Researched rig84% confidence

Hells Bells guitar tone

AC/DC · Angus Young; Malcolm Young

Back in Black (1980), recorded at Compass Point Studios

Clear, punchy Marshall crunch with audible string attack, restrained ambience, and distinct Angus and Malcolm parts

Tuning: Standard tuning (playable recreation)

On the record

The rig AC/DC used

Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.

Guitar

Angus Young's Gibson SG and Malcolm Young's Gretsch rhythm guitar

Amplifier

A varied collection of modern and vintage Marshall heads from 50 watts upward; Tony Platt separately identifies Angus's Super Lead/Marshall-cabinet foundation. The playable settings use that supported album-session family.

Cabinet

Marshall flat-front 4x12 cabinet family with lower-wattage speakers

Microphone

Two-condenser capture per guitar: Tony Platt recalled one U87 plus one U67 in his session Q&A and two U67s on Angus's two-stack solo overdub in a later account

Signal flow

Signal chain

The order the original sound was built in. The exact settings get dialled for your own amp or modeller when you generate the tone.

Gibson SG
1
Angus rhythm and lead source
guitar
Gretsch rhythm guitar
2
Malcolm rhythm source
guitar
Schaffer-Vega Diversity System
3
Angus radio/compander and mid-bite stage
boost
Marshall Super Lead / 50–100W Marshall family
4
Angus rhythm and lead amplifier
amp
Marshall 50–100W album-session family
5
Malcolm rhythm amplifier
amp
Marshall flat-front 4x12 cabinets
6
speaker breakup and projection
cab
Neumann condenser microphone pair
7
wide two-microphone guitar capture
mic
Restrained studio ambience
8
subtle depth around the dry guitar
reverb

Get this tone on your rig

Pick your amp or modeller and we’ll build Hells Bells for it — with a preset file you can load, not a list of knob positions.

Build my version

Evidence

Why we think this is right

Engineer Tony Platt describes Back in Black as two guitars captured live with controlled spill, a varied collection of Marshall heads and two condenser microphones per guitar. His accounts identify Angus's SG/Marshall foundation and radio system, Malcolm's Gretsch rhythm role, tracking without added guitar compression, and subtle delay and reverb at mix. The values below are clearly labelled inferred recreation starts.

Sources

https://reverb.com/news/tony-platt-shares-secret-angus-young-back-in-black-tone
https://solodallas.com/blogs/blog/recording-back-in-black-the-album-interviews-with-tony-platt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etAIpkdhU9Q
https://www.vintageguitar.com/37811/the-schaffer-vega-diversity-system/
https://www.boss.info/us/support/by_product/katana-100_gen_3/owners_manuals/

The rig AC/DC used

Signal chain

Get this tone on your rig

Why we think this is right

Sources

More example tones