Welcome back, it’s the third episode of Know Your Bass Player.
Today, we're talking Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses - Rocket Queen
Duff grew up in Seattle in the early 80s and brought with him
his punk rock style, attitude and sound
to the L.A rock scene
Duff has been in at least a dozen bands over the years
And in this video we will cover all of his gear from the start of Guns N Roses
Right up to the current “Not In This Lifetime” tour.
His Velvet Revolver gear can be found in a video later on.
Which you can find a link for in the description down below.
Duffs first show with Guns N' Roses was at the Troubadour.
On the 6 June 1985
Giving way to the classic Appetite for Destruction we know and love.
In 1985 specifically he was seen at gigs using a Yamaha BB-400
with a rosewood fingerboard and a reverse humbucker.
The same bass is later seen with a maple neck,
This is peculiar as Yamaha didn’t make BB basses with maple necks.
The headstock has no logo on it and it can be presumed
that this is a replacement due to damage.
In September of the same year Guns N' Roses played the LA Street Scene Festival
where Duff was using a black Fender Precision bass
It had a white pickguard and white pickup.
This bass has been seen in bands prior to Guns N' Roses but only used for this gig
and never seen since.
Signing with Geffen records in March of 1986 the band got a $37,000 advance between them
Duff spent his share of the money on the iconic bass we know him for.
Duffs selection was a 1986 Made in Japan
Fender Jazz Bass Special.
As the name implies this is a special bass.
Whilst named a jazz bass and built with a slimmer,
jazz bass neck with a width of 1.5 inches
the body profile is larger
and that of a precision bass.
Duff removed the stock single coil from the bridge
and replaced it with a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack.
Leaving the humbucker as it.
We discuss these pickups and his tone in a lot more detail in part 2
A link for that will be in the description.
Another unique feature of this bass; is the Treble Bass Expander.
Turning the knob clockwise increases presence and brightness,
while turning it counterclockwise rolls off high frequencies.
This modification acts and sounds like an active circuit boost
but without the dependance on a battery.
For touring, Duff needed a backup bass and looked to buy
a second Jazz Bass Special.
These models were only produced between 1984 and 1987.
Out of options Duff went to Fender and requested they build him
a custom shop model.
When he got the new bass he felt something was off with the neck
and it didn’t feel like his original.
Fender investigated further, scanning a 3D model of the neck.
It showed that his original Jazz Bass Special had a manufacturing defect
making the neck wider, asymmetrical and egg shaped.
Duff has expressed a serious preference of this size and shape.
later basses of Duffs’ were built the same way
with a neck width of 1.6 inches.
This is also present in the Fender Precision Duff Mckagan
signature model which we’ll talk about another video.
Duff customised his first Jazz Bass Special with his own skull and crossbones logo
and is seen throughout much of the early Guns N’ Roses days.
This specific bass was retired by the time he got to Velvet Revolver.
and these days only used for recording.
We see it in the videos “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Paradise City”,“Don’t
Cry” and “Live and Let Die”.
His back up bass had a decal of a blindfolded skeletal woman missing her lower half,
forming a crossbone underneath,
Across the horn of the bass it reads "Gennifier"
(Off screen) "It's not 'Gennifier'"
It's not 'Gennifier?
He also had a black custom Jazz Bass Special which is seen in “You Could Be Mine”,
“November Rain,” and “Garden of Eden”.
Customised with stickers of clothing company No Fear and Californian punk band Social distortion,
both of which were in the neck position and seen on the Use Your Illusion tour.
The No Fear bass was used to record the Tokyo show in 1992
Later Guns n’ Roses videos had live footage from the same tour
and included all basses previously mentioned as well as a Gibson LPB-3 which was also seen
in this footage.
The Jazz Bass Special has been used to record all Guns N' Roses albums
and is clearly a workhorse being used and abused on all of their tours.
During the height of the Guns N’ Roses days there were a couple of other basses Duff used
on occasion but not often seen.
In the Sweet Child O Mine video he used a Kramer forum 3
And in 1988 on a MTV special “Live at The Ritz” he used a Spector NS 2.
Both basses had the same pickup configuration as his Jazz Bass Special.
There is a photo of him using a BC Rich Warlock
but it doesn’t look like he kept that up for very long.
Guns N’ Roses parted ways in 1997 to their “differences.”
Yeeeaaaaaaaaaa
Duff then contributed to a long list of bands. Most notably Velvet Revolver.
We talk about the basses used in Velvet Revolver
and the associated acts later in the series.
a link for that will be in the show notes.
But after nearly 10 years of hinting and teasing of a reformation of Guns N' Roses.
It finally happened.
He officially rejoined Guns N Roses in 2016
Duff and Slash buried the hatchet with Axl and took to the Coachella stage in California
Where he was seen playing his old Jazz Bass Special
As of summer 2017 Guns N' Roses are still touring and will be right up until November.
Most of Duff’s gear for the “Not In This Lifetime” tour has remained the same as
his Appetite for Destruction gear, which is awesome!
... What?! I'm a fan.
He still rocks the Jazz Bass Special’s which are his signature bass made by Fender.
But these basses have a twist.
Noticeably, one of his White Jazz Bass Specials now displays the Love Symbol ----
made famous by the Artist Formally Known As Prince
who died in 2016.
Duff has always cited being saved by Prince and flashes it with pride.
Also on this bass is a blonde pin up model in the neck position.
*
Whilst his Guns N' Roses gear has remained the same for decades now and looks to continue
that trend.
He has shown some pictures on his twitter account of a several custom prototypes recently
added to his collection.
* So to finish this episode we have;
* Two new Custom
Fender Jazz Bass Specials
Two of which have rosewood fingerboards and a precision style necks.
one has a pickguard and 3 way selector switch with no TBX
and the other, lack of a pickguard, a 3 way selector switch and a TBX installed.
This bass also has a decal of LA band Body Count
He also has a second type of Jazz Bass Special that looks like it has a standard Jazz Bass
Neck based on its Pearloid block inlays
This one HAS a pickguard with a Maple neck and fingerboard.
It’s unclear if the third knob here is a pickup blend knob or an original TBX.
And finally, A fourth Jazz Bass Special
but the only change here is the 3 way pickup switch,
lack of a pickguard and a TBX installed.
This bass also has a sticker from the band Social Distortion.
With all this talk of a regular Jazz Bass, could it be Duff has finally grown accustom normal
To a thinner, slimmer Jazz Bass neck?!
Who knows!
In part 2 of the Duff Mckagan series we cover his amplifiers, strings and effects pedals.
But if you’re looking for more basses and gear used in bands like Velvet revolver, Loaded
and Walking Papers you’ll want to stay tuned for part 3
Links will be below to all the videos in this show notes.
Which is full of the little details we couldn't include.
If you found the video informative please give it a thumbs up and subscribe.
As I really appreciate that and it helps the channel to grow.
If there’s a rig rundown you’d like to see, let me know in the comments.
As requests are now coming in
Thank you very much for watching and and I'll see you in part 2.
Guns N' Roses - Garden of Eden
This fire is burnin' And it's out of control It's not a problem you can stop It's rock n' roll.