Duff McKagan: Punk King Of The Bass Melody

Duff McKagan is the king. Specifically the punk-king of the bass melody and is criminally underrated (at least in my opinion).

What do you think comes to most people’s minds when you bring up Duff McKagan’s most iconic band, Guns N’ Roses? For most people, it’s probably things like:

• Slash’s ultra iconic guitar riffs, the soaring solos (and the unmistakable hat – obviously)
• The screeching and wailing (and possibly the on and off-stage antics) of singer, Axl Rose
• Those 3-4 Guns N’ Roses songs that ‘classic rock’ radio stations seem to have on a continuous loop (I’m looking at you Sweet Child Of Mine, Paradise City and November Rain…)

But for bass players in the know, Guns N’ Roses is ALL about Duff McKagan!

So why is he frequently overlooked in the conversation about great bassists? 

Maybe it’s because when you’re sharing a stage with massive personalities like Axl Rose and people with hats as iconic as Slash’s, it’s easy to be a little overlooked.

Perhaps it’s because he plays a style of music where the bass is often treated as an afterthought (“Just play that guitar riff down an octave…”) 

But even if that is the case and Duff doubles a guitar riff or hammers out root notes in tandem with a kick drum, he manages to squeeze in so much creativity, a ton of his own personality and a ton of melody.

And not only in the ‘famous’ songs (like the intro to Sweet Child Of Mine) but throughout the entire Guns N’ Roses catalog as well as his other projects like Velvet Revolver. He’ll always find a way to take what could have been a run-of-the-mill, boring bass line, and inject his own melody and personality and still manage to be completely supportive of the song he’s playing.

To me, that’s the mark of a master bass player, and in today’s video, I want to decode Duff McKagan’s bass style for you, show you how Duff does it and how you can do the same thing. In this bass legend deep-dive, you’ll learn:

• Three specific melodic Duff McKagan ‘devices’ that he uses all the time that sound so flippin’ good (that you can easily plug into your own bass lines to make them more melodic)
• How he uses modern effects with a classic punk-rock tone to make sure every note is heard crystal clear
•  The open-string ‘bounce’ that propels Duff’s lines forward (that you have to be very careful about using – you’ll see why in the video)
• Why I believe that Duff McKagan is in the running for the title of Punk-King Of The Bass Melody (it’s a made-up title, but weren’t all titles made up at some point? lol)

And don’t worry – of course we’ll be talking about Duff’s iconic Sweet Child Of Mine bass solo.

Check out the lesson here:

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As always, the absolute best way to practice this stuff and really get inside the mind of a bassist like Duff is to imitate and emulate. Play exactly what he played in exactly the way he played it (or at least as close as possible).

And to make that as easy as possible, I’ve made all the iconic Duff McKagan bass lines, licks and solos into a super handy PDF – AND – I’ve also made pitch-corrected recordings for all of them so you don’t have to tune down your bass to Eb. And like I mentioned in the video, the open strings actually matter when it comes to the Duff McKagan style.

To get all the tabs and tracks for free, just fill out the form above and you’ll get everything in less than 60 seconds. 

I hope that through really listening to what Duff is doing, you might gain a bit more of an appreciation – or even a bit of love – for the Punk-King Of The Bass Melody: Duff McKagan.

Good luck with the lesson and happy playing!

Cheers,