Angus Young's SGs

[BleedingEdge]

My understanding is Angus played a 1968 SG, and has a stable of them. It was supposed to be a stock SG from the time. I have one - pickups measure 7.4 k and 6.98 k, and the guitar has a factory route for a third middle pickup. I suspect Angus's guitars had that middle route as well because I think it fattens the tone a bit. I wonder though if 68 SGs all had these middle routes or just some of them?

Also, I'm curious how Angus got that tone with such low output pickups. I mean 6s and low 7s for humbuckers - never would have thought. His new signature pickup is over 10. Or were there some T-Tops put into SGs back then that were hotter T-Tops?


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[dubyatf]

First - that's a great looking SG you have there. Looks like an OHSC too!!

I think mine is a '68. I changed the pickups but that was 25 years ago so I don't remember! I wonder if I can tell by tapping in the pickguard without taking it off?

[uOpt]

I'm willing to bet that he doesn't have the original pickups in there.

[Dino]

Originally Posted by uOpt

I'm willing to bet that he doesn't have the original pickups in there.

Why not?
I surely wouldn't replace pickups in an original '68 SG!
And besides ... pickups are only a part of what makes up your sound and tone.
Angus is going to sound like Angus no matter what IMO.

How do you suppose he gets such a great tone from this P-90?
YouTube - acdc - Angus Young guitar lesson

Alot has to do with his technique and the rest ... his rig (amp, etc..)
That's my take on it anyway.

[BOBBO]

Angus uses tons of SG's !!!! Here's his guitar rack at a show !!!

[BOBBO]

Angus has also used lots of different SG models throughout his career !!!

[BOBBO]

[BOBBO]

[BOBBO]

[BOBBO]

[BOBBO]

[BleedingEdge]

Originally Posted by dubyatf

First - that's a great looking SG you have there. Looks like an OHSC too!!

I think mine is a '68. I changed the pickups but that was 25 years ago so I don't remember! I wonder if I can tell by tapping in the pickguard without taking it off?

Yep, I tap on it and I can hear it's hollow underneath. I just acquired another purported '68, and it sounds the same - hollow underneath. But the neck joint looks different, it has been refinished, and I wonder if the tuners are correct. The pickups measure more like 8.5 each, but I'm not sure if they're original, despite the seller's claims. Something about vintage SGs - more deception on the part of sellers than any other guitar....

[BleedingEdge]

Originally Posted by Dino

Why not?
I surely wouldn't replace pickups in an original '68 SG!
And besides ... pickups are only a part of what makes up your sound and tone.
Angus is going to sound like Angus no matter what IMO.

How do you suppose he gets such a great tone from this P-90?
YouTube - acdc - Angus Young guitar lesson

Alot has to do with his technique and the rest ... his rig (amp, etc..)
That's my take on it anyway.

It's just that humbuckers in the 7.0 range always sound weak to me. I know you can just juice the amp more, but there is a characteristic bite and compression that comes from a higher output (8.5+) humbucker, and I think that's what I hear from Angus.

[JasonC]

Another thing is, Angus has said he uses some insanely thick strings. I think I remember reading something about him actually using a very thin Bass string for his low E. I'm sure nowadays you can get actual 6 string sets that would be comparable.

[Texas07R8]

I've got a 69 SG Std. with Lyre. It is routed for a middle pup as well. My pots are 68 CTS but the SN of the guitar indicates 69.



I had an Angus gold and black devil logo on it and it looked just like the Angus signature ax without his name on the tremolo plate.

I have a vinyl cutter and and designed the devil logo and cut it on my vintl cutter/plotter. It looked EXACTLY like his! I ending up selling some of those on ebay months ago, they sold quite well. Here's a pic after I cut my first one and mounted it over the MOP crown inlay on my SG.



Notice the Gibson logo on my 69'. No dot on the "i" and open "b" and "o".

I am going to sell my 69 SG and probably buy either another R8, flametop this time or an R9.

[SoloDallas]

I have a quite a few SGs I have to say, mostly because of my huge passion for Angus Young. I begun buying SGs many years ago.
Among them, I have a '67 original and a '68 original, with Lyres, both of them.
I love those late 60s ones. I'm sure I love their tone essentially because I have listened to AC/DC since I was around 10 years (now 40).

I haven't measured just yet those T-TOPS outputs, but the original poster inspired me by posting his readings.

I am also, still, constantly willing to amass information on Angus Young's tone of all eras since he's still number one in my list (I have read and I believe he's always used thin strings, 009s).

Two pictured here, a '67 and a '64 I recently restored to decent condition (bought it in a "mess-like" condition for less than 2kUSD).

[IMG][/IMG]

[Texas07R8]

Hey Solo! Good to see you around here again! Those are some beautiful SG's there. I bet that 64 is Pat. Sticker non T Top and maybe a slim chance that 68 has one or two non T Tops in it.. I had a non T Top Pat# pup in the neck position of my 69 many years ago.

BTW_ Thanks again for some of the best YouTube lessons around and congrats again for Gibson hosting your training videos of AC DC on their website. That SHOULD be worth a free SG from Gibson or more! I hope they took care of you.

[SoloDallas]

How freaking nice of you to say all of that, Texas07R8 bud?
Thank you SO much for that!

No wonder: the lone star state is your home.

All the best,
Fil

[BleedingEdge]

Well, I bought a 68 SG that turned out to be a 70 SG, with nonoriginal EVERYTHING, save for the pots and knobs and frame of the vibrola. I'm stuck with it, so I'm restoring it, and decided to go with a Bareknuckles Black Dog in the bridge and an Alnico 2 Pro in the neck. The Black Dog measures 9.75k and is Alnico 5 - I think that will be close to what Angus had in his favorite SGs. Certainly it will be closer to his signature pup. Still having a hard time believing he really used stock T-tops measuring 7k. I believe him when he says his guitars were stock. But I still think there must have been some super-hot T-Tops out there back then, just due to random chance.

I got a vintage Vibrola/Cover, and I will be changing the bridge to a Tonepros locking, and also changing the tuners to Kluson Deluxe double rings. Though, I know he used Groves on some of his.

[cryptozoo]

I *think* I've always read Angus used thin strings and Malcolm used the heaviest guage he could find. I've also wondered about how he pulled those tones out of lower-output pups, which his almost certainly were, but I've resigned it to his hands and playing. I'd read an interview once where he said people come play his rig at soundcheck and they'll ask where his distortion pedal is, to which he responds it's the way he picks the strings.

I've got two early-60s Jrs (both with LP decals). Neither are completely original, but one of them I got for a song. It was in pretty bad shape, someone had beat it up, refin'd it and routed the P90 area to accomodate a humbucker, but it looked like they'd used a chainsaw. I cleaned it up a bit, the 'bucker turned out to be a late 60s Pat# (mid 7k rating) but it was terribly wax-potted. I put it in the neck of one of my LPs and tried a bunch of different humbuckers out in the SG before settling on the Angus Signature. I didn't give it a chance before, just figured it was a Gibson marketing ploy, but it's a damn good humbucker. I prefer it over all but one of the T-Tops I've had.

[Big_dawg]

according to guitargeek he used 10-48's, standard SG's and marshall JMP100 heads at half volume - and as many jmp 4x12 cabs as he could fit in...

one of the reasons for using a lot of models he never ever used that whammy bar and used non whammy models later

[cryptozoo]

True, and I also think it's important to mention that there the two eras of AC/DC (Bon / Brian) have different guitar sounds, at least to my ears. The Angus Gibson signature pickup sounds more like Back In Black and later, whereas the earlier stuff was a bit rawer and more tinny.

[zakk_attack]

[Texas07R8]

I just bought tickets to see AC/DC in Dallas in January. It'll be good to see the boys again, it's been years.

[Exluthier]

This is from memory but what I do know is that Angus' favorite SG is the dark red one with the lightning bolt inlays on it. I'm not sure of the year because the neck was replaced by an English luthier if I remember correctly. The neck is insanely small though. The nut measures 1.5" and the thickness is something like .73" at the first fret and .8" at 12. Ebony fingerboard with the lightning inlays. According to Angus' tech it has PAFs in it, no idea about their output. It's pretty easy to spot because of the inlays and the cream selector ring on it. The custom shop made him a copy in 2001 which you can see on the new Guitar World cover.

[Texas07R8]

Early he was playing almost always the 68 with the lyre tail piece but never really used the whammy. Later concerts showed him with mostly stop tails of all types, some old early 60s half pickguards and some late 60's with the full pickguard.

Some of those 68-69 SGs had Pat. # sticker Non-T Tops in them (looks like PAFs), I know first hand as I had one with them.

Angus got most of his sound from his amps, a wall of Marshalls even with most settings set in the middle, still enough volume will create that sound of his which is really intersting beacuse it first seems like he's using a good bit of distortion but when you listen closer he's much cleaner, especially in his solos.