Angus Young tone for custom guitar

jonny24

jonny24

New member
Hello, i need some advice on pickups.......i'm guessing thats not a surprise here:cool2:

Anyway, i am building a guitar for myself. Basically its a gibson sg, with the addition of a 5/8 maple top. total thickness is 1 3/4, mahogany body and neck, ebony fretboard. Dual humbuckers, of course.

The number one sound i'm looking for is Angus/AC/DC tone. I also play a lot of Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, some G'n'R, you get the idea. However, in band situations it tends to be a little more modern stuff, Nickelback-esque.
One more thing is that I tend to use very light strings, .08-.38s.

So i guess what i'm looking for is a vintage humbucker sound that can give a little more if needed. the rock/classic rock is the primary focus though, and i can always get what i need from amps/pedals. So here are my thoughts

Custom 5/ '59n
'59 set
Pearly gates set

also, is it true that the angus young pearly gates is just an A5 in the neck pickup instead of a2? I'm thinking that if that's true then that would be a good option too.

Thoughts, opinions, suggestions.....the usual:friday: party on
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

Gibson Angus Young Signature Humbucker Bridge & '57 Classic Neck or Pearly Gates + (A5) bridge, Pearly Gates Neck (A2)

I own the Angus Young Signature and have it installed on a Gibson Les Paul Classic, it is AWESOME, you should try it.

My combo on the Les Paul is an Angus Young Sig. bridge & Seymour Duncan '59 neck.

Very P.A.F.-ish, very versatile.
 
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Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

Angus has a basic rock tone and is mostly the amp honestly. I used a Dimarzio Steve's Special and nailed his tone with my rig. It's mostly just having a Marshall with the front end quiet, dry, not a ton of mids (but enough), and cranking the masters on the thing.

If you get a hot (but not brutal) A5 based PAF-esque pickup then you will have a HUGE head start.

Angus keeps his Marshalls really really dry. It is almost like playing clean. That open and not very compressed tone is key to nailing his sound.

What amp do you have right now?
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

For now all i have is a roland cube 20x. I want to get something in the 40- 50 watt range tube amp, but right now i need all my money for buying parts for my guitar.

Do you mean dry as in little distortion?
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

i would recommend 59's, as the pickups in his sg are the ones the 59 was made to sound like! thats what i have in my sheraton and i can get pretty close considering he used an sg
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

Gibson has a signature "angus" pickup. I have heard that a lot of ppl dont like it though.

His new "signature" SG has a seymour duncan PG in the neck and an overwound "hotter" PG in the bridge.
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

Yes by dry I mean not a lot distortion. That's how I play too. The open sound is so worth the little extra practice for awhile until you are used to not playing with so much compression.

I dont know how the Roland sounds but if you are hell bent on getting his tone you need a 100W Marshall, or a clone. Marshall just released the MA which is a budget all tube amp. I've heard clips and it sounds killer.

EDIT: Oh and addressing the whole light strings thing. I think Angus only uses 9's. If you use 8's I highly recommend moving up to 9's. I dont know how you use 8's honestly. They have to sound so thin and string bending how do you get away with that? I used to break 9's all the time. Now I use skinny top heavy bottoms which is like 10's for strings G, B, and e and 12's for E, A, and D.
 
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Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

The Angus tone you hear on thier cd's ect are just guitar into amp. Not high gain Marshall but older. The pup could be anything to real paf, patent# or t-tops. The newer Angus buckers are hotter. So if you want to get close to his tone think older gibson pups. He may be useing the newer custom made pups for him live now,Ive seen him play his signature sg live anyway. Dont know if he is recording with them now.
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

I know I need thhe marshall sound, and I have been looking at the MA's or the Haze series. It just has to wait a little till i get some money. I'm looking at pickups that wil go with that kind of amp, but I'm getting the pups first because the guitar needs pups in it to play through anything.

I'm thinking the angus young pearly gates A5b A2n. I'm kinda iffy on the Gibson pups, I've heard good and bad. I think seymours may be the way to go for me. What are the tonal differences between PG's and '59's?
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

The secret to the Angus sound is low distortion and play very loud.
Pickup wise the custom 5 can get you close (in the right guitar) as it's kinda bright and brashy with plenty of low end balls to start with.
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

angus is almost all bridge pup and from what i hear its a pearly gates. that and a cranked nmv marshall and a handful of great rock licks and youre golden
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

Back in the day, angus said he just used the stock pickups in his SG's......so all the recordings are PAF's and T-tops. But now a-days he uses PG's
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

JTM45 cranked with a greenbacks 4x12. Low-output pickups (vintage). Hammer hands. You're there!
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

I would get a Custom 5 for the bridge probably. I've never used '59 really so idk what to say about that. The PG+5 would be cool for his live tone but if you are trying to get the tone he had with Brian Johnson then you need something more scooped. His tone isn't metal scooped but he definitely doesn't crank his mids. I also think he uses more treble instead of presence.

As far as the neck goes that's really a toss up. Depends on what you want really because I don't think I've ever heard Angus use his neck pickup.
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

Custom 5 bridge (scooped, vintage voiced) + Marshall Tube Head (hi gain input) + mahogany, Gibson style guitar = DEAD ON ANGUS TONE.
For the neck, I'd try a '59 or Jazz.
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

WoodyTone said:
JTM45 cranked with a greenbacks 4x12. Low-output pickups (vintage). Hammer hands. You're there!
Click to expand...


I'll 2nd this !

I am pretty sure you can pull it off with a set of Seth Lover's too !

And to the OP, get a Marshall Class 5 for non-earsplitting volumes, to get that AC/DC tone.
 
Re: Angus Young tone for custom guitar

something you should know: The "AC/DC tone" does not really come from Angus. It mostly comes from Malcolm. Because of this if you really want that really creamy low output tone, you should try some gretsch Filtertrons. For example, here's a GFS clone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAF9-6vlVv8&feature=related

now, does Angus have a nice tone? Hell yes. But it is not the tone you seem to be looking for.
 
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