Can't nail AC/DC tone - help is appreciate

Ventanaman said:
OP - What guitar, and more importantly, what pickups are you playing through? I have found to get that “crack” and weight, the pickups have to be very uncompressed/low output, such as vintage-style PAFs. I also have to add some LF resonance around 250 Hz, +2-4db, Q around 2. YMMV.
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Yeha, I plan on getting a T-Type humbucker latter because they are around 7.4k and a hotter pickup wont work for that.
 
FractalAudio said:
Remember a LOT of the AC/DC sound is sheer volume. No amount of futzing with companders is going to substitute for the acoustic interaction of multiple stacks reinforcing the guitar's vibrations.
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Yeha but I still think that amp/speaker wise we are missing something, those JTM50 that Angus uses MUST it because they are plenty of regular Plexi recorded tones out there but the AC/DC tone is really hard to find in another band.
 
FractalAudio said:
Remember a LOT of the AC/DC sound is sheer volume. No amount of futzing with companders is going to substitute for the acoustic interaction of multiple stacks reinforcing the guitar's vibrations.
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Ventanaman said:
OP - What guitar, and more importantly, what pickups are you playing through? I have found to get that “crack” and weight, the pickups have to be very uncompressed/low output, such as vintage-style PAFs. I also have to add some LF resonance around 250 Hz, +2-4db, Q around 2. YMMV.
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@Roadrunner These 2 posts above are the secret ingredients. Angus cranks his amps, so even when he plays soft he can still clearly hear himself along with everyone else on the continent. I honestly don't know how he can still hear after so many years abusing his ears.

Angus uses custom pickups with DC resistance between 7.7 to 7.8, Ernie Ball 9 strings, standard 500K pots.

Marshall Super Lead 100 watt amps with added Master Volume, High Biased, Top input I, Settings set to:
Presence: 1
Bass: 3
Middle: 3
Treble: 3
Volume I: 6
Volume II: 8

5 full stacks loaded with 25watt Greenback speakers.

As you adjust your amp volume, ask your bandmates, "Am I too loud enough yet!", and then double the volume ;)

This is a good video to watch:
 
Yep this ↑ works well for me too. My Les Paul has a hot JB pup in the bridge and 50's wiring, so rolling it back to around 7 or so brings out more of the glassy bite and doesn't saturate the preamp so much.

It also depends on which era's tone you are shooting for. The early days with Bon Scott were less saturated and more glassy sounding.
 
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mr_fender said:
Yep this ↑ works well for me too. My Les Paul has a hot JB pup in the bridge and 50's wiring, so rolling it back to around 7 or so brings out more of the glassy bite and doesn't saturate the preamp so much.

It also depends on which era's tone you are shooting for. The early days with Bon Scott were less saturated and more glassy sounding.
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I'm actually using a superstrat (Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Black Limba), with two very hot humbuckers; I was really happy to be able to get anything close to a good ACDC tone with it. I’ve wired it like a Les Paul, using two dual concentric pots, but I’ve opted for 50s wiring for the neck and modern for the bridge. I keep the cap values low, .015 on the neck and .010 on the bridge, which keeps the tone from ever getting too dark for my tastes. I went for modern wiring for the bridge to keep it fatter, because 50s on the bridge just got too thin for me with low value cap.
 
jlynnb1 said:
so if it's a loud amp without much gain, create a preset without much gain and play it loud....
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That was my initial thought, but I kept getting kind of harsh tones as some have described, trying many different Marshalls. I also read about Angus riding his volume knob a lot, and it wasn’t until I used too much gain in a Plexi then rolled back volume with the guitar itself that I got there. Of course, YMMV.
 
ruso said:
I remember seeing AC/DC live about 30 years ago. I was about 12 or 13 I think. It was the loudest concert I've ever been to. The feeling of stacks of Marshalls hitting you in the chest in the front row was pure rock 'n' roll, compared to the silent stages of today.
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Yes they played loud. Ridiculously so. I have loved that band since I first heard them in the 70’s. But the last show I saw was audience abuse. Just kept pushing it louder and louder. It was brutal.
 
Happy to read all the answers and suggestions ruining here, thanks a lot guys.
Many ideas. I have a pre-gig rehearsal this weekend and I'm sure going to prepper few presets to try some of the ideas.
keep it coming :)
 
Roadrunner said:
11 months later from here and many AC/DC tribute gigs on Hell's Glockenspiel factory preset. and....I'm back into tone chasing....
So…..not happy, I'm missing "power" in this preset, its too harsh, doesn’t sound right at all to my ears.

Does anyone have something to offer in terms of good old Angus sound?
It amazes me how simple his setup is and how hard it's for me to replicate the sound.
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Curious. What exactly is the reference tone? Also what are you monitoring through?
 
Deadpool_25 said:
Curious. What exactly is the reference tone? Also what are you monitoring through?
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Classic AC/DC tone, Back in Black, Hells Bells era.
I'm going direct when live and at home I dial the presets via studio monitors and rehearsals are via 4x12 (Cab sim Off).
 
Roadrunner said:
Classic AC/DC tone, Back in Black, Hells Bells era.
I'm going direct when live and at home I dial the presets via studio monitors and rehearsals are via 4x12 (Cab sim Off).
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That’s illuminating and important to know here when giving suggestions because studio monitors versus a 4x12 real cab (I assume you are using a power amp of some sort) will make me adjust all sorts of tone shaping variables so when people are giving you suggestions keep in mind what they are using. Even before I started immersing myself in the modeling world I found that my speaker/cab choice was the single biggest make or break item in my signal chain. I’ve often found on the amp block side of things that depending on the model the Master Volume (maxed to 10) vs Level/Output can really make an amp come to life in either scenario (monitors vs real cab) and low-med gain with more emphasis on higher mids on the bright ch. of whichever Marshall you dig. The overall volume will fill out the lower end giving just the right amount of oomph and keeping your pick attack aggressive (but controlled) will help produce those overtones and frequency crashing harmonics that come across to everyone else incorrectly as high gain.
 
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