In general, acoustic guitar strings are thicker and produce a warmer and fuller sound while electric guitar strings are thinner and produce less volume and a brighter and lighter sound.

The electric guitar, unlike the acoustic, relies on vibration that is picked up directly from your guitar string passing over the magnet, A “light” acoustic string is known to be equal to the “medium” of the acoustic-electric strings.

It had what you’d typically expect in terms of gauges out of an acoustic guitar, so a lot heavier strings overall. The truth is, electric guitar strings will work just fine on an acoustic. There’s no reason that nickel guitar strings are any better or worse than 80/20 bronze or phosphor bronze.

Most acoustic guitars will come standard with 12 gauge strings. While 12’s are a great choice, you always have the option to go with a heavier string like 13’s or a lighter string such as 11’s.

For his electric guitars, Eric Clapton uses Ernie Ball . 10 to . 46 gauge strings.

According to Dunlop’s website, Iommi uses Dunlop Tortex 0.88 mm picks.

Drop C# (The Iommi tuning) Iommi loved to play guitar, you see. Then one day, when he was still at the tender age of 17, he lost the tips of his right-hand middle and ring fingers. Since this was his fret hand, he was devastated. But he didn’t give up.

After attempting to learn to play right-handed, Tony 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 down-tuned his strings to ease playing and bending.

Doesn’t harm the neck. It does wonders for the sound and feel for fingerstyle. The bad news is the effects don’t last for very long. Yup – Use sparingly – I especially like it on those days when my fingers are dry and need a little tlc before I start up the practice session.

First, he started down-tuning his guitar, to D# and C# standard. This lowered the tension against his fingers, making it easier for him to play for longer periods of time. Iommi and the rest of Black Sabbath found out that these lower tunings also made the music sound heavier, and an entire genre of music was born.

To get that signature vintage heavy metal sound, you’ll need to invest in a good solid valve amp with plenty of wattage. Iommi was known to use a 50-watt Marshall plexi before his Sabbath days and during the writing process for the first album.

Laney LA100 BL amps

The Tony Iommi Live Guitar Rig

• 1) The speakers. The main stage sound comes from eight Laney straight fronted 4 x 12″ speaker cabinets.
• 2) The amplification. Each of the 4 x 12″ cabs is driven by one of eight Laney GH 100 TI amplifiers.
• 3) The signal routing and control.

SG guitars

Legendary Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi originally learned to play guitar left handed but faced an even bigger challenge when, at the age of 17, he lost the tips of two fingers on his right hand.

Iommi uses Laney amps these days, I believe, and used a mix of Marshalls during the Sabbath glory days. He also was one of the many musicians to make famous the Dallas boost (treble booster).