Achieving Angus Young Tone

[What?]

Awesome thread! Been on an Angus trip lately. Have a Solodallas storm on the way. I'm hoping it's going to add that compression and sizzle. I setup up my amp like in the PG vid, one more step in the right direction. I was wondering what that Vol2 mod was, I'm guessing it's one of the better PPIMV mod. Set my bridge pickup tone to 3. Def another step in the right direction, I'd have never thought he cut tone on the guitar!

Not the greatest take, just learned the solo this morning, thank you Jarred Dimes, this is indeed a masterclass in Angus pentatonics. Angus has ridiculous taste I must say, mozart would be proud

I'm hoping the storm will beef up those high notes

Sounds good here. Mostly just missing the fancy studio processing.

I agree too that Angus has great taste in his playing, which is why improvising in his style isn't nearly as easy as some people think it is, often marking up Angus as a pentatonic simpleton. Maybe it is technically simple stuff, but it's pretty damn great musically. Also, Angus has said in interviews that he passed his ideas by Malcolm, and if Malcolm gave the nod then he knew it must be good.

 

[twangsta]

Sounds good here. Mostly just missing the fancy studio processing.

I agree too that Angus has great taste in his playing, which is why improvising in his style isn't nearly as easy as some people think it is, often marking up Angus as a pentatonic simpleton. Maybe it is technically simple stuff, but it's pretty damn great musically. Also, Angus has said in interviews that he passed his ideas by Malcolm, and if Malcolm gave the nod then he knew it must be good.

Thanks mate!
I totally agree with you, musically he scores big time. Not sure if you saw the video in the previous post, it's not his tone exactly but it took me 5 days to get close. I just hope some of it creeps into my subconscious.
Malcolm was definitely the brains behind the band. I can sometimes hear those factory sounds he talked about, even Black Sabbath said similar things. I once heard the most musical and groovy rickety old truck idling and rattling, that' thing was a hit record all by itself, wish I recorded it, sometimes old motors can be profound!

 

[Slick George]

A long thread, Haven't read it all so my post might be redundant.
I've seen a rig-rundown vid some time ago where you could see the settings on his main live amp. Everything but the volumes was set to 10 o'clock or about 4 on the numbers. I was rather surprised, all the eq-controls set so low. I didn't think that could work on a 2203 on 2,5 volume wise. But it did. Can't remember the volume settings but the vid is still on YT, easy to find.
When I visited a friend that has a 1987x we tried the same settings. High volume was about 75%, low volume was about 30 to 40% as I remember. Btw, he's got a Fryette Power Station. That was even closer. I don't think there is a ton of difference between 4 holers and 2203s when dialled in right but I must admit that the 1987 sounded a slight bit closer to that classic tone.

 

[79 2203]

A long thread, Haven't read it all so my post might be redundant.
I've seen a rig-rundown vid some time ago where you could see the settings on his main live amp. Everything but the volumes was set to 10 o'clock or about 4 on the numbers. I was rather surprised, all the eq-controls set so low. I didn't think that could work on a 2203 on 2,5 volume wise. But it did. Can't remember the volume settings but the vid is still on YT, easy to find.
When I visited a friend that has a 1987x we tried the same settings. High volume was about 75%, low volume was about 30 to 40% as I remember. Btw, he's got a Fryette Power Station. That was even closer. I don't think there is a ton of difference between 4 holers and 2203s when dialled in right but I must admit that the 1987 sounded a slight bit closer to that classic tone.

Yeah I’ve compared 2203’s to a 1987, 1959 and Superbass and the 4 holers are always a little more authentic ACDC. It’s all in the midrange and the 4 holer midrange sits in a different spot and is more prominent.

And yes, conservative EQ settings(on a Lead spec Marshall at least. The Superbass benefits from more extreme settings) is the way to go for ACDC. Pushing the TMP on a cooking(but not cranked)Lead spec Marshall just introduces more overdrive than is needed as well as a pissed off aggressiveness I just don’t hear in the classic ACDC tone.
Those amps were very responsive and much of the overdrive you hear is from how they attacked the strings. Play softly and the amp will purr.

And I’ll also add that the comments in this old thread about needing some pedal with a 30db boost to get Angus tone out of a Superlead, are just hilarious.