The Tony Iommi Signature Guitar Strings from LaBella Are WILD!

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Have you seen these? LaBella Guitar Strings just released a signature set with guitar legend Tony Iommi, the man responsible for heavy metal. (Fight me on that!)

I’m a massive Tony Iommi fan and the first 8 Black Sabbath albums are some of my favorite albums of all time. Him and Kurt Cobain are the reasons I ever picked up a guitar.

But I had no idea he used such light guitar strings. I remember hearing — or maybe I just made this up — that he used 9s even when he tuned down to C# standard (1.5 steps down, 3 semi-tones).

But 8s?!

And not just 8s, but a crazy pack of 8s with the 1st and 2nd strings both 8s and the 6th string a measly 32?

Now, to be clear, Black Sabbath does have quite a few songs in standard tuning (especially on their first two albums) and apparently that’s what these signature strings are for.

I’m not a “heavy string” snob or anything. I used to use 10-52s (skinny top, heavy bottom) but as I’ve gotten older and my hands (or nerves) have become decrepit I mostly use 9s. But these 8-32s are still just boggling my mind.

Yes, I know Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top uses 7s, but his seem more reasonable since he does not tune down drastically like Tony Iommi and the 6th string on Billy’s set is a 38.

In any case, I want to try a pack of the Iommi Signature strings but they’re currently sold out on Amazon. If you’re able to try them before me let me know what you think.

I’m hoping we also get to review the Epiphone (or Gibson) Tony Iommi Signature SG Special guitar here eventually, and I think I’ll have to set it up with a pack of the signature strings. Or I might install them on the Epiphone SG Special I Limited Edition. I can only imagine it’s going to be floppy, but fun!