Tony Butler/John Taylor (Duran Duran)

[eddier]

Spotted some videos of the talented Tony Butler of Big Country (Pete Townshend, Pretenders & studio sessions)playing a Rickenbacker bass. These would have been early 80's (1980-83)

It appears that he was playing a Black 4001 with the Ric-O-Sound hooked up with Townshend on "Slit Skirts". Perhaps this was the same bass, but he also played a black 4001 with a black pickguard in some early photos of Big Country.

Did he use a RIC for "Angle Park"?

I was told he played a RIC during the Pretenders' session that yielded "Back on the Chain Gang" & "My City was Gone" (one of the coolest bass lines ever IMHO).

Spotted...John Taylor of Duran Duran playing a Fire-Glow 4001 in the Video for "Planet Earth"

Oddly enough both players switched to the same Japanese made A*** basses around the same time. Both players also were among the first to use the piano syle string. The type were the windings stop by the bridge, leaving the exposed center core and producing a piano like sound (in theory).