Another Little mystery unveiled by Angus Young in person (with help by Ken Schaffer, Then and Now)

21 May Another Little mystery unveiled by Angus Young in person (with help by Ken Schaffer, Then and Now)

Well, this surely isn’t a scoop… but I had forgotten to tell you about it.

While we (Ken Schaffer and I) were in Vancouver, at the Warehouse Studio meeting Angus Young to deliver The Schaffer Replica S/N001 to him personally, several subjects were touched.

It was then that – among other things – Angus told us about a little thing that used to be a mystery for some time to many (me included).

If you observe this picture,

Angus Young, Glasgow 1978, Recording “If you Want Blood (You’ve Got It), Live. What’s the mysterious object on the strap?

you will certainly notice the mysterious item on the strap.

You may or may not remember that at some point, in the videos, you can see Angus bumping up and down with a short cable hanging out of the guitar.

It would sort of seem like the guitar was unplugged – which contributed to certain fans complaining about the fact that he was supposedly playing in “playback”.

Add to that the lack of a regular cable, in the year 1978… and you almost get a riot going!

Mystery solved. Angus told Ken and me that, that was a thing developed by Ken himself (who had forgotten any detail about this!) with two short cables, both could be plugged into the guitar.

At this point in time in fact, Angus had the Schaffer-Vega X10 transmitter inside the guitar. We know this – we have talked about it previously here as well – but it was sort of less documented (Ken had told me personally even at the time, but generically). Hear this.

Somewhere before the Glasgow series of shows, some Angus tech requested that some experimentation with the placing of the X10 transmitter be made.

So Ken got Ang’s guitar at his shop for well – two long weeks (!). That was Angus guitar number one, the one and only. The one Angus started AC/DC with.

Ken cut (upon request!) a hole inside the back of the guitar, and he put the board of the X10 inside the guitar. That was that. A whole lot of duct tape was then put on the back of the guitar (and partially, to the lower left looking at it from the front) to cover any possible seam line and avoid Angus’ sweat pouring inside.

Mr. Schaffer notes

You should’ve seen that guitar before we cut the hole & put the duct tape on…!!

He also said that the guitar – once it got to his shop – looked absolutely horrible. It was dirty as it could be; scratched and banged to say the least. Battered to the bones.

In order to make some details work electronically, two sets of short SVDS cables were installed. Angus would use one at a time. One would turn on the X10; the other would turn it off and allow the guitar to be played with a regular cable from another jack output/input.

Here you have it now, mystery solved.

In case you wondered…

Love,

Fil

(thanks go again to Mr. Ken Schaffer & Mr. Angus Young for the story and the details)