Duff Mckagan: Heavy r-hand strumming, even on a ballad?

[ArturoVega]

Hi,

I was always told that on a ballad/slow pretty song you have to play with your fingers and not your pick in order to give it a smoother/warm sound…it makes sense to me, however; if you listen to DON’T CRY by Guns N’ Roses it sounds like Duff is playing with a pick, not only that, but it sounds like he quiet heavy on his right hand when he strums the bass.

Does this sound correct?

I’m wondering if they just adjusted the volume level during the mix to make his bass lines sound heavy, yet not too loud …


I’ll be in recording in the studio in the next few days. We’re doing a ’pretty song’, and I’d like to achieve a similar kind of vibe. I'm not using a fender, but I 69 Les Paul bass, so I know I won't get the same tone, but I'd like to get the idea across...

[phxlbrmpf]

Keep in mind that G&R are still a rock band. I like to think of using aggressive bass sounds as a way to keep ballad-ish rock songs from sounding too tame and cheesy. In other genres, things might be different and a "heavy" bass sound might sound completely inappropriate but it doesn't hurt to experiment.

[jaywa]

I don't think Duff has ever NOT used a pick. But I could be wrong.

Same deal with a lot of those 80s hair band power ballads. Poison, Warrant, etc. Most of those bass lines were played with picks even though you'd think fingering would be the way to go.

[ianm76]

A lot of Duff's lines on ballads were pretty simplistic with just a few roots and maybe a couple notes walking up to the root (Don't Cry, Knockin' on Heaven's Door). Most of Guns' ballads had slow and fast parts so he'd do a little more pounding on the root during the faster/heavier parts.

Originally Posted by jaywa

I don't think Duff has ever NOT used a pick. But I could be wrong.

So far as I know, he has always used a pick. However, when I saw VR at the Wiltern last Feb, he played 4 or 5 songs with his fingers (mostly one finger, ala Jamerson). I was only a few feet away for him for most of the show, let me see if I can find any of my crappy camera-phone pics.

EDIT: Found some pics.

[ianm76]

One more pic. And one of Slash, just cause it turned out so good...

[Subs]

If it is a rock band your in, that should be fine if theres plenty of space in your bass line and the overall song. get a good take and just push it back a little in the mix, mabye add a bit of compression/limiter to tone the really loud bits down...
If it's not a rock band, try it but don't expect it to work, leave time for alt. takes but by all means experiment with it.
tell us all how it turns out won't ya?