Malcolm Young’s 1973 Gibson L6-S

This guitar was used by Malcolm in the early years of AC/DC, circa 1975. It had originally two pickups and a classic “Les Paul” body shape.

Later on, in 1976, the guitar’s body was modified, so it ended up looking more like the Gretsch Jet, with a horn on each side. In addition to this, the neck humbucker was removed.

Mal bought the guitar from Harry Landis on Park St, Sydney in early 1975. It is not his original AC/DC guitar, that was always the Gretsch Jet Firebird. The L6-S was purchased because his Gretsch had one of its many headstock breaks and was in the repair shop.

Mal needed a guitar, so he bought the Gibson. It was the guitar he was using when I joined in March 1975 until the Gretsch was fixed, then it became a spare. The guitar was customized to the double cut in May/June 1976 in London by Martin Birch in Kentish Town. I went with him to drop it off.

Mark Evans – AC/DC’S LOST RARE GIBSON L-6S FOUND?]

After Malcolm got rid of the guitar all trace of it was lost. Just recently, a guitar collector Richard Henry managed to track it down, and it is apparently now owned by Matthew Lucas of Matt’s Guitar Shop. It was put on auction by Matt in 2019 through Reverb for $149,000, but it appears that the guitar was not sold.