Crayon Sky Music

What guitar strings are good to get the Malcolm Young tone on my SG?

I know that Malcolm uses Gibson Heavy Guage Strings, but i couldn’t find any at my local guitar center. I tried Ernie Ball Beefy Slinky’s and those sounded bad and the action was really high. What are good heavy guage guitar strings that have low action and a really good low AC/DC Malcolm Young tone?

Hello there,

I think you have been given some inaccurate advise. A high action has nothing to do with intonation. Intonation is when the guitar plays in tune all the way down the fretboard. A guitar can be perfectly intonated with a low action or a high action. Any comments about high action causing poor intonation is a sign the speaker does not know what he is talking about.

Changing your strings will not necessarily get you the tone of Malcolm Young. You can put the very same strings on your guitar as he plays, and you may sound nothing like his tone. His sound comes from the quality of his instrument, his gear set up and his playing style. Unless you have the same gear (amps, speakers, effects), you will not come very close to his sound. I say that so you do not expect changing your strings to give you his sound.

Also, changing your strings should have minor impact on your action. If you change from thicker strings to thinner strings the action will seem higher than it was. So, you may have to do a set up to adjust the action to suit your taste. On the other hand, if you change from thin strings to thicker strings, the action may be too low. You may have to change the set up to get the action adjusted properly.

By the way, Ernie Ball strings are not bad strings.

Later,

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