Members doyo Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 I love John Taylor's bass tone in Duran Duran. Am I the only one? Has anyone tried to mimic it? How could it be done? [YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassesofalessergod Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 everyone loves it.... first step, get an Aria Pro II Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members s4001 Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Second step. Play the Aria Pro II Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 78pbass Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Step One, cut a hole in the box Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Emprov Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 This is the fourth response and Super Bass hasn't shown up yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JacieFB Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Is it possible to get a couple of those girls on film without first getting Duran Duran bass tone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greenshag Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 pulled from wiki: BassesThe bass guitar most commonly associated with John Taylor is the Japanese Aria Pro II, which he used during the height of Duran Duran's fame; he also promoted the instrument in a series of magazine advertisements. In the mid-1980s, John tried other basses such as Steinberger and Wal (interestingly, although the Wal is considered by many to be one of the world's finest basses, Taylor was unimpressed with his). Taylor eventually settled on Phillip Kubicki's Factor bass with a unique drop-D latch on the head. Taylor also inherited the Music Man StingRay belonging to his idol Bernard Edwards. As of 2007, Taylor still plays the Aria and the Stingray, but has also been seen playing a 1962 reissue Fender Precision Bass, a Gibson Les Paul bass, a Warwick Thumb 5 and a Peavey Cirrus 5 and 4 string. Noting Taylor's loyalty to the same Peavey bass guitar onstage with Duran Duran for several years, in early 2006, Peavey Guitars asked Taylor to create a signature 4-string bass guitar. With his design partner Patty Palazzo, and designer Ted McCann, Taylor created the limited-edition "Peavey Liberator J84", which featured a detachable amplifier built into a custom-built case. The amp could be expanded into an external speaker or amplifier to increase volume and flexibility. Taylor went on to design a six-string guitar, the "Peavey Liberator A435" (named after the main road that led from his childhood home into the city of Birmingham, England), as well. Only 100 each of the numbered-and-signed basses and guitars were made available to the public, in October 2006. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greenshag Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 some more stuff When Duran Duran began writing and recording Astronaut, John pulled out a piece of bass history Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators ThudMaker Posted April 22, 2009 Moderators Share Posted April 22, 2009 Palladia and also one of the VH1 channels has the Duran Duran Wembley 2004 concert showing on a regular basis. He is using individual fx pedals as greenshag mentions and numerous basses. Good show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members T. Alan Smith Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 JT's just about my biggest influence. Want to learn how to play like John? Study Bernard Edwards first. Then, study world music, fine arts musics & (post)punk, etc... Everything I found fascinating as a 13 yr old. Duran Duran, as a band, is prolly my biggest influence. The 1st 3 albums were like a Bond soundtrack ...then they did a Bond titletrack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members T. Alan Smith Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Yeah, he played a pair of gorgeous Peavey Cirri thru an all Peavey rig when I saw them a couple years back. Great shew. [applauds] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators ThudMaker Posted April 22, 2009 Moderators Share Posted April 22, 2009 JT's just about my biggest influence. Want to learn how to play like John? Study Bernard Edwards first. Then, study world music, fine arts musics & (post)punk, etc... Everything I found fascinating as a 13 yr old. Duran Duran, as a band, is prolly my biggest influence. The 1st 3 albums were like a Bond soundtrack ...then they did a Bond titletrack. I loved Duran Duran, too. I think they are still putting out some good tunes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doyo Posted April 22, 2009 Author Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Emprov, bassesofalessergod: What exact model of SB did he play, do you know? Before I found out it was SB, I had thought it was single coil to be honest. 78pbass: wut? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LanEvo Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Has anyone tried to mimic it? How could it be done? For some reason, I'm not getting sound from my computer at the moment. So this is all from memory... I used to have a Steinberger XQ-5 (ash body, bolt-on graphite neck, active EMG pickups and EQ) and I could absolutely nail the Duran Duran tone. I was using relatively thick nickel-wound strings. The trick is to actually bump up the high-mids to get that punch. I would roll down the highs a bit and bring up the bass a bit. Then add quite a lot of compression (around 4:1) and a bit of noise gating. That helps the bass jump out when playing fingerstyle. Something else I've noticed about the John Taylor sound is that the fundamental is pretty strong. You definitely get that with graphite-necked basses and it seems like neck-through basses often have a pretty solid fundamental compared to most bolt-on basses (which seem to have more overtones). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members s4001 Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 +1 Notorious was the Kubicki which started my infatuation with Kubickis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doyo Posted April 22, 2009 Author Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Thanks for your much more informative answer, greenshag. Do you happen to know his eq and compressor setting as well? Thank you, T Alan Smith. I wasn't familiar with Bernard Edwards. Good to see some of fellow DD fans! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members T. Alan Smith Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 I loved Duran Duran, too. I think they are still putting out some good tunes. Yeah..."some." At least the tour hauled ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zachoff Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Step One, cut a hole in the box Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LanEvo Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Emprov, bassesofalessergod: What exact model of SB did he play, do you know? Before I found out it was SB, I had thought it was single coil to be honest.First of all, you never really know what goes on in the studio: what bass was recorded, through which amp (or board), using which compressors, etc. etc. You'll never know. Quite often, the bass you see on stage (or in the video) isn't the one you hear on the album. Trying to nail the tone from an album is generally pretty futile. As for John Taylor, I really don't think the specific bass is all that important. The guy was a notorious gear whore. In addition to those Aria Pros, he's been known to play various Steinbergers (XL, XM, and XQ models), Kubickis, Wals, Stingrays, Peaveys, P-Basses, Les Paul Basses, Yamahas, and even B.C. Rich and Warwicks. Pretty much every bass under the sun! And yet, you can always tell it's him. The constants seem to include stainless steel strings in relatively heavy gauges, humbuckers, a strong fundamental with boosted mids, and compression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doyo Posted April 22, 2009 Author Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Yeah, I figured it would be more high-mid than low. Thanks, LanEvo. 4:1 compression, huh? Awesomely useful info. Kubicki is one of the best looking bass ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doyo Posted April 22, 2009 Author Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 First of all, you never really know what goes on in the studio: what bass was recorded, through which amp (or board), using which compressors, etc. etc. You'll never know. Quite often, the bass you see on stage (or in the video) isn't the one you hear on the album. Trying to nail the tone from an album is generally pretty futile.As for John Taylor, I really don't think the specific bass is all that important. The guy was a notorious gear whore. In addition to those Aria Pros, he's been known to play various Steinbergers (XL, XM, and XQ models), Kubickis, Wals, Stingrays, Peaveys, P-Basses, Les Paul Basses, Yamahas, and even B.C. Rich and Warwicks. Pretty much every bass under the sun! And yet, you can always tell it's him.The constants seem to include stainless steel strings in relatively heavy gauges, humbuckers, a strong fundamental with boosted mids, and compression. What a comprehensive post! Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vanlatte Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Step one: Be John Taylor Done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greenshag Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 Thanks for your much more informative answer, greenshag. Do you happen to know his eq and compressor setting as well?Thank you, T Alan Smith. I wasn't familiar with Bernard Edwards.Good to see some of fellow DD fans! I do not, I just saw your post, and did a bit of googling, and remembered reading about his basses on wiki.....I do love some Duran Duran, so this thread interested me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Super Bass Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 This is the fourth response and Super Bass hasn't shown up yet? I was on my way home from work. +1 to what everyone else says... you need an SB. Well, you don't need one but it'll get you very close to his tone. Here's two of my three. The other is being worked on at the moment. left: late 80's Aria pro II Elite II right: '07 Aria pro II SB-1000CB The SB-1000CB is the same as the current John Taylor Aria except for the colour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LanEvo Posted April 22, 2009 Members Share Posted April 22, 2009 What a comprehensive post!I used to be a big-time new wave fan and Duran Duran was way up the list of bands I admired. John Taylor is definitely one of the guys who inspired me to play bass. John Taylor and Tony Levin are a couple of the guys who inspired my "Steinberger bass through an SWR rig" phase. I didn't learn until much later that both of them were known to play Stingrays in the studio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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