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Suede·Social·Issue No. 20
Tone recipes·2026 · JUL
Metal1970

01Black Sabbath

Iron Man

The blueprint for metal rhythm tone. SG with custom-wound humbuckers (Iommi's lighter touch on guitar due to fingertip injuries shaped his right-hand technique) into a Laney Supergroup pushed hard. Riffs use thirds and tritones in a low register, with the amp providing all the saturation — no fuzz pedal needed at this point in Sabbath history. Tone is fat in the low mids, with a slight wool on the top end. Power chords sound massive but not scooped.

02Signal chain

Guitar to amp, 1 pedal between.

  1. In
    Guitar

    Gibson SG Special (tuned C# standard)

  2. 01
    Boosts the front of the Laney into saturation
    Rangemaster Treble Booster (Dallas)

    Volume: noon

  3. Out
    Amp

    Laney Supergroup 100W pushed to breakup

03Field note

The secret sauce

Iommi tunes down a step-and-a-half and uses extra-light strings — he had fingertip injuries from a factory accident. The slinky string tension gives his bends a fluidity that doesn't exist with normal-gauge strings in that tuning.