Jaydee Tony Iommi Old Boy Relic SG 2017 Distressed Finish

THE GUITAR

There are instruments, and then there are timeless icons. The JayDee Old Boy firmly loves in that second category. Built to order in 2017 by John Diggins, the Birmingham craftsman who first put the original Old Boy in Tony Iommi's hands.

Every riff on Heaven and Hell, every crushing chord that defined an era, began on an instrument bearing this DNA. What you are looking at is not a licensed reproduction. It is a bespoke commission built by the original maker himself, in the same tradition of quiet, exacting craftsmanship that made the first Old Boy such a legend.

WHY THIS GUITAR MATTERS NOW

This guitar was completed while John Diggins was still at the bench, placing it among the last true Old Boys to leave his hands. His passing in 2021 made every instrument from his workshop a permanent and irreplaceable artifact.

Beyond its provenance, this particular example carries two distinctions that no future build can replicate. The first is the builder himself as guitars commissioned from John Diggins in his lifetime now represent a closed chapter. The second is the hardware.

This Old Boy is fitted with the Schaller 456-style bridge and tailpiece, the hardware that defines the authentic Old Boy tonality and aesthetic. That unit is no longer in production. Contemporary JayDee builds must substitute alternative hardware; this one does not.

SPECIFICATIONS

Builder: John Diggins / JayDee Guitars, Birmingham, UK

Year: 2017 (Built-to-Order)

Fingerboard: 24-fret bound Ebony

Inlays: Polished Aluminium Crucifix

Nut: Carbon Graphite (no zero fret)

Tuners: Sperzel Locking

Bridge / Tailpiece: Schaller 456-style — original design, out of production

Pickups: 2× Custom JayDee "Old Boy" (proprietary wound)

Pickguard: Black

Finish: Distressed Relic

Orientation: Right-Handed

Case: Hiscox STD-SG Hard Case (included)

FOR THE NEXT KEEPER

This is not a guitar for the casual collector. It is for the player or custodian who understands what it means to hold something built by a luthier working at the height of his craft, producing an instrument as iconic as the riffs that were conceived on it.

It plays and sounds as the Old Boy always should: the relic finish worn with intention, the proprietary pickups voiced for weight and articulation in equal measure, and the now-unobtainable Schaller hardware delivering the resonance and sustain the original design demands.

Instruments like this arrive rarely. They do not come back around.