The guitar world has changed dramatically since Tony Iommi first picked up the electric guitar.
Perhaps one of the most impactful changes is the rising popularity of amp modelers, and now the Godfather of heavy metal – who has cranked Laney tube amps for the majority of his near-60-year career – has offered his thoughts on such technological advancements.
The guitarist has been getting creative as of late. As well as announcing he was working on an orchestra-laced album last year, Iommi recently released a new track, Deified, alongside a signature men's fragrance. As it turns out, his Kemper Profiler has been his amp-of-choice for this latest batch of recordings.
“These latest songs were done in my studio,” he says in the new issue of Guitar World. “I either used my Jaydee guitar or my main Gibson SG, possibly both. The guitars were going through my Kemper Profiler.”
While he says some tracks may be a mixture of Kemper and Laney tube amps, he’s been bowled over by the former’s quality.
“I have to say, I really like the Kemper. It was my producer Mike Exeter who introduced me to it a while back, and I was very impressed,” he continues. “Especially because you didn’t need to have all the speakers mic’d up; you could sit with it next to you in the control room.
“Mike sampled my Laney tone, and then we improved on that a little bit. I’ve found it to be very useful. And the sound quality is incredible; it can actually be quite hard to tell the difference between the Kemper and a real amp.
“Of course, I do like being in a room with a head and cabinet, just to get that bounce back from the speakers. But as far as new gear goes, the Kemper has been working very well for me in the studio.”
Kemper released its latest amp profiling tech early last year and has since dropped a real-estate saving floor modeler as it continues to rival the likes of Line 6 and Neural DSP.
Over the years, a growing number of A-list guitarists have been won over by the modeling world. The Edge, Jim Root, and the Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett are chief among them, while Animals As Leaders’ Tosin Abasi has, surprisingly, gone the other way.
Root had admitted it felt “sacrilegious” to make the jump to modelers, having been staunchly against them previously, while Shiflett said “it feels like total blasphemy”.
Iommi, on the other hand, isn't especially concerned about any negative connotations that such a switch can carry. However, he made no mention of his Kemper ever escaping the studio, meaning he’ll most likely continue to play real deal tube amps live.
Iommi also says “there’s definitely something coming” regarding his work-in-progress solo album, but admits he has no idea about its timeframe. He did confirm, though, that his recent singles Deified and Scent of the Dark will not feature on the record.
“Those are separate things for me,” he reveals. “The tracks I’m working on right now are a mixture of styles from acoustic to heavy stuff. There’s a variety. I’ve recorded quite a few ideas. A lot of them have been done; I’m just taking my time with it.”
To hear more from Iommi, pick up the latest issue of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.
