![]() Having built approximately 1,000 units, used by every big-name touring act you could think of at the time, Schaffer ceased building the SVDS in 1981, as his interests had grown larger, towards satellite communications. With a pair of SVDS units, circa 1980 (right). They made due as best as possible, and upon completion, Back In Black become one of the biggest-selling albums ever, an instant classic, and Schaffer-Vega helped cement that guitar tone as a huge part of rock-and-roll history.Īn early studio shot of EVH with an SVDS circa 1978 (left), and David Gilmour's rig for The Wall tour Later, when some overdubs were required during the mixing stage at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the SVDS unit wasn't available, and the team struggled to match the tone without it, particularly the midrange edge it added. ![]() In 1980, the band travelled to Nassau in the Bahamas with new lead singer Brian Johnson to team up with Mutt Lange once again for a new album, and the Schaffer-Vega was an important part of the process recording engineer Tony Platt recalls using the wireless system to feed different amps in different rooms of the studio, which were blended together based on the song or section. ![]() In the studio again later that year, this time with Robert "Mutt" Lange producing, he kept the same signal chain, and the classic Highway to Hell recordings followed. Vintage Angus, with his SVDS feeding a Marshall head (atop Cliff Williams' Ampeg)Īs the story goes, Angus, who has eschewed any type of pedals or boosters for his entire career, began using the SVDS in the studio as early as January 1978 at the suggestion of his then-producer and older brother, George Young. Upon entering the studio for the recording of the Powerage album, Angus wasn't getting the same great tone he'd been enjoying live, and George Young suggested he use the exact same signal path as on stage, including the Schaffer-Vega it proved to be the missing piece of the puzzle. Although Schaffer intended this system to be as transparent-sounding as possible, some guitarists noticed it was not, and instead actually enhanced their guitar tone with a rich harmonic boost, so much so that users like Eddie Van Halen, Rick Derringer, and our own Angus Young used it in the studio for some of their biggest recordings (EVH fans should be just as excited, as the Schaffer-Vega may very well be the secret to the elusive VHI "Brown Sound"). It worked magnificently, and became immensely popular, but the real secret in this system was the compression and expansion circuit the belt-pack transmitter compressed the audio at a 2:1 ratio and boosted the level, enabling a beefier signal to be sent wirelessly to the receiver, where it was expanded back to it's normal dynamic range and fed to the rest of the guitar rig. Schaffer's new Diversity System transmitted signal over VHF frequencies and utilized two independent receivers in the same unit, with a comparator monitoring the strength of each and switching to the stronger signal when necessary in order to prevent dropouts. The Schaffer-Vega Diversity System (SVDS), manufactured by the Vega Corporation of El Monte, CA, was introduced in 1976, and quickly revolutionized live performance for the likes of KISS, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, and of course, AC/DC.Īn original Schaffer-Vega transmitter pack atop receiver tower. He then set out to create a system designed specifically for guitar, one that would avoid interference and prevent dropouts in front of thousands of screaming fans, allowing guitarists to roam the stage freely without fear of failure. radio frequency interference, police sirens, unwanted noise, signal degradation, awkward dropouts. It began in 1975, when engineer Ken Schaffer was touring America with the Rolling Stones and witnessed first-hand the limitations of wireless technology at the time. ![]() While this approach certainly won't do you wrong, a secret ingredient was recently unearthed, adding an unsuspected wrinkle to this purist legend. ![]() If your most impressionable years were anything like mine, you probably also believed the long-held notion that Angus and Malcolm both plugged their guitars straight into their Marshall heads, cranked to 10, with nothing in between to clutter them up pure rock-and-roll simplicity at it's finest. my first real guitar was even a Gibson SG. Some of the fondest memories from my adolescence involve AC/DC: cranking Highway to Hell for the first time, mimicking the Angus duckwalk in front of a mirror with an air guitar long before I ever had a real one, being banned by my mom from purchasing any more albums with that "screeching voice" on them (still not sure if she meant Bon or Brian), and then buying them anyway, along with a louder stereo. ![]()
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