Nail the ToneBlack Sabbath

War Pigs

Black Sabbath · Paranoid · 1970

The main riff is one SG Special on the bridge P-90 into a modified Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster and a dimed 100-watt Laney Supergroup — no distortion pedal, just power tube breakup. The trick is counterintuitive: bass all the way off, mids and treble maxed, and the booster doing the dirt, which is what gives the riff its midrange honk instead of a modern low-end thud. Use light strings and a medium pick, and tune up slightly to match the record's sharp pitch.

Where these numbers come from: the player said these settings themselves

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Fretted in standard E, but the record sits noticeably sharp of A=440 (players report roughly A=444-446), so tune up a few cents to the track rather than to a 440 tuner.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • 1965 Gibson SG Special "Monkey" · Gibson P-90 · bridge pickup

Amp

Laney Supergroup LA100BL (MK1) 100W head, Laney 4x12

GAIN
10.0
BASS
0.0
MID
10.0
TREBLE
10.0
PRESENCE
10.0

Guitar World reports Iommi plugged into a bass input, dimed Gain 1 and set presence, middle and treble to 10 with bass at 0; Iommi himself has said only that he used the SG through "either a Laney or Marshall cabinet," and some fans argue Marshall heads on parts of Paranoid.

Pedals

  • Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster (modified) · treble booster · Boost near max; it cuts bass and slams the front end — most of the riff's honk comes from here

Tone character

forward mids · hollow boxy honk · treble-boosted crunch · no amp bass · dry and tight

easy

Low-string power chords and octave shapes with a swung, syncopated rhythm — the challenge is locking the stops and pickup-hand timing, not the fingering.

Want this on your own amp?

These are the record's settings. Tell us what you play through and we'll translate every knob to the amp you actually own — free.

Adapt it to my gear

Sources