Angus Young: an SG, no pedals and a wireless in the back of the guitar | Ultimate Guitarist Reunion

Why guitarists still care

ANGUS YOUNG has played lead guitar in AC/DC for more than 50 years. He is the band’s only continuous founding member, and the National Portrait Gallery calls AC/DC “Australia’s most successful ever band”.

The guitar parts are what players reach for. Back in Black, with his solos on it, has been certified 27 times Platinum by the RIAA, the third-highest certified album in the US.

Where it started

He was born in Glasgow on 31 March 1955, the youngest of eight children, and the family emigrated to Sydney in 1963. His older brother George played in The Easybeats and later produced records with Harry Vanda. Another brother, Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42, would start a band with him.

The first guitarist who blew him away, he told Rolling Stone in 2003, was Chuck Berry, Who’s Who number 36. In 1970, before AC/DC existed, he picked up a second-hand Gibson SG.

Career chapters

1. 1970Buys his first Gibson SG, second-hand
2. 1973Forms AC/DC in Sydney with Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42
3. 1974First gig in the school uniform, Victoria Park, Sydney
4. 1977Starts playing through a Schaffer-Vega wireless
5. 1980Back in Black, recorded in the Bahamas
6. 2014Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 retires; Stevie Young takes over rhythm guitar
7. 2017George and Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 die
8. 2020Power Up, built on riffs he and Malcolm stockpiled
9. 2026The Power Up Tour ends at MetLife Stadium, 2 October

Lead over rhythm 1973 to 2014

Angus and Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 formed AC/DC in Sydney in 1973. From then until 2014, Malcolm’s rhythm guitar sat under his lead. He first wore the school uniform on stage in April 1974, at Victoria Park in Sydney, a look Malcolm and their sister Margaret suggested.

The Back in Black solos 1980

After Bon Scott, Who’s Who number 3 in · Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion (story coming soon) died in February 1980, the band chose Brian Johnson, Who’s Who number 1 in · Highway to Hell (story coming soon) as singer and went to Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas with producer Mutt Lange. Engineer Tony Platt told Premier Guitar that when Angus overdubbed his solos there, they ran his rig wireless, the same way he played live. The album came out in July 1980 and went to number 1 in the UK.

Losing Malcolm, and Power Up 2014 to 2020

Malcolm, Who’s Who number 42 retired in 2014, and their nephew Stevie Young took over rhythm guitar. Malcolm died in 2017 after several years of dementia. Angus’s statement read: “Malcolm, job well done.”

Power Up, in November 2020, was built on riffs the brothers had stockpiled around the time of Black Ice. “I knew exactly what he wanted,” Angus told Music Week. It went to number 1 in the US, the UK and Australia.

Still moving 2023 to 2026

AC/DC came back on stage at Power Trip in California on 7 October 2023, their first show in seven years. Reviewing the Philadelphia show on 29 September 2026, the Inquirer found him still in near-constant motion at 71, the jumps lower and the fretwork a little slower. The tour finished at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 2 October 2026, with Dave Grohl joining for “Highway to Hell”.

Craft, sound and style

The SG

The Gibson SG is the guitar people picture in his hands. That early second-hand buy set the pattern, and he stayed with the model. One of the SGs on Highway to Hell and Back in Black was a cherry red 1971 SG Standard, and he took it on the tours for both albums, Guitar.com says.

No pedals

Effects never interested him much. As he put it to Vintage Guitar in 2020, “The best thing I ever did in the beginning was not use effects.”

The wireless inside the guitar

The exception was a wireless. From 1977 his wireless was a Schaffer-Vega Diversity System. Ken Schaffer, who designed it, cut a recess into the back of the ’71 SG and two more so the transmitter sat inside the body. The unit carried its own boost, which coloured the tone as well as freeing him to move. Asked about it, he told the journalist Steven Rosen, “You can really give a guitar hell with ’em.”

By Angus’s account, George had him use it in the studio from 1978, and Mutt Lange asked for the same gear he used on stage.

The duckwalk

The Philadelphia Inquirer describes his duckwalk as rooted in Chuck Berry’s, Who’s Who number 36. It’s the move that sits next to the guitar in every picture of him.

Two guitars, one sound

For more than 40 years his lead and Malcolm’s, Who’s Who number 42 rhythm worked as one part. On Power Up he went back to the riffs they’d written together, and since 2014 the rhythm job has been Stevie Young’s.

Stories people still tell

1. The school uniform.

   Before the uniform he tried a gorilla suit, a Superman outfit and a Zorro-style cape, according to Louder’s history of his stage clothes. The uniform stuck from April 1974.

Legacy

AC/DC went into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. Rolling Stone Australia counts four AC/DC songs past a billion Spotify streams, and Sony Music puts the band’s sales at more than 200 million albums. As of mid-October 2026 no new album is announced, and the SG is still the guitar in his hands.