Into the Void
Downtuned, crawling riff with a bright, treble-boosted snarl.
What is the Into the Void guitar tone?
The Into the Void guitar tone is downtuned, crawling riff with a bright, treble-boosted snarl, heard on Black Sabbath's 1970s heavy metal recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and Black Sabbath reportedly tracked it with Tony Iommi's 1965 Gibson SG Special, "Monkey", his main guitar since the first Black Sabbath album, tuned down a step and a half to cut the string tension and make it less painful for him to play, through a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster into 100-watt Laney Supergroup heads, his main amps from 1968 to 1979, on Master of Reality in 1971. The bite in this kind of heavy metal comes from a boost or drive pedal pushing a loud amp, so the tone is thick but never smooth, with the mids left in.
You do not need that exact gear to land in the same place. What carries this sound is the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup choice and the order of the effects, and all four can be rebuilt on equipment that costs a fraction of the original. The numbers change from amp to amp, because a high-gain head and a small practice amp reach the same voicing from different knob positions. That translation is what Tonelify works out for the rig you actually own.
Into the Void amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 7, Bass 6, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 1, with the neck (rhythm) pickup for the chords, per a 1974 interview.
- Gain 7
- Bass 6
- Middle 6
- Treble 6
- Presence 5
- Reverb 1
- Signal chain
- Treble booster (Rangemaster style) → Cranked amp
- The control that matters most
- The tuning. Iommi tuned down a step and a half on this song for what he called a bigger, heavier sound, so the weight comes from the strings rather than the bass knob. A 1974 interview has him running his amp with no bass at all.
These positions are free and they are a starting point. A Katana, a Spark and a valve head reach this voicing from different knob positions, so Tonelify rewrites every value above for the amp and guitar you own. Your first match is free with an account, and needs no card.
Adapt these to my amp- Pickup
- Neck (rhythm) pickup for the chords, per a 1974 interview
These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. If you tell Tonelify which amp you own, it rewrites every value above for the controls that amp actually has.
Published settings
What amp settings did Tony Iommi use?
Volume, presence, middle and treble on 10 and no bass at all, with the guitar's volume on full, the toggle in the rhythm position for chords and in the treble position for solos. That is how a 1974 Guitar Player interview describes his Laney, and it says he used the same settings in the studio through one 100-watt Laney stack. The article explains the wide-open amp as a way round the different grounding in American venues, which left his Laneys performing below par. The interview came three years after Master of Reality, so read these as his settings of that era rather than a note from the session.
Source: Guitar Player: Tony Iommi's 1974 interview on the SG and Laney amps
What gear did Black Sabbath use on Into the Void?
Tony Iommi's 1965 Gibson SG Special, "Monkey", his main guitar since the first Black Sabbath album, tuned down a step and a half to cut the string tension and make it less painful for him to play, through a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster into 100-watt Laney Supergroup heads, his main amps from 1968 to 1979, on Master of Reality in 1971.
Sources: Wikipedia: Master of Reality, Wikipedia: Tony Iommi, Guitar World: Tonal Recall, Guitar Player: Tony Iommi's 1974 interview on the SG and Laney amps
Tonelify reads that chain and translates it to the amp and guitar you already own, returning gain, bass, mids, treble and presence values along with a pickup position.
How do you get the Into the Void tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of Into the Void
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Into the Void tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Into the Void?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 7, Bass 6, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 1, with the neck (rhythm) pickup for the chords, per a 1974 interview. These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. Tonelify rewrites the same values for the specific amp and guitar you own, because a high-gain head and a small solid-state combo reach the same downtuned, crawling riff with a bright, treble-boosted snarl from different positions.
What is the most important control for the Into the Void tone?
The tuning. Iommi tuned down a step and a half on this song for what he called a bigger, heavier sound, so the weight comes from the strings rather than the bass knob. A 1974 interview has him running his amp with no bass at all.
Can you get the Into the Void tone without the original gear?
Yes. The original was tracked with Tony Iommi's 1965 Gibson SG Special, "Monkey", his main guitar since the first Black Sabbath album, tuned down a step and a half to cut the string tension and make it less painful for him to play, through a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster into 100-watt Laney Supergroup heads, his main amps from 1968 to 1979, on Master of Reality in 1971, but the parts that define the sound are the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup position and the effects order. Those translate to other equipment, which is what the adaptation step does.
Is Into the Void a rhythm or a lead tone?
It is a riff part with a distorted character, from Black Sabbath's 1970s heavy metal catalogue.
Does Tonelify cost anything to try?
Your first match for your own gear is free with an account, and needs no card. After that both plans start with a 7-day free trial: Stage is $6.99 a month for 20 matches, Headliner is $10.99 a month for unlimited matching within a fair use limit of 150 new matches a day, and yearly billing works out cheaper on both. Reading this page and the rest of the library costs nothing and needs no account.
