- Angus Young bought his first second-hand Gibson SG around 1970, even before AC/DC was formed.
- His schoolboy uniform was his sister Margaret’s idea, conceived as a wink at his youthful look.
- The band’s signature sound owes as much to the SG as to Marshall amp heads cranked all the way up.
- In 2003, AC/DC was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, crowning a career built on simple, relentless riffs.
We all picture that slight, wiry silhouette in shorts, twitching and shaking under red stage lights, a Gibson SG strapped to his body like a prosthetic limb. In our guitar aisles, plenty of musicians shopping for a six-string end up dropping the name Angus Young. Few guitarists have left such a mark on the collective imagination with so few notes. Here’s a look back at the journey of a kid from Glasgow who, through chiselled riffs and epileptic duckwalks, became one of the most recognisable figures in rock worldwide. Between tour stories, gear choices and legacy, here’s what makes Angus Young, and his guitar, a true legend.
Angus Young, the kid from Glasgow who wanted to play guitar
Angus McKinnon Young was born on 31 March 1955 in Glasgow, Scotland, one of eight children. The Young family moved to Australia in the early 1960s, like thousands of other Britons drawn by assisted immigration programmes. It was there, in Sydney, that the boy grew up steeped in the rock music of the era and inspired by his older brother George, already an established musician with the Easybeats.
As a teenager, Angus worked a string of odd jobs before blowing his first pay packet on a second-hand guitar, a Gibson SG bought at a shop near his home, around 1970. He didn’t know it yet, but this instrument would become an extension of his own body for more than fifty years. Every evening, coming home from Ashfield Boys High School, he’d rush to his room to play for hours on end, without even changing out of his uniform, a detail that would take on a whole new meaning a few years later.
In 1973, together with his brother Malcolm, he formed AC/DC in Sydney. The name, spotted on the back of a sewing machine by their sister Margaret, already symbolised the electric energy that would run through the whole band. The brotherly duo laid the foundations of a sound that seems simple at first listen, but rests on a precise alchemy between:
- Malcolm’s massive, blues-driven rhythm guitar.
- Angus’s incisive solos and repetitive riffs.
- A formidable rhythm section, built for stadiums as much as pubs.
The Gibson SG, the guitar that never left his hands
It’s impossible to talk about Angus Young without dwelling on his Gibson SG. Unlike many guitarists of his generation, he’s barely ever strayed: since the early 1970s, it’s this double-cutaway, lightweight mahogany body that has stayed by his side, model after model. The slim neck, almost “fast” under the fingers, fits perfectly with his staccato riffing and nervy bends.
Gibson eventually made the relationship official, launching a signature model in 2000 modelled on his 1968 SG: an extra-slim neck, an Angus Young Signature Humbucker at the bridge, and a 57 Classic in the neck position. A hand-aged Custom Shop version, signed by the man himself, followed in 2009 for the most dedicated collectors.
The SG (Solid Guitar) was born at Gibson in 1961 to replace the Les Paul, considered too heavy and outdated at the time. The irony is that it was precisely its lightness and comfort for standing play that won over Angus Young, who can power through duckwalks without ever missing a note.
Today, any guitarist wanting to get closer to that particular grain, biting, a touch nasal in the mids, very present in the highs, naturally turns to Gibson USA guitars, and more specifically to a Gibson SG Standard, the direct heir to the model that started it all.
The Marshall sound behind every AC/DC riff
A guitar alone doesn’t make a sound. Angus Young’s roar owes just as much to his Marshall amp heads pushed to their limits. From AC/DC’s earliest days, the guitarist favoured valve amps set right on the edge of natural saturation rather than piling on overdrive pedals: the crunch comes from raw power, not a stack of effects.
This “few effects, plenty of watts” philosophy ran through his entire career, from Bon Scott to Brian Johnson. It also explains why AC/DC’s sound is identifiable within three seconds, even on a poor-quality radio: no chorus, no overpowering delay, just an SG, a cable and a wall of amps breathing fire.
To get close to this tone at home or in rehearsal, it’s better to invest in an amp capable of saturating naturally rather than stacking up pedals. A look at Marshall amps remains, even today, a safe bet for anyone chasing that British rock grain.
The schoolboy uniform and the duckwalk: a cult stage act
If the guitar makes the sound, it’s the stage act that turned Angus Young into a visual icon. The idea for the schoolboy uniform came from his sister Margaret: a nod to the fact that Angus, fresh out of school when the band formed, still looked like a schoolboy. For his very first appearance, in April 1974 at Victoria Park in Sydney, he simply borrowed his nephew Sam’s school blazer. The outfit lasted one night before literally being torn to shreds on stage, a baptism of fire that already hinted at the energy of the decades to come.
Then there’s the famous duckwalk, that crouching stride lifted straight from Chuck Berry, but pushed to the point of physical exhaustion. Angus Young performed it so many times that it became a signature move in its own right: tie askew, shirt drenched, head shaking in every direction, and always that SG that never leaves its playing position, even in the middle of a full-blown stage convulsion.
Want to play riffs Angus Young style without wrecking your fingers? Start by building up your picking hand with stiff picks: the staccato picking on “Back in Black” demands a sharp, almost percussive attack.
Highway to Hell, Back in Black: Angus Young’s mark on rock history
AC/DC’s discography reads like a masterclass in effective riffs. Highway to Hell (1979), the last album with Bon Scott, put the band at the top of the world. His sudden death, just a few months later, could have marked the end of the adventure. That’s when Angus Young revealed another side of his talent: the drive to keep writing, alongside Malcolm, giving birth to Back in Black (1980) with new singer Brian Johnson. The album became one of the best-selling records in rock history, carried by riffs that became absolute genre standards, the kind of melody you recognise from the very first note, even if you’re not a fan.
This longevity and consistency explain the late but well-deserved recognition Angus Young received from critics. In 2003, AC/DC was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked him 38th on its list of the greatest guitarists of all time, alongside his brother Malcolm, a joint recognition that speaks volumes about how inseparable their duo was. Whatever the style or generation, blues rock, hard rock or stadium rock, the Young/Young formula continues to influence entire generations of guitarists still chasing that particular grain today.
On a purely technical level, what stands out about Angus Young is his economy of means. No sprawling exotic scales, no virtuoso tapping: pentatonics, precise bends, and above all a sense of timing and silence that lets every riff breathe. A lesson that plenty of budding guitarists would do well to remember before diving headfirst into overloaded solos.
For anyone looking to practise this kind of riff at home, it’s worth starting with good gear: a well-tensioned set of electric guitar strings already helps you capture that distinctive note sustain, without having to fight the neck.
Fifty years after his debut, Angus Young is still touring with AC/DC, still in schoolboy shorts, still with an SG slung over his shoulder. Few artists can claim to have kept such a consistent identity over half a century of career, never bowing to passing trends nor abandoning what made their strength in the first place: simplicity, taken all the way to perfection.
Ultimately, if Angus Young still fascinates us so much, it’s perhaps because he embodies a simple idea: you don’t need outlandish gear or extraordinary technique to leave your mark on rock history. A good guitar, a good amp, and above all, a clear idea of what you want to play. Food for thought for anyone still searching for their own sound.
