This is one of my most prized and dearest memorabilia items , A Jaydee replica of Tony Iommi’s original Gibson SG 1965 special guitar also known as the ‘Monkey’ guitar ,signed by both Iommi himself and John Diggins , it literally took me years of research to get all the details and countless modifications and experimentation that the original have went through , the guitar was built by Jaydee custom guitars and John Diggins ( legendary lutheir and the man who builds most of Iommi’s custom SG guitars) , without further a due , here are some close ups and a brief history of this historical guitar :

Described by ‘Hard Rock’ organization as the single most important piece of music history through out their humongous dazzling collection of memorabilia , this historic beautiful cherry red Gibson SG was bought by Tony Iommi sometime around 1966-1967 , Tony Iommi was originally using a white fender strat professionally as viewed on his very short stunt with Jethro Tull on the rolling stone film ‘The Rock N Roll circus’ , during the recording sessions of Black Sabbath’s debut album and after tracking ‘Wicked World’ , the bridge pickup failed and since it was really difficult to get any guitar treatment at time,Tony Iommi used this spare Gibson SG 1965 special guitar to finish up recording the rest of the album and ever since became his main instrument on the majority of Sabbath’s early albums and tours.

The guitar was used on the Black Sabbath albums ‘Black Sabbath’ , ‘Paranoid’ ,’Master Of Reality’,’Vol.4’ and ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ , it can easily be seen on all early 70’s Sabbath videos specifically on Sabbath’s memorable show at ‘California Jam’ 1974.The guitar which was nicked ‘The Monkey’ guitar due to the distinctive and instantly recognizable monkey guitar sticker on front of the guitar.It was heavily modified by legendary guitar lutheir John Birch , he replaced the neck positioned pickup with a Simplux ( a P90 like single coil pickup) and custom wounded the pick up at the bridge position as well.The guitar was donated by Tony Iommi to ‘Hard Rock Café’ organization as seen on ‘Hard Rock Treasures’ DVD ,its currently displayed at New York Times Square Hard Rock.