if not, he's definitely in the top three. he proved that you don't have to play fast to play heavy, and that's something that a lot of guitarists just don't get.

Oh how true. His solos were amazing!!! He's still got it too, I saw a vid of him, Ozzy, and (of all people) Phil Collins playing Paranoid at some festival in England. It was spectacular!

ianvomsaal

He didn't really lose that much off his fingers - he basically lost the nail portion off each finger.
And it was only 2-fingers (middle and ring fingers).
Here's a picture of Tony with his daughter - you can see his right hand on her shoulder fairly well.
click here: TONI IOMMI
Here's a version of what happened click here: Just scroll down to early history . . . Or here you go:
"In an industrial accident at the age of 18 on his last day of work in a sheet metal factory, he lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers of his right hand. Being left-handed, he used his right hand to fret the strings of a guitar. He initially thought that his days of playing guitar were over, but his boss (who knew of his "night job" as a pub band guitar player) paid him a visit during his recovery and encouraged him to reconsider by playing a Django Reinhardt record, because Reinhardt lost mobility in the third and fourth fingers of his fretting hand in a fire. After attempting to learn to play right-handed, Iommi strung his guitars with extra-light strings (using banjo strings, which were a lighter gauge than even the lightest guitar-strings of the time) and wore plastic covers over the two damaged fingers. He fashioned the latter himself, by melting washing-up liquid bottles into a ball and then using a soldering iron to make holes into this ball, putting his fingers in whilst the plastic was still soft enough to be shaped. He then trimmed and sanded away the excess plastic to leave himself with two thimbles, which he then covered with leather, to provide better grip on the strings. Subsequent tips have been custom-made.

All Those Yesterdays

Tony Iommi is fantastic. May I suggest checking out Tim Sult of Clutch. He is totally influenced by Tony Iommi. And Tim's tone is just over the top fantastic. This might be the best tone I've heard in a long long time. Rocking the orange heads or the JTM-45's. Good Fuzzs too. Great riffs.

xtremehardy388

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

Tony Iommi is fantastic. May I suggest checking out Tim Sult of Clutch. He is totally influenced by Tony Iommi. And Tim's tone is just over the top fantastic. This might be the best tone I've heard in a long long time. Rocking the orange heads or the JTM-45's. Good Fuzzs too. Great riffs.

I will check him out!

All Those Yesterdays

xtremehardy388 wrote:

I will check him out!

Robot Hives Exodus, Blast Tyrant, Elephant Riders is very riff oriented. But a little more blueish.

scot88

ianvomsaal wrote:

He didn't really lose that much off his fingers - he basically lost the nail portion off each finger.
And it was only 2-fingers (middle and ring fingers).
Here's a picture of Tony with his daughter - you can see his right hand on her shoulder fairly well.
click here: TONI IOMMI
Here's a version of what happened click here: Just scroll down to early history . . . Or here you go:
"In an industrial accident at the age of 18 on his last day of work in a sheet metal factory, he lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers of his right hand. Being left-handed, he used his right hand to fret the strings of a guitar. He initially thought that his days of playing guitar were over, but his boss (who knew of his "night job" as a pub band guitar player) paid him a visit during his recovery and encouraged him to reconsider by playing a Django Reinhardt record, because Reinhardt lost mobility in the third and fourth fingers of his fretting hand in a fire. After attempting to learn to play right-handed, Iommi strung his guitars with extra-light strings (using banjo strings, which were a lighter gauge than even the lightest guitar-strings of the time) and wore plastic covers over the two damaged fingers. He fashioned the latter himself, by melting washing-up liquid bottles into a ball and then using a soldering iron to make holes into this ball, putting his fingers in whilst the plastic was still soft enough to be shaped. He then trimmed and sanded away the excess plastic to leave himself with two thimbles, which he then covered with leather, to provide better grip on the strings. Subsequent tips have been custom-made.

toni iommi is in that picture? i was too distracted by his daughter