Gibson teams up with Tony Iommi for new signature SG Special

In the earliest days of 2020, Gibson announced an ultra-limited edition, Custom Shop run of Tony Iommi "Monkey" 1964 SG Special electric guitars.

Given the nature of its construction – the guitars were painstaking, hand-built recreations, down to the very last detail, of the Black Sabbath rifflord's own, heavily modified SG Special – the street price of the Custom Shop "Monkey" SG was, unsurprisingly, about that of a well-taken-care-of used car.

Now, Gibson has created a new, lower-cost version of the signature guitar for its Artist Collection.

The Iommi signature SG Special boasts a mahogany body and neck with a period-correct rounded profile and a bound Indian rosewood fingerboard boasting acrylic dot inlays and 22 medium-jumbo frets. 

A pair of wax-potted P-90s take the place of the Custom Shop version's hand-wound pickups, but the same three-way switch and two pairs of Volume and Tone knobs – all hand-wired with Orange Drop capacitors – remain.

Other differences from the Custom Shop version include the non-aged finish, the USA-built SG Special's Grover Rotomatic tuners with contemporary-style buttons (instead of the Schaller M6s on the Custom model), and the lack of routing holes below the bridge.

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Further differences come in the form of the SG Special's multi-ply vintage pickguard, which stands apart from the original's wide-bevel pickguard, and the optional "Monkey" sticker, which came attached to the Custom Shop guitar.

The Gibson Tony Iommi SG Special is available now – in an unmistakable Vintage Cherry finish and in both right- and left-hand versions – for $2,399.

For more info on the guitar, stop by Gibson.