1985
Tony Iommi and his Signature Strings
Looking for options, La Bella became a custom shop for Tony Iommi to find new ways to string his guitars with the manufacturing and experience to pull it off.
When Tony Iommi was just starting out as a professional guitarist, he was working in a manufacturing factory when, at 17, he lost the tips of the middle and index fingers on his right hand in an accident. As a left-hander, this is, of course, his fretting hand! Many doctors and specialists told him he would never play guitar again.
A truly dedicated individual who wouldn’t give up, Tony vowed to relearn and reapproach the guitar against all advice. Along with the many alterations required to the guitars themselves to enable Tony to play, the string choice had to be precise and accessible.
Together, we crafted a special light-gauge guitar set engineered around his unique playing style—strings that would help unlock the guitarist’s power, precision, and unmistakable voice.
Reinforced steel wraps around the ball end further allowed Tony to play completely uninhibited, giving him the confidence to push lighter-gauge strings to their limits without fear of breakage, and knowing La Bella could deliver a consistent product tailored to his needs.
When Tony Iommi came to La Bella seeking to refine the unconventional approach he had developed by adapting banjo strings for his guitar, we were there to help take that idea to the next level.
Richard Cocco - CEO La Bella Strings
We were there in 1985 when Black Sabbath reunited for the first time since 1978 for the Live Aid charity concert. They performed a highly memorable, energetic three-song set in front of roughly 100,000 fans in the stadium and a massive global television audience. Tony Iommi didn’t simply play heavy guitar—he helped invent the language of heavy metal. Forged through adversity after a teenage industrial accident permanently altered his fingertips, Iommi developed a distinctive playing style built around down-tuned riffs, blues-infused phrasing, and a powerful, unmistakably dark tone.