McKagan onstage with Loaded and his Fender signature P bass, which has a Seymour Duncan STK-J2B bridge pickup, a split P-bass pickup with alnico
magnets, a 3-position toggle, and three knobs—two Volumes and a Fender Treble Bass Xpander (TBX). Photo courtesy of MissionPhotographic.com
How did Date bring out the
best in you?
Going into the project, Terry
was firm about making sure we
got any extraneous shit out of
our heads before working. He
was like, “How about you finish
that game of online Scrabble?
It’s time to man up and make
a record.” When we began to
work, he didn’t kiss our asses or
anything, but he was complimentary
about our playing and
our songs. I think that—and
knowing Terry’s legacy—gave us
all a lot of confidence and took
things to another level.
As a veteran of the music
industry, have you found it
hard to adapt to changes in
recent years?
Not really. I enjoy the challenge
of staying ahead of the
curve and remaining both
artistically and financially
viable. For the new record,
we’re working on a feature
film, also called
The Taking.
It’s basically a madcap adventure
in which our drummer,
Isaac, is kidnapped and we
have a day to come up with
a ransom—sort of like the
Beatles’ A
Hard Day’s Night
meets Led Zeppelin’s
The Song
Remains the Same. It will be in
art houses this summer, and
it’ll give people a chance to see
our wonderful sense of humor.
Of course, we take ourselves
seriously when we write and
play music, but we always see
humor in all the rock ’n’ roll
shit—we’re in on the joke. In
any case, we might repackage
the album to include a DVD
of the film. Special touches
like that are what help a band
survive in this day and age—
something extra for fans where
they feel like they’re included
in our wacky little club.
Duff McKagan’s Gearbox
Photo by Lance Mercer
Guitars
Various vintage Les Paul
solidbodies of undisclosed
model and year,
1973 Gibson Les Paul
Custom, 2008 Gibson
SG, 1988 three-pickup
Gibson SG, two Burny
Les Paul copies (one
black, one goldtop),
Sparrow Guitar Co. Rat
Rod, Fender Jim Root
Telecaster modified
with passive electronics
and Seymour Duncan
pickups, Fender Duff
McKagan P Bass
Amps
Marshall JCM900 guitar
head driving a vintage
Marshall 4x12, assorted
Engl guitar amps and
cabs, Gallien-Krueger
2001RB bass head driving
assorted Gallien-
Krueger cabs
Miscellaneous
Dunlop Heavy Core
guitar strings (.010–
.048), Dunlop Tortex
.73 mm picks (for guitar
and bass), Rotosound
Swing Bass RS66LF
4-string set (.045-.105),
Rotosound Swing Bass
RS665LD 5-string set
(.045-.130)
Loaded Lead Guitarist Mike Squires' Gearbox
Photo by Lance Mercer
Washington-state-native Mike
Squires—a self-professed
“gorilla on the guitar”—is
Duff McKagan’s lead ace in
Loaded. Squires was strictly a
metal player before he heard
Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite
for Destruction , but he says
the album changed his life.
“From listening to Slash, I
realized I could be a shredder
and be melodic—I could be
technical and greasy at the
same time and approach pop
songs like a punk,” he says.
Squires, who has played
with a number of Seattle
rock bands, including Eat
the Feeling, Harvey Danger,
and Alien Crime Syndicate,
joined McKagan’s Loaded in
the early 2000s and has since
used a nicely streamlined rig
to power his unhinged playing
approach. It includes two
2007 Les Pauls (a Custom
and a Traditional), a Yamaha
SG1820, and two custom
Saul Koll solidbodies—a mid-
’90s DuoGlide with three
P-90s (“It’s as sexy as anything
on earth, and it’s been
through absolute hell with
me”) and a Tele-shaped, 24
3/4"-scale Koll with a mahogany
body, a set neck, two
P-90s, and a Bigsby. “The
Koll has an angled headstock
to avoid the standard string
trees,” he says. “It’s basically
a Les Paul Junior disguised
as a Telecaster. I used it on
‘Indian Summer.’”
Squires uses Dunlop
DEN1052 .010–.052 strings
and Dunlop .73 mm Tortex
picks. His amps include an
Engl Tube Preamp E530
and an Engl Tube Poweramp
E840/50, a 1997 Bogner
Shiva head, and an early-’70s
Traynor YBA-1, all plugged
into an old white Marshall
1987X 4x12 cab. In the studio,
he also uses a Marshall
Bluesbreaker combo.
Jeff Rouse’s Gearbox
Photo by Lance Mercer
Like guitarist Mike
Squires, Loaded bassist
Jeff Rouse played extensively
with Alien Crime
Syndicate—a powerpop
group originally
from San Francisco.
Rouse has also held
down the low end for
bands like Vendetta Red
and Sirens Sister, and
he currently has a heavy
solo project called To
the Glorious Lonely.
Rouse is known for
his mean but melodic
rumble, a sound he gets
with a minimum of fuss.
On The Taking, he used
a pair of brand-new
Yamahas—a BB2024X
4-string and a BB2025X
5-string—that he
plugged into a Tech 21
SansAmp RBI and a
Gallien-Krueger 2001RB
head driving a GK
410RBH 4x10 cabinet.
“The tonal quality of
those basses is just amazing,”
he says. “Because
it was so easy to get
so many great sounds,
I went in at noon to
record my parts and had
finished everything by
10 that night.” He uses
Rotosound Swing Bass
RS66LF and RS665LD
strings (4- and 5-string,
respectively) and Dunlop
1 mm Tortex picks.