2019.03.26 - Fender - Interview with Duff

Excerpts from Ultimate Guitar:
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During a conversation with Fender, Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan talked about his playing philosophy, his new signature Deluxe Precision bass, and more.

The musician said (transcribed by UG):

"The Clash, Paul Simmons' bass playing, that's the way to do it. [Joe] Strummer said there's no difference between you guys and us, we're on the stage but we're all in this thing together.

"That sentence has reformed the rest of my musical life, it really has, and I think of that every time I play. Like, we're all in this together, you know. When you assume you're the most interesting person in the room, you know you're always wrong.

"As a bass player, you've really got to know what your role is, anybody in the band has got to know what their thing is and embrace that.

"Our band had a groove to it, it had a little sting to it; whenever Slash and I would lay into a riff together, that's when it got heavy. You gotta pick that, you can't do it the whole song, you pick it at the times when it's right, and then back out of it.

"If you wanna play bass in a band so you can show yourself off, thinking you're gonna be in the spotlight, then it's a wrong instrument for you."

Focusing on the drop-D tuning, the bassist said:

Duff: "We have drop-D songs, I've learned to play drop-D basically. When you have a drop D, any new tunings on whether you are on guitar or bass, you'll write nine songs immediately, right. Anyhow, that was my introduction to actually playing in 'anger' drop D."

Playing it in anger?

Duff: "You know what I mean? Like, playing for real. Instead of switching basses, like, we were playing in clubs, I wasn't bringing a tech, I wasn't doing anything, it was just me - I'm not going to sit on the stage and do this.

"Our set gets too fast, to do that there's no stopping. The point is, I had the bass with this drop-D tuner with the hipshot, the same pickup configuration as my other bass. We all have our little kind of safety things and my safety thing is having both pickups on."

The back pickup is Seymour Duncan, is that right?

Duff: "Yeah, it's a little bit hod-rodded up, it's got the thinner neck, which is great for, like, especially if you're just coming in, you can play around with thicker necks later on after you learn to play - I highly suggest a thinner neck, it's just a lot easier to get around."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/gnrs_duff_mckagan_if_you_wanna_play_bass_so_you_can_show_yourself_off_you_got_the_wrong_instrument.html