After more than four decades of partnership between Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and Britain's Laney Amps, the heavy metal icon's relationship with his amp-maker is stronger than ever.
Earlier today, Laney announced a new Iommi signature amp, the TI100.
"Born out of an exhaustive period of product development, carried out hand in hand with Tony," said Laney in an official statement, "with Tony bringing unique insight, suggestions and innovations at every stage of the process, whilst continually assessing and refining the sonic character of guitar tone.The result — what we think will be the most significant amp launch of 2012."
To go along with it's sleek looks and ominous red glow, the TI100 packs 100 Watts RMS, a 4 x 6L6 output section, twin channels, footswitchable variable pre boost on each channel, three-band EQ, volume, enhance, and presence into an amp that's clearly designed for Iommi, right down to the iconic crosses cut into the amp head.
"Almost 40 years ago I embarked on my musical journey with Laney," said Iommi. "My first signature Laney amp, the GH100TI came out almost 20 years ago and it served me faithfully on the biggest stages in the world with Black Sabbath as well as recently with Heaven & Hell."
He continued: "'I'm always searching for more out of my tone, more flexibility, more dynamics and that's where my ideas for the new TI100 came from. It took time and dedication to get it right and I'm happy to say I was involved in each step of the amps design, development and testing. The end result is a signature amp that I am extremely proud of and happy to stand in front of anywhere in the world. The TI100 represents everything I've ever wanted in an amp, it's fabulous."
Josh Hart is a former web producer and staff writer for Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado magazines (2010–2012). He has since pursued writing fiction under various pseudonyms while exploring the technical underpinnings of journalism, now serving as a senior software engineer for The Seattle Times.
