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tjon901 « Budget Iommi signature with great pickups »
Published on 06/02/11 at 09:44The Iommi G-400 is the budget version of the Gibson Tony Iommi signature. The Gibson Iommi model costs over 5000 dollars when this one costs around 500. The guitar is based off the Epiphone G-400 with some upgrades. The Epiphone G-400 is a budget priced version of the Gibson SG produced in Asia by Epiphone. The design is based off the early 60s version of the Gibson SG with the small batwing style pickguard. The G-400 has been produced for over 20 years and has been a standout of the Epiphone line. The G-400 comes with Grover tuners on the headstock of a 24 fret neck with a rosewood fretboard. The normal G-400 only has a 22 fret neck. The fretboard is bound with rosewood instead of plastic and has five mother of pearl cross inlays. It has a mahogany body and mounted to the body are the Signature Tony Iommi Pickups. These pickups cost about 200 dollars each so it is great that they included these with the guitar.
UTILIZATION
With the dual cutaways of the SG design the upper frets are very easy to reach. It has the Gibson 60s profile neck which is the preferred profile for guitar players. In the 50s Gibson necks were very large and referred to as baseball bat necks. In the 60s Gibson switched to a slimmer neck design. This slimmer design is what the G-400 has. One problem SG's is that the neck is mounted far out on the body and with the body being thinner than a Les Paul the guitar is slightly neck heavy. When you are standing up and playing the neck may want to drop down and you may find yourself holding the neck up. The Iommi model tries to fix this with a different strap placement. The new strap placement helps but the problem is still there. The cross inlays dont go all the way up the neck of the guitar they stop at the 12th fret. The neck has some kind of dye on it that will get on your fingers the first few times you play it.
SOUNDS
Since Tony Iommi is known for his down tuning the pickups have a lot of high end bite. Tony Iommi use to use single coils in his old SG's to have the high end bite and clarity he needed for his low tunings. These pickups replicate that sound. With the mahogany body you get a full sound and since it is slightly thinner than a Les Paul you get more high end bite on your sound. The pickups are hotter than you would normally get in a guitar like this stock so it does even better with heavy tones.
OVERALL OPINION
With the Gibson Iommi Signature model costing more than 5k I am glad Epiphone has their own version to sell to normal people. It still comes with the same pickups as the Gibson model so the tone will essentially be the same. Iommis name is only on the truss rod cover and that can be removed if you dont want someone elses name on your guitar. A great this is that if you dont like the pickups you can sell them. And being about 200 dollars each you will get back most of what you spent on the guitar.
UTILIZATION
With the dual cutaways of the SG design the upper frets are very easy to reach. It has the Gibson 60s profile neck which is the preferred profile for guitar players. In the 50s Gibson necks were very large and referred to as baseball bat necks. In the 60s Gibson switched to a slimmer neck design. This slimmer design is what the G-400 has. One problem SG's is that the neck is mounted far out on the body and with the body being thinner than a Les Paul the guitar is slightly neck heavy. When you are standing up and playing the neck may want to drop down and you may find yourself holding the neck up. The Iommi model tries to fix this with a different strap placement. The new strap placement helps but the problem is still there. The cross inlays dont go all the way up the neck of the guitar they stop at the 12th fret. The neck has some kind of dye on it that will get on your fingers the first few times you play it.
SOUNDS
Since Tony Iommi is known for his down tuning the pickups have a lot of high end bite. Tony Iommi use to use single coils in his old SG's to have the high end bite and clarity he needed for his low tunings. These pickups replicate that sound. With the mahogany body you get a full sound and since it is slightly thinner than a Les Paul you get more high end bite on your sound. The pickups are hotter than you would normally get in a guitar like this stock so it does even better with heavy tones.
OVERALL OPINION
With the Gibson Iommi Signature model costing more than 5k I am glad Epiphone has their own version to sell to normal people. It still comes with the same pickups as the Gibson model so the tone will essentially be the same. Iommis name is only on the truss rod cover and that can be removed if you dont want someone elses name on your guitar. A great this is that if you dont like the pickups you can sell them. And being about 200 dollars each you will get back most of what you spent on the guitar.