Does the choice of gear alone determine a player’s tone? Tony Iommi gives his two cents on the highly debated topic, and, well, according to the Black Sabbath legend, it all – or largely – comes down to the player.
His proof of concept? Brian May, who once wrote and performed a solo on the 1989 Sabbath track, When Death Calls.
“I remember years ago when Brian May jumped with us a long, long time ago, and he plugged into a… I think we might have been in the studio, and he got the same sound,” he says in conversation with long-time friend and collaborator, Laney Amplification founder Lyndon Laney, who recently passed away.
“It’s way he played, and it wasn't his gear. It wasn't his guitar. He used a Gibson. I had a white standard Gibson that he played, and it sounded very similar.”
Lyndon goes on to comment, “It's not just the amplifier – it's everything. It's the lead, the guitar, the amplifier, the speaker, the position, yeah, the sweet spot you've got. And most of all, it's the technique and talent.”
Many guitarists have weighed in on the debate over the years. Nuno Bettencourt previously recalled the time he used Eddie Van Halen’s rig, only to realize that, “It’s all about your fingers,” while John Petrucci had the same epiphany when he tried Joe Satriani’s rig.
Steve Lukather once simply summed it up as, “There’s no magic guitar, no magic amp, there’s just magic people.”
In more recent news, Iommi revealed why he shunned the heavy metal tag during the band's early days.
