John Deacon

John Richard Deacon was the bassist for the rock band Queen, also playing rhythm and acoustic guitars in several of their albums as well as ocassional keyboards. Born 19 August, 1951 in Leicester, United Kingdom, he was the youngest member of Queen. He is the author of the hits "Another One Bites The Dust" and "I Want To Break Free", which show that his contribution to Queen was significant.

Gear

John's first bass was an Eko, then he got a Rickenbacker which is what he used for his audition for Queen, the very first concerts and the recording sessions at De Lane Lea in 1971. When the band begun recording at Trident he had problems with it and acquired a Fender Precision 1967 model with silver logo and sunburst finish, which became his main instrument for the last concerts in '72 and all the '73-'75 tours. As a back-up he had another one of the same model but black logo. Before the beginning of A Night At The Opera sessions he stripped off the paint of both, left them natural finish, and switched them, from then on the black logo one would be his main for most tours and recordings.

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In early 1977 John got two new basses: a Fender Precision Fretless, which he used for '39 on stage (emulating the double bass) and a Musicman Stingray which he used as main for A Day At The Races tour and some videos. From News Of The World tour until The Works tour in 1985 the Musicman would remain for just specific numbers (Sheer Heart Attack, Another One Bites The Dust and Back Chat), and used sometimes in the studio as well. The fretless type kept being used for '39 and My Melancholy Blues live until the end of the decade.

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During late '77, at the beginnings of News Of The World tour in the States, he tried another Fender P-Bass, a 1954 model, but eventually gave it up and returned to the black logo '67 model. The old Fender kept being used ocassionally as back-up, in the recordings of Coming Soon (1979) and in the video of Back Chat (1982).

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In 1980 Kramer made him a custom bass, which he used as back-up for some tours and in videos (e.g. Play The Game, Las Palabras De Amor). Next year Fender gave him a special prototype model which John used for recording Under Pressure and performing it during the 1981-1985 period.

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A new Fender P-Bass came to his hands: a red Elite 1, which he used for mimed performances, some videos and recordings (e.g. One Vision). In 1986 John got a Warwick Buzzard, used for some videos and mimed performances, but not on recordings. Before Magic Tour he refurbrished and sprayed black his beloved Precision and continued using it as main (e.g. Freddie's Tribute, No One But You).

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His last (known) bass acquisition was a Giffin in 1987, used for some guest appearances live, videos and probably some recordings too. As an interesting fact, John smashed his black Precision at the last Queen concert in Knebworth Park after A Kind Of Magic, then smashed his spare (the Elite 1) at the end of Radio Ga Ga and he played We Are the Champions wither with the Special model or with the Musicman.

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For other instruments, John mostly used Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars, his main was a custom Tele which he used on stage. In the recordings of Misfire he demonstrated he too could play guitar harmonies. For acoustic he mostly used Martin D-18 and Ovation. The piano he played in Another One Bites The Dust was a Bosendorfer and in You're My Best Friend a Wurlitzer. For synths he used OBX, Jupiter 8 and DX-7.

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