John Deacon

John Deacon used this guitar during Queen tours since 1981.

This image shows John playing a Stingray bass on stage.

In this music video for Queen's song "Don't Stop Me Now," at 1:12, John Deacon can be seen playing a Precision bass.

In this photo, Deacon can be seen tuning up his Fretless Fender Precision Bass.

John Deacon is playing a Kramer DMZ 4001 in the Top Of The Pops performance of Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love) in 1981.

Deacon can be seen in this photo with a natural finish Fender Jazz Bass.

This picture show John Deacon playing his Rickenbacker. He used the bass for his audition for Queen, the very first concerts and the recording sessions at De Lane Lea in 1971.

John used this bass for Queen's performance at the Montreux Pop Festival in 1986. The same bass can also be seen in the promotional video for the 1986 Queen single "Friends Will Be Friends" off of the "A Kind Of Magic" album from the same year.

"...on the last American tour I picked up a very old Fender, one of the really early ones with the small straight pickup which is quite nice and I'm just getting used to it. I used it when we were doing some recording in Germany on one track, but I still ended up coming back to my other Precisions." (INTERNATIONAL MUSICIAN '79)

Although he has used this bass on a jam session with Martin Chambers from Pretenders and Tennis player Vitas Gerulaitis in 1983, he didn't possess it (Mr Peter Hince, 2004). Whether he also used it on his first solo work Man Friday and Jive Junior is still unknown. appeared also on The Prince's Trust Rock Concert '88.

John Deacon used this amplifier during Queen tours in 1972 - 1974.

2 x 4" x 12" Sound City cabinets.

John Deacon used this guitar in live performances of Queen song "Staying Power" in 1982.

"That first bass I had was an Eko, a very old thing with a thin neck, I had that for quite a while." (INTERNATIONAL MUSICIAN '79)

Custom-built for him by Roger Giffin. Essentially a 2-pickup Precision clone, it features a ghost inlay on the 12th fret.

Used with a Fender Precision Bass Elite and can be seen clearly from 1:45 to 1:52 during "Under Pressure" live at Montreal 1981.

John Deacon used flatwounds for all of his bass guitars, and Rotosound was his number one choice! Rotosound being one of the top string companies at the time in England, many artist used these strings. In the early years, he used Rotosound RS66 Swing Bass roundwound strings, as heard on the self-titled album, Queen. Because his playing style was either hard finger picking or normal plectrum picking, he decided to use heavy guage strings to accomidate.

Superwound bass strings arn't made anymore but Rotosound do offer piano string range which are the same thing. Superwound bass strings are when the core of the strings are exposed over the bridge, they then have the wound part of the string just after the bridge. These strings offer a "big bass guitar sound" ( John Deacon ) with a bit of twang.