Highway to Hell guitar tone
AC/DC · Angus Young (lead + rhythm) / Malcolm Young (rhythm)
Highway to Hell (1979) — Roundhouse Studios, London; produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, engineered by Mark Dearnley, mixed by Tony Platt at Island's Basing Street
cranked non-master-volume Marshall power-tube crunch - no pedal distortion, gain comes from the amp and the guitar volume knob
The rig AC/DC used
Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.
Guitar
Angus: 1971 Gibson SG Standard (bridge humbucker, volume rolled back for rhythm). Malcolm: 1963 Gretsch Jet Firebird "The Beast" (middle pickup removed, bridge pickup only).
Amplifier
Angus: 1970s four-input 100W Marshall 1959 Super Lead, plus a 1966-67 Marshall JTM50 (the solid-state-rectifier version, not a JTM45). Malcolm: 1971 Marshall Super Bass 100W. All into Marshall 4x12s loaded with Celestion G12-65s. Mix ambience was created by Tony Platt re-amping through speakers in the room at Island's Basing Street because Roundhouse itself was acoustically dead.
Cabinet
Marshall 1960 4x12 with Celestion G12-65
Microphone
Neumann U67
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.
Get this tone on your rig
Pick your amp or modeller and we’ll build Highway to Hell for it — with a preset file you can load, not a list of knob positions.
Why we think this is right
Highway to Hell was cut at Roundhouse in London in 1979 with Mutt Lange producing and Mark Dearnley engineering, then mixed by Tony Platt at Island's Basing Street. Platt has said in Sound On Sound that Roundhouse was very dead, so he fed the tracks out through speakers in the Basing Street room to give the record its space. Angus Young plays an SG into a four-input 100-watt Marshall Super Lead alongside a mid-1960s JTM50, with a Schaffer-Vega wireless pushing the front end, while Malcolm's stripped Gretsch runs into a Super Bass. There is no distortion pedal: the lift into the solo is the guitar volume. The Roundhouse microphones are undocumented.
Sources
- https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-acdc-back-black
- https://www.uaudio.com/blogs/ua/tony-platt
- https://guitar.com/features/opinion-analysis/angus-young-ac-dc-guitar-gear-myths/
- https://guitar.com/features/artist-rigs/the-gear-used-by-angus-young-malcolm-young-on-ac-dc-back-in-black/