AC/DC's Equipment
The only guitar you'll see Angus use is a Gibson SG. He has used the Standard, Special, '61 reissue and custom's.
Angus's first SG was a '68, which he still has. Now a days he is the spokesman for the '61 reissue.
On the last album Ballbreaker Angus uses three differnt guitar's. Angus' main guitar for BallBreaker is a '64 Les Paul/SG stringed with Erine Ball 10-46. Angus likes this particular guitar because it has a thinner neck.
For solo's Angus uses a '68 strung with erine ball super slinkies(9-46) and his original(# 1) SG, a '68 for a power chourds on a few tracks.
For Plectra Angus uses an FENDER extra heavy(110 mm) and since AC/DC is endorsing Ernie Ball, Ernie Ball contacted D'Andrea Manufacturing to make Angus some custom picks. These picks are celluloid extra heavy, 1.21 MM; in shell colour woth gold imprint. Angus has the AC/DC logo on one side and his devil drawing on the reverse.
For the BallBreaker tour Angus brought four guitars with him, but only used his main one, the rest were for back up. If you saw AC/DC on the BallBreaker tour you would have saw Angus using mainly a red SG. This was a '64 Les Paul/SG. If you saw him with a black SG this was a '61 Les Paul/SG. It was a red guitar but Angus always has a black guitar in his army of SG's.
Throughout AC/DC's entire carer Malcolm has played his signature '63
Gretsch JetFire Bird. (although in the promo video for "You Shook Me" he
uses what looks like a semi-hollow body, white falcon. In the JailBreak
promo clip he uses a fushia coloured Gretsh, which is a solid body. Then in
the Big Gun Video he uses his first custom Grestch)
This guitar has been beat to shit, been to Hell and back and survived three
Monsters Of Rock festivles.
It has one flier'Tron pick up, in the bridge postion. Malcolm didn't like
the neck pick up so he took it out(this was done like 20 years ago) one
tone, one volume and the master volume. Malcolm never touches the volume or
tone(I think he's set them "cut") just the master volume.
Malcolms Gretsch is strung with 12-56 Gibson 900Ms. From what I've heard these
strings are very hard to find.
For plectra Malcolm uses Fender extra heavies and his custom Erine Ball's.
The custom picks are celluliod extra heavy, 1.21 MM in shell colour. He has
the AC/DC logo on one side and his signature on the reverse.
If you like Malcolms guitar and want one, now you can get one. If you didn't know Mal
and Gretsch made the "Malcolm Young Signature Model" There are a few
different verisons. One with one Fliter'Tron pick up in the bridge
postion, and for less single minded players, a Filer'Ton pick up in the
bridge and neck postions. They come in red, and figured maple top options
are available(like Mal's # 1)You can see each of these in: Big Gun, Hard As A Rock, Cover You in Oil and Hail Caesar. There is a volume control located on the guitar's treble cut away and a tone controll on the lower bout. The Malcolm Gretsch costs a whoping $1595.00. I think the only improvment this lean mean rock n rollin machine needs is a Malcolm Young signature. I mean if its his signature modle and Im handing out $1600.00 a signautre would be nice. Joe Perry did it (but his guitar sucks)
Mal's Signature model comes strung with 12-56's. I've read if you
re-string it with any other gauge you loose alot of his tone. You can check
Mal's Signature model out here.
Tonight I got the chance to play on one of these badass'. It's an incredible
guitar. I played on the G6131MYF Model. (one pick up, maple color) This guitar
is very light. It's a semi hollow body. I didn't know that. It weights around
4 LBS. The strings are very thick, the one I played on, was strung with 11's.
The sustain on this guitar is huge. I hit an A chord, and it rung out for what
seems like forever. This guitar has a nice crunch tone with a little gain,
but a very warm, round tone on a clean channel. The neck was very small
(comparing it to most Gibson guitars) So pulling off a Gmaj9 chord
was quite easy. The power chords came out like single notes. Great guitar,
especially if you play rhythm! I think Im going to buy one.
For amplification both Angus and Malcolm use Marshall.
The boys like the older ones. Angus' main amp is an old JTM45. Angus uses this in the studio and live. When Angus plays live, he'll run this through an isolation speaker box that sits under the stage, that feeds directly into the PA system. When Angus wants a thicker lead sound he'll use a 100 watt amp.
The amps stacked behind Angus and Malcolm on stage are '59 SLP 100 watt heads(reissues to the oringinal Super Lead Plexi)Each head powers two 4 x 12 cabs.
Malcolm is also using WIZARD amps on tour. They are custom made.
On bass is Cliff uses a '76 Music Man strung with D'Addario flatwounds.
For amplifaction Cliff uses ealry '70s Ampeg SVT and 8 x 10 SVT Cab. Cliff
also uses a Demeter tube Dl box. Cliff uses a cable, instead of going wireless.
Cliff uses Fender Extra heavy picks. Cliff also has his own custom picks but he doesn't use them.
They are white extra heavies, with his signature in gold and AC/DC written
under it, nothing on the reverse side. When Cliff is in the studio he is
the only one who uses the D.I(Direct Input), the rest of the band mikes their amps.
Cliff Williams would always play with the-now-rare fender white bass picks
in the early days, and up until the Ballbreaker album he would always lay
down his lines pickstyle. On 'Boogie Man', he played the bass line
fingerstyle (as seen in the 'No Bull' video), and that was pretty much a
first for him. 98% of the time, though, playing with a pick is essential
for him in his work with AC/DC. In his playing, especially in the early
days, his lines for many of the songs were kept as simple as possible, and
he added to the song in a big way by doing this. By keeping his lines nice
and solid and not too complicated, he laid down the thunderous bottom end
that was needed for all of AC/DCs material. When he did throw in a fill or
a walking bass line, it was great, and it always would give the song the
needed smoothness below Malcolm's rough rhythm parts. Some great
examples of this are during 'Shoot To Thrill'(Live at Donington), and a
live peformance of 'Girls Got Rhythm', on the Bonfire, Let There Be Rock double
cd, live in 1980.
Phil plays a five piece Sonor Designer Series kit in Stain Red. The
shells are Heavy Maple. The size of his kit has somewhat shrunk since
the earlier days. He uses an 18x22" bass drum, a 13x13" rack tom (he used to use 3
rack toms), 18x16" and 18x18" floor toms, and a 5x14" brass shell snare.
On those he uses Aquarian Classic Satin Finish heads, with acception of
the snare where he uses a Clear Power Dot.
He uses Sonor hardware which includes a "Designer Series" bass drum
pedal with a felt beater.
For sticks, Phil uses Easton Ahead, which are supposedly relatively
unbreakable. Phil says "If you're a hard hitter, you need confidence in
your sticks, and you need to know they're up to the job".
He uses a 5A model in his right hand and for that extra punch on the
snare, he uses a "Rock" model in the left.
Phil insists on tuning his own drums, especially in the studio. He finds
that he needs to retune the snare every few minutes because after a few
heavy "Whomps" (as he puts it), the head loses much of it's resonance.
Phil has been playing Sonor drums for what seems like most of his
career.
He says "Sonor drums are the only drums that hold up when I beat the
hell out of them!".
In a very early video, Phil was playing a Ludwig kit. I'm not sure when
he made the transition to Sonor. He also used to play Zildjian cymbals
but now plays the Swiss-made, well-beyond-the-means-of-a-budget-minded-drummer, Paiste cymbals.
More specifically, he uses "Sound Formula" and 2002 series crashes and
hi-hats. Yup, that's right... no ride cymbal. Afterall, what would he
use it for!
It's also apparent that he functions quite well whilst inhaling a
nicotine dose from a Rothman's when playing. I'm guessing that there's
quite an ash build-up around the rim of his snare.
Brain smokes a pack of cig's a day which helps in the raspiness of his voice. A case of Bud helps him sing thoes lyrics without laughing.
If you have any corrections on the Boys Equipment, please Email me. Im pretty sure everything is correct.
Angus
