Angus Young's guitar strings: the AC/DC SG rig, sourced
Documented string gauges, brands, and tunings Angus Young uses with AC/DC on his Gibson SG. Ernie Ball Super Slinky (.009–.042). With citations.
AC/DC · reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
Angus Young uses Ernie Ball Super Slinky (.009–.042) on his Gibson SG with AC/DC, confirmed across multiple interviews and through his guitar tech Trace Foster's 2016 Premier Guitar Rig Rundown. He's been on .009s for decades, light gauge for the bend-heavy soloing the band's catalog lives on. Bought his first Gibson SG around age 16 (~1971) from a Sydney music shop; the SG has been his primary instrument for the entire AC/DC catalog. Pickups have been swapped to wax-potted custom-wound Seymour Duncan humbuckers.
Who Angus Young is
Angus Young is the founding lead guitarist of AC/DC, Australian hard-rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Angus and his older brother Malcolm Young. The band's catalog from High Voltage (1976) through Power Up (2020) is one of the most commercially successful in rock history; Back in Black (1980) alone sits at over 50 million copies sold globally. Angus has been the band's lead guitarist and primary on-stage focal point, schoolboy uniform, duck-walk, SG, for the entire run.
What he plays
Ernie Ball Super Slinky (.009–.042) on a Gibson SG. The .009 gauge has been his standard for decades, confirmed by his guitar tech Trace Foster in Premier Guitar's 2016 Rig Rundown. His Sydney-shop original SG (circa 1971) gave way to a rotation of similar SGs across AC/DC's touring history. His main stage guitar today is a 1967 SG, re-pickuped with custom-wound, wax-potted Seymour Duncan humbuckers.
The pick is a Fender Extra Heavy. He picks aggressively across .009-gauge strings, the kind of right-hand attack most rhythm players need .010s or .011s to manage without going pitch-sharp under the attack.
Electric guitars
Four documented SGs, from the Sydney shop original to the two signature models Gibson built in his name.
Main touring guitar · identified by his own tech
1967 Gibson SG Standard
Guitar tech Trace Foster identified this as a 1967 model in Premier Guitar's 2016 Rig Rundown. All the volume and tone pots have been replaced repeatedly, since Angus sweats through them on stage. The stock humbuckers are gone too, swapped for custom-wound, wax-potted Seymour Duncan units measuring 7.7 to 7.8 kOhm.
Source: Premier Guitar, Rig Rundown: AC/DC; Ground Guitar gear archive.
Backup · Back in Black era
1970 Gibson SG Custom
Angus's backup guitar as of the 2016 Rig Rundown, the same SG he played on the Back in Black tour in the early 1980s. Several similar black SG Customs have passed through his collection over the decades, part of why dating individual guitars from photos alone gets difficult.
Backup · gifted, not bought
Gibson SG "Brian Ray Model"
Originally a Brian Ray signature SG, given to Angus by Ray himself, a longtime guitarist for Paul McCartney. It's been reworked with the same custom-wound Seymour Duncan pickups as his main SG, plus a witch-hat volume knob swapped in for extra grip.
Signature model · launched November 2009
Gibson Angus Young Signature SG (USA and Custom Shop)
Two production models built around his own '68 SG Standard's neck profile. The USA version ships with a high-gloss Ebony finish, acrylic lightning-bolt inlays, and a Gibson 57 Classic paired with a Gibson Angus Young model humbucker. The Custom Shop version is limited to 250 guitars in an "Angus Cherry" finish with Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups. Fifty were hand-aged and signed by Angus himself.
Source: Premier Guitar, Gibson Releases Angus Young, Buckethead Models.
Amps and effects
The Marshall that's driven almost every AC/DC record, a boutique detour most fans never clocked, and the one "effect" he's ever used.
Foundational · still his main amp
Marshall Model 1959 Super Lead
Angus's amp since AC/DC's earliest albums, likely used to record the band's first two or three records. As of the 2016 Rig Rundown he was still running Super Leads as his main amp, nine heads on stage at once, with more added for bigger venues.
Source: Ground Guitar, Angus Young gear archive; Premier Guitar, Rig Rundown: AC/DC.
Mid-1990s to c.2015 · a real detour from Marshall
Wizard ARD and Modern Classic
Built by Rick St. Pierre, AC/DC's amp tech of two decades and the founder of Wizard Amplification. Both Angus and Malcolm Young ran Wizard amps through this stretch. St. Pierre stepped away from the band's camp around 2015, and Angus went back to Marshall.
Since 1977 · the only effect he uses
Schaffer-Vega Diversity System
A wireless unit, not a stompbox, and the one thing resembling an effect anywhere in Angus's signal chain. Its built-in volume boost mildly overdrives the signal, a wrinkle researched and documented by Fil Olivieri of SoloDallas.
Strings
The .009 gauge he's leaned on for decades, confirmed straight from his own guitar tech.
Verified use · .009-.042
Ernie Ball Super Slinky
Confirmed by guitar tech Trace Foster in Premier Guitar's 2016 Rig Rundown. Light gauge built for the bend-heavy lead vocabulary AC/DC's catalog runs on, light enough to hold up across a two-hour set night after night.
Source: Premier Guitar, Rig Rundown: AC/DC; Ground Guitar gear archive.
Picks
A small, deliberate detail: not just the gauge, but the exact printing method on the plastic.
Older stock preferred · indented logo
Fender Extra Heavy
Per Premier Guitar's 2016 Rig Rundown, Angus favors older Fender Extra Heavy picks with the logo burned into the plastic rather than printed on top. The indented logo gives a grippier texture under his high-energy right hand.
Why this fits the rig
A Gibson SG is a 24.75-inch-scale guitar, shorter scale than a Strat or Tele, which translates to slightly looser string feel at any given gauge. Combined with the .009 set, that gives Angus the bend-light feel he uses on the lead lines AC/DC's catalog is built on. The custom Seymour Duncans handle the high-gain crunch, whether it's the Marshall Super Leads he's used for most of his career or the Wizard amps he ran from the mid-1990s to around 2015, without losing the SG's natural midrange focus.
For rhythm players chasing AC/DC tone: the gauge isn't the secret. .010s on a Les Paul through a JTM45 also gets you 90% of the way there. The other 10% is Angus's right hand, which isn't on the gear list.
If you want this rig
Super Slinky (.009–.042)
Why this one: Angus Young's documented .009 set per his tech Trace Foster (Premier Guitar Rig Rundown 2016). The same Super Slinky set as Jimmy Page, both built around the same vintage rock vocabulary. On a 24.75-inch SG, .009 sits at bend-light tension.