The AC/DC sound - guitars, amps, and mics
In an interview with Marshall law 9 05/2006, Malcolcm said that his two favorite amp types are Superbass and a Super lead amp with white back panel. The latter must be 1966 super amp, not the later super leads because these didn’t have white back panels. An article by Ritchie Flieger in Guitar world November 1995 (p. 177) confirms mal’s use of the early KT66s amps – flieger reported that mal’s amp had a 625 b+ voltage. One of the experts on these amps, Chris Merren, has later said that they removed the choke on mal’s amp in order to reduce the screens voltage and increase tube life. This sounds plausible – the kt66s will not survive long with 625v screens voltage – that’s way over the design specs (550v is absolute maximum), and even the GECs will have problem at this voltage.
Mal’s other main amp type is the superbass. In some interviews these are referred to as early 70s, in others early 60s. The former, not the latter, seems plausible. In an interview with Guitar player right after the release of 2000’s Stiff upper Lip, Mal said that his had used his old superbass on all the records, starting with dirty deeds. Mal also said that the amp was slightly modded.
How to tell the difference between the superbass and the jtm45/100:
- besides being louder, the superbass is tighter and stiffer and better for hard rock
- the jtm is cleaner and looser sounding, more bluesy
- the superbass will have more odd order harmonics (3rds, 5ths, 7ths) and it will have that middy el34 sound, it is normally brighter than the jtm
- examples: back in black, the title track, sounds like the superbass whereas ballbreaker, e.g. hail Cesar, sounds like the jtm.
Speakers
Interviews with techs indicate that mal used vintage 30s from ca 1990 to 2001. however, the early recordings seems to be celestion g12Ms: blackbacks and pre-rolas
