Man, Ephiphone is making some nice guitars.

Tony Iommi and Angus Young are probably the two main reasons I grew up loving SG's. I already loved Black Sabbath, and then I found out about his fingers. Amazing. I agree with you, John, there is no way to say enough great stuff about Tony Iommi. This guitar is beautiful. I don't think there is a single thing I don't like about it.

Your playing alone completely promoted that guitar no joke. The music just flowed right out of you.

I have the Gibson version, it’s a beast of a guitar! The neck is even bigger than that one (.89-.10) and a drop bigger than my R8 LP. It’s cool Epi is making a more affordable version, pretty good bang for the buck.

Very nice guitar! I have a similar Sg, a 2015 Epiphone G400 pro and its a very nice guitar. The Tony Iommi model is a nice guitar to have, its an awesome guitar with a reasonable price. Thanks for showcasing this guitar!

I have the previous edition of Tony's Epiphone guitar. Jet black, chrome hardware, crosses on the frets, and Tony Iommi signature humbuckers made by Gibson. Love it!

great review, thanks. i'm definitely in the market for this, now that the price dropped. i've never played a "chunkier" neck like that, i'm just wondering if it will be too big for my smaller hands. i have an ESP EC-1000 now and love it. i just want the p-90 and the fact that this is an iommi, even better.

I have the Gibson version and the first thing I did was rip those weak P90s out and replace them with Bare Knuckle Pig90s at 20k bridge and 16k neck reversed wound. Sounds close to Tony’s with his custom p90s. I’m looking for a Schaller 456 Bridge to bring it home.

I have one and it is a great guitar! Great playing and awesome breakdown of the guitar! But if you’re doing an Iommi guitar, you should’ve really thrown some Sabbath riffs in there.🤘🏻

I believe he went back and forth from the wrapover bridge to a tuneomatic and back to wrapover. Makes sense as a special originally has a wrapover bridge. Also, this is not a small pickguard per se, it is the pickguard of a special that is one piece with the necktenon cover, but because he used pickup rings, it got cut in two, leaving a separate piece for the neck tenon and another piece for the guard.

The man, the legend, the Godfather of Metal! Yes! You guys killed it again!

great playing, love your reviews!

Because of Tony’s physical situation, he tried to make the guitar playable as possible. Lighter gauge banjo strings, thinner neck, clear lacquer fretboard and a one piece bridge that could be intonated accurately. One piece bridge helps palm muffle the strings more economically, which is a big part of Tony sound also he did not use P90’s …he used hotwired humbuckets that were custom-made. If I got this Guitar and probably will the only thing I’ll change is the pick ups to nail down his older and newer sounds at the same time… Tony is the godfather of heavy metal guitar, they should write a movie about this guy. He overcame so much after such a tragedy, thanks for teaching me how to play heavy metal guitar tony, it’s been an inspirational experience in my life anyway, keep on rockin

Just got one. I have two Gibson sg’s so this is the first Epi I have ever owned. My Sg’s have really thick necks so I’m pretty excited about this one.

I ONLY buy my gear from zzounds for years. I just got my Epi Special p90 the other day! Keep up the great reviews!

Super late but Iommi didn’t simply put nickel covers on his p90s they were a John birch pickup and the stock p90 rewound by John birch

Excellent review and playing. Sounds Great.

Great video as usual, used your link for a 50's Standard, very happy. Will continue to do so.

I have one of these guitars i was wondering what is the difference between the pickups in this guitar and the gibson version .

I always enjoy the reviews, stay for the playing!

One big issue is that the monkey sticker they include is for the left handed one. The monkeys violin should be pointing towards the strap button

I have an Epiphone ES335, that i bought with a hard case. 700 euro. Tony special profile neck, p 90s and so on, are all special production and throw things a bit off at the assembly line. Time is money. Price tag for the Toni...spot on. Question. I've never had a wrap around bridge. Id run 11s on it. Will i have any tuning issues?

Love the fact that this has a real neck, not that slim taper popsicle stick every other SG has. Only thing that bothers me is I wish it had the bat wing pickguard and not those pick up rings.

Blue Cheer started heavy metal.

IMHO it's overpriced....it should have Gibson pups at this price point. Beautiful guitar and nice review as always !!!

The tone of them P90s screams Robbie Krieger , another Sg player

Actually Tony Iommi did not chrome out the p90’s himself! Actually a man named John Diggins (Eventually “Jaydee”) would come up to him after a gig and ask him (Tony Iommi) to help make the guitar sound better (I could be mistaken). Tony Iommi later admitted in an interview with Gibson that he just let John take the guitar without thinking twice of whether he would have stolen the guitar from him. John Diggins would then configure and develop pickups of his own with a custom magnetic array called “Simplux”. “Simplux by John Diggins” with 12 magnets on one to increase the sustain or tone. John Diggins would then contact Tony Iommi and actually give the guitar back with modified pickups, a lower string tension (To make pressing on the fretboard easier with the thimblets. This would cause some problems however, as the guitar would frequently detune and is evident as if you listen to the 1970’s shows, recordings of Black Sabbath in the earlier days you can silently hear him tuning his guitar or checking the tuning after each song. Tony Iommi would then experiment with various bridges to prevent this problem, however it would work at slight success.) The wrap around bridge is called the “Lee Quan” Bridge.

SG are the best looking rock guitar for me, I have one G 400 EPI whith Seymour Ducan pick ups ( Pearly gate in bridge position), but they are unbalanced, thin, and not very good in clear sound, my Strats are far better, you can play any music whith them.

Epiphone likes jipp. Putting knockoff Schaller tuners on that guitar

SWEET!!

It was his fretting hand that was injured

I sometimes kick myself for buying the Gibson. I am on my third one and hoping this is a good one with out defects. I have never gotten a bad Epiphone. I hope I did not miss it but I am hoping for a review on the Gibson. Also your Epiphone is lighter in weight.

Shame about the pup's... Should've had wax-potted overwound stacked P-90s instead of the standard Epiphone ones

Imagine being the bloke that swapped his lefthanded SG - I wonder what became of him?

include monkey sticker ❓

Randy Rhoads #36 while Eddie Van Halen was at #8? Yeah right. Also, no Steve Vai, Joe Satriani or Yngwie Malmsteen on that Rolling Stone top 100?? This tells me that this is a completely biased list.

Thank you for this review! I would have loved to won that guitar that's a sweet guitar (the Gibson)... I am so angry at Epiphone! Bc I was so happy when I heard they were coming out with this guitar I'm a lefty and would have loved to have bought it you know I don't have a lot of money everything sounded perfect but that neck is god-awful! That cannot be historically accurate, because his was a 64 and those were "the thinnest neck guitars" advertised it that time. I mean seriously, who would buy a 1960s style SG and want a thick neck? Gibson makes so many other guitars with thick necks why did they have to ruin this one!?

Tony Iommi *IS* left handed

rolling stone sucks

Man, this is a signature of a god and it looks lame. I'm bummed about this one, the one with crosses for inlays was sick.

That fretboard looks awful