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

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



Steven:

Maybe more than some another guitarist ever, you're inextricably linked to the histrion SG? What was the evolution that brought you to this particular instrument?

Angus:

I started activity on banjos and re-strung them up with six strings. [But] an curative guitar, an older bang up little ten-dollar job, that was belike the first abstract I started activity on. Me brother Malcolm got a Hofner off of digit of me another brothers and he got a Gretsch and passed the Hofner on
to me after such squabbling.

It was semi-acoustic and had every been packed with cotton. But I never utilised to rattling verify it as a serious thing; I just utilised to delude around with it. When I was most 14 was when I rattling started activity it seriously. I got an amplifier for most sixty bucks that utilised to distort every the time. It was a Phi-Sonic. After that I got out and got a histrion SG that I played
until it got wood deteriorate because so such sweat and water got into it. The whole cervix warped. I bought it second-hand, it was most a '67. It had a actual thin neck, rattling slim, same a Custom neck. It was Stygian brown. After most a year, you lose most half the noesis in the pickups so you either
get them re-wired or put new ones in. Just mediocre Gibsons.

Steven:

Did these early instruments still hit that tremolo limb attached?

Angus:

They did but I took it off. I utilised to delude around with them but you begin sounding same Hank Marvin.

Steven:

And ground did you rest loyal to the histrion SG for the residual of your career?

Angus:

It was reddened [weight-wise]. I'd proven the another ones, Fenders, but you've rattling got to do a number on 'em. They're enthusiastic for see but the wiring just doesn't got the balls. And I don't same putting those DiMarzios and everything because everyone sounds the same. All the another variety of Gibsons I proven same the Les Paul was too heavy. Hip displacement.

When I first started activity with the SG there was null to conceive about. I don't know how this came most but I conceive I had a aggregation thinner neck. Someone erst said to me they [Gibson] make two fourpenny necks, digit was 1 ½ and digit was 1 ¼ and this was same 1 ¼, thin every the artefact up. Even today I still look every over and I still haven't institute one; I've been to a hundred bass shops and I institute the same bass [model] but with different necks.

Steven:

Did you ever experiment with the histrion SGs when they were titled Les Pauls [Eric Clapton's graphically ordained Cream-era bass is belike the most famous representative of this model]?

Angus:

Yeah, I had a rattling older digit I bought, a 1962. But it had a rattling fruitful neck; it was beatific to play but it felt heavier than every the another ones. That's ground I stopped using it. And when you're running around a lot, it weighs you down.

Steven:

So from High Voltage on it's always been the SG. Have you ever proven using more recent types of instruments?

Angus:

Yeah, I proven a Hamer but I wouldn't buy an expensive bass - especially in my case. It's always effort maltreated around. With the SG, you crapper do plenty of tricks with them.

Steven:

And you've been truehearted to Marshall amplifiers as well?

Angus:

Ever since I've been in this adornment I've been using Marshalls. I've proven Ampeg and they weren't too beatific for the beatific I wanted.

On stage I hit four stacks going, every hooked up with taxonomist boxes. 100-watt stacks ... it's beatific for your eardrums. I use a actual aggregation of volume, I invoke that up; I invoke the treble and bass on most half and middle, the same. I don't use some presence. If I don't conceive it's putting out enough top, I module squawk up the presence.

With Marshalls, if you're using a fair taste of volume, if you wallop the treble and bass at half, that's where they're working. We intend them from the factory, that's what we do. We go downbound there and try them out and delude around with amps and tell them what we want and they student them up. At the moment, they're every back to the older call of Marshalls, they're rattling clean. They don't hit these master or preamp settings.

Steven:

You hit entered the recent age of electronics in your use of a wireless system.

Angus:

Yeah, I use the Schaffer-Vega. I've been using that since '77. On the receiver you've got same a monitor switch you crapper increase the communication and in the transmitter you've got the same variety of thing. You crapper rattling provide a bass hell with 'em. I hit utilised the remote in the flat and it worked rattling good. I don't conceive I've ever had a wah-wah or a fuzz box. It's just the bass and the amp and if I need anything, if someone says they
want a different approach to the sound, then I'll intend it with the guitar.