Angus Young (AC/DC) Tone


hara123
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Joined: 07/30/14
Posts: 3
hara123
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Joined: 07/30/14
Posts: 3
09/17/2014 3:25 am
dear all the guys ...

I am new to these musical things... i bought an electric guitar while back (mm before 6 months due to the inspiration of AC/DC hard rock music) I love their rock style and tones they have used and well as their lyric . as a whole their music is aggressive .. energized and highly glued to the young peoples strong feelings. so i am one of them.. and by now I have become a big fan of AC/DC.. AC/DC is my first band which inspired me to listen good music.. and Angus Young is the one who has generated godly feeling about music in my mind.

my point is I have been playing (with regular and planned and changed practice schedule) for two months... I did it rigorously and harly... by now i have been able to play their back in black , high way to hell solos with very few minor flows. I am happy.. I want to ask you all how can I generate the exact tone for one of their song "You shook me all night long" .. I tried tried and tried i can play the notes with minor flows. but I can fix it ... the thing is I just cant get the energized aggressive feeling without that original tone..
wich is warm ,, heavy but clean tone.. so guys please help me on this..
i Have zoom g1x effect paddle .. and a low end Amp and as well as a strat type guitar ... with three pick up coils .. (note : i tried the guitar patch from guitarpatches.com but it wont work .. it dsnt even come to the approximated tone).
# 1
Guitarphd
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Joined: 06/26/13
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Guitarphd
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09/19/2014 10:10 pm
The first thing is you probably need a guitar with humbucker pickups. The single coil pickups in a strat-type guitar just won't give the same sound.
# 2
JeffS65
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Joined: 10/07/08
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JeffS65
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Joined: 10/07/08
Posts: 1,602
09/21/2014 1:31 pm
Though I do disagree that you can't get AC/DC-like tone with a Strat. Here's an early mixed version of something I did a couple of years ago (link). I used Strat and IK Multimedia's Amplitube with a sim called 'Cream' but did do several tweaks to the amp sim tone etc.

A few things to remember when getting your practice tone; the tone you have when playing by yourself as compared to the tone when playing within a band is very different. AC/DC had a big studio budget and one of the best rock Producers of all time.

That doesn't mean you won't get a good tone from your equipment but it is good to set the expectation of how good it can get.

A few things to keep in mind. The amp settings you use should be leaning towards 'overdrive' type of settings. No distortions. I think for that Zoom, you have a simple Overdrive and something like 'Guv'nor'...Those might be the first go-to's. Set the 'amp' as a stack and maybe a little Analog delay.

You may also want to consider your pick-up selector setting. Set the pick-up selector between the bridge and middle pick-up. Don't use the bridge only setting. It's too bright and will end up giving you a country rock twang (not desired). By putting it on the 'between' setting, you remove a little of the brightness but still get that clean but overdriven sound.

If your actual amp has a three band EQ (Bass/Mid/Treble), I would use those as your primary EQing. You have the most control with a turnable knob.

Just remember that AC/DC, in addition to having a great studio and Producer, also player Marshall's at 10 with lots of air and velocity pushing out of the speakers. The force of air is hard to replicate. This is where you need to set your expectation.

So with that said, just a few thoughts that may help. I've never really used a Zoom so I don't know what it's capable of but keeping things less distorted and using the tools you do have to tweak the sound, you may get pleasantly close.
# 3
hara123
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Joined: 07/30/14
Posts: 3
hara123
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Joined: 07/30/14
Posts: 3
09/22/2014 3:19 am
Thankx a lot Jeff..

your idea was more practical and more meaningful for me.mm I really followed the facts that you have pointed out any way.. i was capable closely generate the tone for back in black n high way to hell lead solos. but still i was unable to generate the tone for you shook me all night long. it has a heavy ,clean and more aggressive tone which is splendid in the original song.
I do believe the tone has a critical part of the overall solo to serve it intended musical purpose.. in this case no other tone could achieve the same great feeling even though I managed to play the solo correctly.. how ever i am going to experiment with the Amp instead of adjusting the effect paddle.
# 4

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