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Pedalboard / 008

Angus Young

Young used the Schaffer-Vega wireless receiver as a boosted, compressed front end for selected overdubs and the solo, with no conventional distortion pedal.

Board
Hells Bells overdub and solo path
Context
Back in Black recording sessions
Board date
Evidence
Documented equipment · 3 cited sources
Order
Source-described
Scope
Core signal path
Routing
Serial path
Audited
Signal
1 unit · Guitar to amplifier

Signal path / A

Hells Bells overdub and solo path

Track-specific documented preamp path

InputGuitar
OutputAmplifier

Documented equipment · Source-described order · Serial path

This is deliberately not labelled as the entire Back in Black guitar path. Guitar World's track analysis identifies the primary Hells Bells rhythm as SG-to-Marshall and the Schaffer-Vega on the center overdub and solo. Engineer Tony Platt independently confirms that Angus used the wireless system for album solos and that its filtering changed the midrange. It was a wireless system rather than a stompbox, but its boost and companding materially changed those tracks.

Cited sources

  1. Guitar.comThe gear used on Back in Black
  2. Guitar WorldThe secrets behind Angus Young's Hells Bells guitar tone
  3. Premier GuitarThe Making of Back in Black: A Conversation with Tony Platt