Tony Iommi firsts: true?

[RacerX]

From another BB:

"Tony Iommi was the first guitarist to approach an amplifier company about having an internal distortion box, was the first to approach a guitar company about making a 24 fret guitar, and the first to put a tremolo system on a Gibson SG (years before Angus young got Gibson to custom make a system for him).
All of Iommi's modifications were done by a man whose name I forget, who incidentally wound up in jail for killing his wife by poisoning her."

True? Discuss points 1,2,3 & 4 and name names.

[charvelguy]

#3, .. the vibrola lyretail and bigsby were already on in the early 60's models.

[Adam]

"internal distortion box?" Do any amp companies currently do this? That to me sounds like an analog distortion circuit placed between the input and the preamp, and wouldn't be the same as regular tube amp distortion at all. Tube guitar amps were capable of distortion the day the very first one rolled off the line, they just needed a signal strong enough to hit the preamp.

Do you think they mean, controllable preamp gain via knob on the amp?

There was a guy who hand-built Iommi's SGs... but I don't remember his name either.

[zeegler]

Maybe he refers to diode clipping.

[442w30]

Three names are associated with Iommi guitars AFAIK:
John Birch (early customs)
John Diggins (Iommi Pickups)
Patrick Eggle (later Custom guitars)
I don't think any of them killed someone, but I oculd be wrong.

[Adam]

John Birch was the name I couldn't bring up. Thanks!

Yeah, maybe they are referring to diode clipping. I didn't think of that - a little early in the morning for me, I think.

[MEX3]

I remember an old interview where Iommi said he asked Gibson to make him some SGs with 24 frets and they said no. So he found some other guy build them and he killed his wife. I know he did go around to string makers and try to get them to make lighter guage strings, but they shot that down at the time too.

[Seventh Avenged]

amps with distortion boxes?

like the Rangemasters in His old Laney amps?

[zeegler]

Tony said in the Metal documentary that he made his own string sets up out of banjo strings.

[charvelguy]

He used a treble boost, so did Brian May. Judas Priest later adopted the same.
Guitars that come to mind having a built in distortion circuit are Cort effectors and Heartfields RR series.

[Chad]

Tony said in the Metal documentary that he made his own string sets up out of banjo strings.

I read an article a few years back that told his exact string gauges, but I can't remember what they were. Anybody have that info handy?

I remember they were extremely light....I'm thinking an 8 for both the high E & B strings...seems like his low E was a 32. If that's correct, imagine those gauges in C# tuning???!!

[zeegler]

I read an article a few years back that told his exact string gauges, but I can't remember what they were. Anybody have that info handy?

I remember they were extremely light....I'm thinking an 8 for both the high E & B strings...seems like his low E was a 32. If that's correct, imagine those gauges in C# tuning???!!

Spaghetti!!!

[MEX3]

8-8-11-16-24-32

[Norton]

how can he play with those strings :S I can't even play with 0.09's.

[toejam]

how can he play with those strings :S I can't even play with 0.09's.

So he can play easier since he cut the tips of his middle and ring fingers off and can't feel the strings. He also made thimbles for the tips of those fingers.