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John Deacon's PBass tone?

#22
As for live, I saw Queen waaaay back on the Sheer Heart Attack Tour---Washington DC, Kennedy Center(!). I was a wee lad, but I was rocked. Sitting very close in front of Deacon too. He had a P and an SVT. Of course in those days it was pretty much the standard live rock rig (the opener was Kansas, and Dave Hope also had a P and an SVT---prolly the same amp I expect).
Hey wait a minute, it's the standard live rig now too . . .go figure.
 
#23
John Deacon is one of the few bassists being both very underrated and who's style is almost totally his hands and ability to master the rhythm of the beat. Very few notes but so much swing in them.....IMHO. His approach to the melody is totally unique.

I definitely believe he could play any P style bass and sound nearly the same. Also, Queen multi tracked and layered their sound heavily, I would not expect to totally capture his sound without some help in that arena, as well as develop his hand technique and insight on how to swing the beat.

Again IMHO....
 
#24
I've actually got wav files of all 24 tracks of the session tape from Killer Queen. There was an amp and a DI recorded, plus one short run overdubbed on a separate track. Sounds like flats for sure. PM me and I'll send you the bass parts if you want. Hearing the vocal parts isolated is pretty impressive, Freddy Mercury was really something.
 
#30
maxbass said:
The pickup placement has been the same since 1957.

I think an Alder/Rosewood Precision should be the first choice, but I'm sure you could easily nail it even with an Ash/Maple. If your hands allows you, of course!

In the end I think that any P-bass would do the job, once it has an AlNiCo split coil (I'd stay away from Ceramic pickup or even AlNiCo's with scooped mids), and flatwounds would greatly help
Click to expand...
THANX! just what I suspected..

I think the Kramer in "The Game" video (and Brian's strat) were both "video guitars" maybe they seemed more photogenic,or interesting for the visual aspect etc..
 
#31
projectMalamute said:
I've actually got wav files of all 24 tracks of the session tape from Killer Queen. There was an amp and a DI recorded, plus one short run overdubbed on a separate track. Sounds like flats for sure. PM me and I'll send you the bass parts if you want. Hearing the vocal parts isolated is pretty impressive, Freddy Mercury was really something.
Click to expand...


The first one is dead air...BTW--how the hell did you come accross those?
 
#33
AndyMan said:
The first one is dead air...BTW--how the hell did you come accross those?
Click to expand...

hold on, let me try this again.

encoder didn't seem to like 32 bit floating point files. I'll convert to generic wavs and then encode again. These have floating around the net for a while now, I think the story is that they were being used at some university's audio program in a lab and got leaked.
 
#36
Certain early publicity stills from the 70s showed John posing with a Fender Jazz, but considering they also depict Brian wielding a Strat and not his trademark 'Fireplace', their veracity can be doubted. In essence he was - and is - a Precision man, sporting variously shaded varieties over the last 25 years. Throughout the 70s a sunburst Fender was his main squeeze, although on stage it had to share the spotlight with the sunburst MusicMan (and occasionally a triangle). Only when his hair got shorter (for 'News Of The World' onwards) was a stripped natural finish selected instead; this was to be around for almost a decade, right through the 'Works' tour and even appearing at Live Aid. The 'Magic' tour of '86 saw a black Precision wheeled out for the first time, although it didn't always make the video shoots: Friends Will Be Friends saw John struggling with a John Entwistle-designed Warwick Buzzard; One Vision, I Want It All and Headlong featured a red Precision; but most interestingly, Princes Of The Universe, Breakthru, Invisible Man and Scandal all saw John wielding a Giffin natural wood finish bass, custom-built for him by Roger Giffin. Essentially a 2-pickup Precision clone, it features a ghost inlay on the 12th fret. Those 4-strings aside, Who Wants To Live Forever saw a double bass in operation, A Kind Of Magic a banjo and One Vision a set of drums.
Whatever the brand of bass, the style hasn't altered. Extremely able but rarely flash, John never uses a plectrum; just his fingers hooked over the instrument which is usually held at 45 degrees - and often played one-legged (see 'Queen Live At Wembley' for proof!) * The Sunburst and the Black precision are the same bass (see Bass'es Bassinet)

(from the Deaky site)
 
#40
Just watching the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert on Sky in the UK.They're doing Radio Ga Ga,with Paul Young on vocals.John Deacon is using: Fender P bass in red sparkle,gold hardware,maple fingerboard,white scratchplate,and 1,yes only 1 control knob presumably volume.Never seen this before.Anybody else?
 

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