You Shook Me All Night Long guitar tone
AC/DC · Angus Young (lead + rhythm) / Malcolm Young (rhythm)
Back In Black (1980) — Compass Point Studios, Nassau; produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, engineered by Tony Platt
open, mid-forward Marshall crunch with a lot of air around it - a dead room captured with large-diaphragm condensers, not a close-miked 57 grind
The rig AC/DC used
Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.
Guitar
Angus: 1971 Gibson SG Standard (cherry). Malcolm: 1963 Gretsch Jet Firebird "The Beast".
Amplifier
Marshall heads, changed song to song: Angus's 1970s four-input 100W 1959 Super Lead and a 1966-67 JTM50 (solid-state rectifier), Malcolm's 1971 Super Bass 100W. Marshall 4x12s with Celestion G12-65s. Guitars recorded with pairs of Neumann U67s, or a U67 and a U87, on different speakers of the cab.
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 You Shook Me All Night Long for it — with a preset file you can load, not a list of knob positions.
Why we think this is right
Tony Platt's Sound On Sound account of the Back In Black sessions at Compass Point covers this song directly. The guitars were captured with Neumann U67 pairs, or a U67 and a U87, on different speakers of the cabinet rather than a close 57, and the air around them is the room itself rather than a plate. Angus's guitar was the only overdub: he used his Schaffer-Vega wireless for the solo and stayed on to play rhythm to the end so the dynamics would not drop, which is why the last third sounds hotter than the first. Platt says the amps were only ever turned up as far as they needed to be. The instruments, per guitar.com, are Angus's 1971 SG into a 1959 Super Lead or a JTM50 and Malcolm's Gretsch into a 1971 Super Bass.
Sources
- https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-acdc-back-black
- https://www.uaudio.com/blogs/ua/tony-platt
- https://guitar.com/features/artist-rigs/the-gear-used-by-angus-young-malcolm-young-on-ac-dc-back-in-black/
- https://guitar.com/features/opinion-analysis/angus-young-ac-dc-guitar-gear-myths/