An Interview with Angus Young of ACDC - Why He Plays a Gibson SG

Steven Rosen

Steven:Maybe more than any other guitarist ever, you’re inextricably linked to theGibson SG? What was the evolution that brought you to this particularinstrument?Angus:I started playing on banjos and re-strung them up with six strings. [But]an acoustic guitar, an old bang up little ten-dollar job, that was probablythe first thing I started playing on. Me brother Malcolm got a Hofner offof one of me other brothers and he got a Gretsch and passed the Hofner onto me after much squabbling.It was semi-acoustic and had all been packed with cotton. But I never usedto really take it as a serious thing; I just used to fool around with it.When I was about 14 was when I really started playing it seriously. I gotan amplifier for about sixty bucks that used to distort all the time.

Itwas a Phi-Sonic. After that I got out and got a Gibson SG that I playeduntil it got wood rot because so much sweat and water got into it. Thewhole neck warped. I bought it second-hand, it was about a ’67. It had areal thin neck, really slim, like a Custom neck.

It was dark brown. Afterabout a year, you lose about half the power in the pickups so you eitherget them re-wired or put new ones in. Just ordinary Gibsons.Steven:Did these early instruments still have that tremolo arm attached?Angus:They did but I took it off. I used to fool around with them but you beginsounding like Hank Marvin.Steven:And why did you remain loyal to the Gibson SG for the remainder of yourcareer?Angus:It was light [weight-wise]. I’d tried the other ones, Fenders, but you’vereally got to do a number on ‘em.

They’re great for feel but the wiringjust doesn’t got the balls. And I don’t like putting those DiMarzios andeverything because everyone sounds the same. All the other sort of GibsonsI tried like the Les Paul was too heavy. Hip displacement.When I first started playing with the SG there was nothing to think about.I don’t know how this came about but I think I had a lot thinner neck.Someone once said to me they [Gibson] make two sized necks, one was 1 ½ andone was 1 ¼ and this was like 1 ¼, thin all the way up. Even now I stilllook all over and I still haven’t found one; I’ve been to a hundred guitarshops and I found the same guitar [model] but with different necks.Steven:Did you ever experiment with the Gibson SGs when they were called Les Pauls[Eric Clapton’s graphically appointed Cream-era guitar is probably the mostfamous representative of this model]?Angus:Yeah, I had a really old one I bought, a 1962.

But it had a very fat neck;it was good to play but it felt heavier than all the other ones. That’s whyI stopped using it. And when you’re running around a lot, it weighs youdown.Steven:So from High Voltage on it’s always been the SG. Have you ever tried usingmore modern types of instruments?Angus:Yeah, I tried a Hamer but I wouldn’t buy an expensive guitar – especiallyin my case. It’s always getting beaten around.

With the SG, you can doplenty of tricks with them.Steven:And you’ve been faithful to Marshall amplifiers as well?Angus:Ever since I’ve been in this band I’ve been using Marshalls. I’ve triedAmpeg and they weren’t too good for the sound I wanted.On stage I have four stacks going, all hooked up with splitter boxes.100-watt stacks … it’s good for your eardrums. I use a real lot of volume,I turn that up; I turn the treble and bass on about half and middle, thesame. I don’t use any presence. If I don’t think it’s putting out enoughtop, I will kick up the presence.With Marshalls, if you’re using a fair bit of volume, if you whack thetreble and bass at half, that’s where they’re working.

We get them from thefactory, that’s what we do. We go down there and try them out and foolaround with amps and tell them what we want and they doctor them up. At themoment, they’re all back to the old style of Marshalls, they’re very clean.They don’t have these master or preamp settings.Steven:You have entered the modern age of electronics in your use of a wirelesssystem.Angus:Yeah, I use the Schaffer-Vega. I’ve been using that since ’77. On thereceiver you’ve got like a monitor switch you can boost the signal and inthe transmitter you’ve got the same sort of thing.

You can really give aguitar hell with ‘em. I have used the remote in the studio and it workedreally good. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a wah-wah or a fuzz box. It’sjust the guitar and the amp and if I need anything, if someone says theywant a different approach to the sound, then I’ll get it with the guitar.