AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by Roe » Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:49 pm

I saw the band in oslo last night. Mal had his jtm45 100w on top. I could see the jtm45 faceplate and the orange indicator light. It didn't seem to have the vox vents. perhaps the cab is unoriginal or perhaps this is an early 67 (or very late 66) amp?
mal's other amp looked like a late 60s or early 70s superbass with added metal corners on the cab.

ang switched between two different sounds - one very clean and the other more saturated. also, he used the volume control a lot. the whole band tuned down to Eb. sound was good but not great where I stood. I looked like the band had fun. They weren't 100% steady a few places but it was a great show
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by Roe » Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:44 pm

here's pics and info from the gig in oslo in february: http://musikkweb.no/html/news/382894820.html

you can even see the setting on mal's jmp: presence 3ish, bass 1ish, mids 4ish, treble 9ish, volume 5.5 and 7ish. the low middle and high treble settings surprise me a little. I believe these settings suggests that the speakers or the guitar is dark sounding. certainly not g12h-75hz then

it not very clear on the pic but having seen the amps myself that night I'm positive that the top amp (the jtm45/100) had a orange indicator light while the bottom amp had a red light. however, the red indicator appears to be round rather than square (but the pic may be deceiving). that would suggest a late 1967 amp. however the headcab has a rounded lip. this suggest that it is from 1969 or later.

together with earlier interviews I believe it is safe to assume that these amps are a 45/100 and a 69-72 superbass

ang appears to use two jtm45s with RI cabs and 3 100watters. two of the latter appear to have round red indicator lamps, i.e. 67 amps. one of them may be a black flag but its hard to see. the two upper 100w appears to be jtms rather than jmps
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by monsterwalley » Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:51 pm

Nice!!! thanks Roe........... 8)
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by Roe » Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:34 pm

this makes me sad:

Malcolm Young, guitarist and founder of AC/DC has been using AmpliTube on his ProTools system since 2003 and moved to AmpliTube 2 in 2006. AmpliTube has been a constant companion in his work over the years. Malcolm is recognised as one of the greatest guitar players of our time.

In October 2008 AC/DC released their massive new album, Black Ice, which went immediately number One in 29 different countries, including Australia, the UK and United States. The American music magazine, Billboard said '"the biggest debut ever by a mainstream hard rock album."

Malcolm recently told us that he used AmpliTube 2 on two tracks of the new album, 'Big Jack' and 'Anything Goes' and he also used it when preparing the demo/rehearsal tracks.

As he told us "I like the way AmpliTube 2 Rock 'n' Rolls!"

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/amplitube/t ... hp?Id=1994" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by Sral68 » Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:20 am

I actually think amplitube 2 is a great demo tool. It's very convenient when working on a computer. I would never use it on a final recording though.
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by zrAC/DC » Sun Aug 09, 2009 1:14 am

So I've seen AC/DC twice on the Black Ice tour, The first time on October 28th in Wilkes-Barre and then August 2nd in Albany. I must say the Albany show was much louder and the amps seemed to be overdriven more. I don't know if they have the amps up more now than they did? I want to say thank you for putting all this together Roe! I have noticed that my band pretty much runs everything as simple as AC/DC does. All of this information is too cool! Also I didn't know Ang had two Gibson SG's with lightning bolt inlays....hmmmm
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by zrAC/DC » Sun Aug 09, 2009 10:36 am

Roe wrote:this makes me sad:

Malcolm Young, guitarist and founder of AC/DC has been using AmpliTube on his ProTools system since 2003 and moved to AmpliTube 2 in 2006. AmpliTube has been a constant companion in his work over the years. Malcolm is recognised as one of the greatest guitar players of our time.

In October 2008 AC/DC released their massive new album, Black Ice, which went immediately number One in 29 different countries, including Australia, the UK and United States. The American music magazine, Billboard said '"the biggest debut ever by a mainstream hard rock album."

Malcolm recently told us that he used AmpliTube 2 on two tracks of the new album, 'Big Jack' and 'Anything Goes' and he also used it when preparing the demo/rehearsal tracks.

As he told us "I like the way AmpliTube 2 Rock 'n' Rolls!"

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/amplitube/t ... hp?Id=1994" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Hm.......I thought the tone of SUL was better than Black Ice. So they recorded the album digitally with two tracks Malcolm using Amplitube? :( I thought they were the biggest pushers of the analog recording?
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by Roe » Sun Aug 09, 2009 1:58 pm

I thought they recorded black ice on analogue but have to recheck
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by zrAC/DC » Sun Aug 09, 2009 2:43 pm

Did they? Maybe its just the way its mixed, I mean I love the songs they are great, just something about it isn't so much "AC/DC" to me for some reason.
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by electricskychurch » Fri Sep 04, 2009 8:09 am

Roe wrote:here is monsterwalley's typed version the article in guitar edge:

Angus's Guitars:

Angus's three gibson are a black late-60's custom with two pickups, a black '64 standard, and
a transparent cherry red '68 with the lightning bolt inlays. The pickups are replaced regularly. All guitars are tuned down one half step and strung with gibson 9-42's. He uses one guitar and one pick for each show, if he drops the pick he picks it up 8) .


Malcolms Guitars:

A 59 stereo white falcon model 6137 which is wired so only the bridge pickup is on. The other three are '63-64 era. the main one is a jet fire bird model 6131 that was routed for a middle pickup. the second is a duo-jet retrofitted with a tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece. the third is a duo-jet with the same basic specs as his main guitar. each have no finish on tops and only the stock filtertron bridge pickups and single volume remain. they are sgrung with gibson l-5 pure nickle 12-56 with the wound g tuned down one half step.


http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=23644" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
i'm quiet surprised to read they are both tune down a half step (especialy when they say angus uses 009-042 gauge).
i have been learning many ac/dc guitar parts/ songs and what i noticed is that up until back in black most of teh songs are tuned like -35 cent or -45 cent or -10 cent ...etc
there are very few songs that are really tuned down one half step ( it's a long way and gimme a bullet if i remember well, maybe a few others).
also, i read in teh past an interview with angus where he was saying he mostly used10-46 strings except for a few solos that are harder to play , where he uses 009-042.

i'm quiet surprised they used amplitube in the last LP !
i haven't heard it for a while but from what i heard with all these simulators in teh past (amplitube and all teh other ones , including external gears like POD pro , VOX tone lab...etc), i think they really don't come close to teh amps they are said to emulate...
neither for teh tone nor teh touch response/ dynamic !
especialy when you know that the guys/ companies that built the original amps back in the 50's ,60's, and 70's, are unable to make their reissue sound exactly or very close to the original ones and they don't really/ totaly know precisely why .
one of the best examples are the speakers... but the metal parts like transformers (for example, the way carbon is removed from the metal if i remember well) or capacitors as well...
so, do you really think the guys that develop amplitube and other similar softwares, will know how to do it better than the ones that created them in a first place ?!

so, from what i understood, Malcolm is having is bridge pu connected to the volume pot abd that's all , like when the middle position is selected on the tone switch of the regular/ stock G6128T-1962, isn't it ?

i'm not surprised he adds much treble on, his amp setting as those gretsch are quiet dark sounding.
when you use the 0,015 cap position, it's quiet dark, with heavy mids ; with the "no cap" position it's less mid heavy, with more top end but you can still add some treble without the tone becoming really hear piercing.
i use a jtm45 i built (with nos mullard caps and marstran 103 OT ) and i have a 2005' G6128T-1962 double cut on which i installed some original 63' filtertron pu's (they have more top end than teh ri's and also a looser / more vintage sounding, type of attack).
i wonder how it would sound with a 0,010 or 0,005 uf cap.
0,015 is too dark for me and teh no cap position takes much mids away and adds some extreme/ very high frequency top end (sort of hifi , going higher than the "useful/nice" guitar freq response) .
i use the jtm45 with bass on 3- ,pr5 , mids4 , tr 7 and volume about 8 whereas with a gibson , i don't really go past 5 on the treble pot (i use mostly t-tops in my gibson guitars).
the duojet tone is quiet scooped compared to angus tone (that says in an interview he needs a guitar with good mids to compliment Mal's tone).
i have also a 66 jtm45/100 with kt66 and a 72 superbass and i suppose i woud need to add some treble on these ones as well , with this guitar (as it's already the case with my gibson guitars, partly to overdrive more)
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by Roe » Fri Sep 04, 2009 8:56 am

electricskychurch wrote:[

i'm quiet surprised to read they are both tune down a half step (especialy when they say angus uses 009-042 gauge).
i have been learning many ac/dc guitar parts/ songs and what i noticed is that up until back in black most of teh songs are tuned like -35 cent or -45 cent or -10 cent ...etc
there are very few songs that are really tuned down one half step ( it's a long way and gimme a bullet if i remember well, maybe a few others).
also, i read in teh past an interview with angus where he was saying he mostly used10-46 strings except for a few solos that are harder to play , where he uses 009-042.

i'm quiet surprised they used amplitube in the last LP !
i haven't heard it for a while but from what i heard with all these simulators in teh past (amplitube and all teh other ones , including external gears like POD pro , VOX tone lab...etc), i think they really don't come close to teh amps they are said to emulate...
neither for teh tone nor teh touch response/ dynamic !
especialy when you know that the guys/ companies that built the original amps back in the 50's ,60's, and 70's, are unable to make their reissue sound exactly or very close to the original ones and they don't really/ totaly know precisely why .
one of the best examples are the speakers... but the metal parts like transformers (for example, the way carbon is removed from the metal if i remember well) or capacitors as well...
so, do you really think the guys that develop amplitube and other similar softwares, will know how to do it better than the ones that created them in a first place ?!

so, from what i understood, Malcolm is having is bridge pu connected to the volume pot abd that's all , like when the middle position is selected on the tone switch of the regular/ stock qG6128T-1962, isn't it ?

i'm not surprised he adds much treble on, his amp setting as those gretsch are quiet dark sounding.
when you use the 0,015 cap position, it's quiet dark, with heavy mids ; with the "no cap" position it's less mid heavy, with more top end but you can still had some treble without the tone becoming really hear piercing.
i use a jtm45 i built (with nos mullard caps and marstran 103 OT ) and i have a 2005' G6128T-1962 double cut on which i installed some original 63' filtertron pu's (they have more top end than teh ri's and also a looser / more vintage sounding, type of attack).
i wonder how it would sound with a 0,010 or 0,005 uf cap.
0,015 is too dark for me and teh no cap position takes much mids away and adds some extreme/ very high frequency top end (sort of hifi , going higher than the "useful/nice" guitar freq response) .
i use the jtm45 with bass on 3- ,pr5 , mids4 , tr 7 and volume about 8 whereas with a gibson , i don't really go past 5 on the treble pot (i use mostly t-tops in my gibson guitars).
the duojet tone is quiet scooped compared to angus tone (that says in an interview he needs a gutar with good mods to compliment Mal's tone).
i have also a 66 jtm45/100 with kt66 and a 72 superbass and i suppose i woud need to add some treble on these ones as well , with this guitar (as it's already the case with my gibson guitars, partly to overdrive more)
they tune down because of the singer. ang occasionally uses 10-48 strings.

yes, like the middle pos on the g6128 but with less wiring. mal DOES NOT use the tone cap on the guitar but still uses bright eq settings on the amp
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by electricskychurch » Sun Sep 13, 2009 8:37 pm

in this interview they also say that Angus guitar pu's are replaced regularly whereas somewhere else another tech says he has stock pu's on all his guitars !

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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by Roe » Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:00 am

electricskychurch wrote:in this interview they also say that Angus guitar pu's are replaced regularly whereas somewhere else another tech says he has stock pu's on all his guitars !
the truth seems to be that the guitars are dried and cleaned after the shows. ang's sweat leads to rust etc
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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by electricskychurch » Fri Sep 25, 2009 7:24 pm

in the interview, Mal says " i used amplitube 2 on two tracks..." but we don't know if angus used it as well !
not sure listening to the tracks .
also , the gretsch typical tone (with not much gain) through jtm style marshall is less there in those two tracks than in " if you want blood " or "shot down in flames" / highway to hell or even "boogie man" / ballbreaker for example.
i listened to those two tracks again, panning left right , they seem to be mixed differently than they use to do for the 70's LP's (or early 80's as well although the production changed already from back in black) , one panned left and one right .
or maybe it's the reverb of angus guitar that is louder than
ususal although it seems there's some dry tone both left and right for his guitar.
it's not as easy as ususal to say wether they are panned left or right (especialy on anything goes as we barely hear walcom louder than angus wet /reverb tone ! ) .
that said, if you listened with pan totaly left or right , you hear they don't have an as good individual tone as the 70's LP's or early 80's ones (especialy Mal).
they also seem to have less overdriven / distorted tones than in the 70's.
one guy i met told me he was disapointed Mal's guitar tone on teh last LP was undermixed but i wonder if in those two tracks it's not just simply the fact teh digital amp simulators don't cut right in the mix as good amps and speakers do !

listening to the 70's LP's, i'm not sure Mal used a booster; i think you can get that sort of tone with their old amps when pushed , with added treble for the gretsch especialy (on the amp).
i can't try my gretsch here with my original 66 jtm45/100 w kt66 nor with my 72 superbass (with original greenback g12h30 75hz in a 4x12, some 55 hz in another and a third with original greeback g12m25, as well as some ri's greenback 25/75hz, 30/55hz in some other ones. i sold my vintage 30's cab unfortunately ) , so i can't tell but knowing those amps / speakers and knowing the duojet i have (and all my guitars quiet well) through a jtm45 i built (or a 66' park45/jtm45 among other amps) , i'm not sure a boost is needed.
when i listen to their 70's tones , i think their amps were pushed .
don't forget Mal plays rhythm, needs a bit low end and boosters often kill the low end as they are mostly made for solos .
also,i mounted some 63' original filtertron on my 6128t duojet double cut ri (2005) and the low E string sounds quiet mushy through them .
i wonder if that's why he doesn't use much bar chords with that string but uses mostly chords with many strings played open /not fretted , as that sounds less mushy on those gretsch with 60's filtertron it seems.
even if Black Ice is a nice LP and i loved to see them live in the stade de France (as well as in Bercy) this year, i think i prefer the tone they had in the old LP's (maybe even more for malcolm).
the only LP where Mal might have used some booster (not even sure) , is let there be rock, it's the LP where they have their most overdriven tone (i don't really think it sounds like a superbass simply pushed ; maybe a superlead on this LP ?)
on Powerage as well but not as much (like up to my neck, gimme a bullet) but it sounds more like the amp pushed.
many of Mal's tones through AC/DC were not much overdriven .
another thing, never underestimate the mics / mic placements they used as well as teh gear they used.
they also say they prefered studio A in alberts studio , with some old Neve if i remember well and it seems they used a fairchild but i wonder on what source as it's not really needed for guitars ; so they used quiet top gears for recording not the average gear.
angus seems to have used two vt737sp's avalon for miking his guitars more recently (last 2 lp's maybe).

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Re: AC/DC: back in black, highway to hell, who made who, if you

Post by Roe » Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:55 am

Seymour Duncan helps Angus Young with his tone



We’ve been working behind-the-scenes with Angus Young for the past year. His tech, Takumi Suetsugu, contacted Seymour Duncan about dialing in the sound of Angus’ road guitars. Takumi had already been to a few pickup builders before he came to us. He worked with Seymour, Evan and Scott Miller, our Technical Lead, to come up a variation on Pearly Gates that really worked great in Angus’ performance guitars.


Once AC DC’s world tour ended, Takumi came up to the factory with Angus’ “Number One” road guitar along one of the other road guitars in his arsenal. The problem with Number One is that it was recently caught in a torrential downpour at an outdoor concert and it wasn’t working right. Furthermore, the other road guitars didn’t sound as good as Number One.


Our challenge was two-fold: get Number One up and running, and make the other road guitars sound as good as Number One. The first thing I did was a complete set of measurements. Then, I started listening to pickups and winding special humbuckers. Meanwhile, my guys were doing repairs to Number One to restore it after the moisture damage. Frank Falbo spent a lot of time on that guitar.


That’s it for now. Stay tuned and I’ll bring you up to date as we continue with this exciting project.



http://www.seymourduncan.com/news/seymo ... _duncan_7/

Duncan’s Skopp had this to say about them: “The pickups Angus has been using in his touring guitars are very similar to the Pearly Gates.”
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