It's unmistakable, really. It's the sound - equal parts swagger, grit, determination and aggression - that powered the best-selling rock album of all-time.
We speak, of course, of the extraordinary, still-awe-inspiring guitar tone Angus Young achieved on AC/DC's blockbuster 1980 album, Back in Black. Though one of the key ingredients to Young's tone was, obviously, the fact that he's Angus Young, another major key was the Schaffer-Vega wireless system.
Though untold thousands of guitarists had their minds blown by Young's tone on the album, Italian guitarist Filippo Olivieri took things a step further, making it his mission in life to learn and duplicate the idiosyncrasies of the Schaffer-Vega system, and replicate them in pedal form.
With his company, SoloDallas, and its latest pedals - the Schaffer Replica Storm and Classic pedals - Olivieri aims to do exactly that, make Young's positively monstrous, "clean-dirty" sound accessible to guitarists on any kind of a budget.
Olivieri recently took the time to sit down with our Tech Editor, Paul Riario, and chat about Solo Dallas's pedals, and how he meticulously engineered them to perfectly deliver the sort of guitar tones that fill stadiums around the world.
For more info on the pedals, stop by SoloDallas.
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
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