Tony has used La Bella strings since 1990. La Bella is the trade mark of E&O Mari, a family run company based in Newburgh, New York state. People may be surprised to know that they are one of the few string companies that actually do make strings! This means that when we make requests regarding the actual string construction, e.g. extra reinforcement at the ball end of some of Tony’s very light gauges, we know that we will be accommodated.
Here are Tony’s string gauges on the live guitars:-
For the D# tuning,
.008p, .008p, .011p, .018w, .024w, .032w.
For the C# tuning,
.009p, .010p, .012p, .020w, .032w, .042w.
Are any special steps taken during fabrication of Tony’s guitars, or when Mike Clement sets them up, to prevent this light gauge/droptune combo from easily going out of tune?
I have been using the same string gauges as Tony since 2006. It takes a while to adjust your touch to not pull them out of tune. I played 20 years with 9’s and 10’s but when my hands started hurting all the time I switched. Using an SG standard I raised the action just about a 32nd of an inch since the small strings vibrate more than higher tension ones. Also now use a .50 light gauge pick. If you can make the switch all the tunes sound closer than with heavy Zackk Wylde style gauges.
Looking for SG Gibson not too expensive and not in too bad a shape with a good fret neck like Tony Iommi but I know I can’t spend that kind of money