Fender Stratocasters
Tony's First Left-handed Guitar
Tony Iommi: In the very early days of the band, I was into playing a
battered Fender Stratocaster. The Strat was the hot guitar in England at the
time, so playing one was very much a status thing. I know that people like Jimi
Hendrix had played one, and I think that made everyone think of them as being
"in". I did own an SG at that time too, but it was little more than a backup
guitar for me in case my Strat broke down. Then, right in the middle of
recording our first record, one of my pickups stopped working. Back then, fixing
a guitar pickup wasn't as easy as it is today and it was real work to change
them. We only had two days in the studio to finish the entire record, so there
was no time to waste. It was at that moment that I switched over to the SG, and
I never played the Stratocaster again (from Hit Parader Magazine, July 1993)
Mike Clement: Tony's original Strat was white. It was originally a
sunburst finish but Tony and his Dad spray painted it! It can be seen in the
picture here and also in the film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, made
in 1968. For a brief period Tony played guitar in Jethro Tull and they are
featured playing a song, nice hat Tone! He stopped using it when a pick-up went
during the recording of the ‘Black Sabbath’ album. It was used on the track
Wicked World. At that time you couldn’t buy pick-ups. Eventually he swapped it
for a saxophone!
One of the current two Strats is off-white, note the Tony Iommi Signature
pick-up in the bridge position. The other is an American Deluxe model in a
sunburst finish.
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