Angus Young and the Gibson SG – two wonderful creations that seem synonymous with each other now. But what does the AC/DC look for in his short-scale devil-horned electric guitar muse and if he had to pick just one, what would it be? Thanks to Dean Delray's Let There Be Talk podcast, we now know.
"It's a vintage one," confirms the legend as he appeared remotely along with AC/DC chief pipesman Brian Johnson. "The one that I've always had and been on every album I've ever done is a guitar that now, because it's been on so many AC/DC songs, I just save it for the studio now. I keep it away because over the years when I used it live it got so many bumps and cracks and I don't want it damaged any more. I want to preserve it and it's there for when I'm doing studio stuff.
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"When I've got that guitar, it's so reliable. I just have to plug it in. I can get all my guitars and line them up, I can go through them all and every one you'll go, 'That's a great sound, that's a good sound" but that one, that's the one. It's just got its own thing to it."
We believe the guitar Angus is referring to is his first model that was customised with lightning bolt inlays. But there is some debate online whether this guitar is a 1968 model as some have stated. Even Angus himself isn't certain.
"I think it was a '69 or '70," he told Guitar World, "although I had someone else tell me it might even be a '71 or '72. So I don't really know for sure."
You can hear the whole episode above and it really is a great interview with the duo reminiscing about Johnson's original auditions for the band, a lot of fascinating insight into the making the Back In Black and For Those About To Rock albums and the recording of the new album Power Up, released on 13 November.
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