Donald “Duck” Dunn was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.’s and as a session bassist for Stax Records.
When Dunn was 16, he acquired his first Fender Precision Bass, a 1958 model with sunburst body, one-piece maple neck and gold anodized pickguard, an instrument he owned until his death.Throughout his life, Dunn believed this was a ’58 model, but after his passing, his son Jeff had work done on the bass, and the neck was inscribed “4-59,” putting the date definitively as 1959. During the 1960s, he used a nearly identical 1959 model, but it was outfitted with a rosewood fretboard. He was an avid user of thick La Bella flatwound strings, as was James Jamerson.
While filming “The Blues Brothers,” Dunn used a sunburst mid-sixties Fender Precision bass with a rosewood fretboard and a tortoise pickguard. He also used a red 1966 Precision in some of the scenes; a bass stamped “Demo” on the back, which was later fitted with a ’70s Jazz Bass neck. It was a combination that was popular with other top-level players, including Carl Radle, and Billy Cox. This “Jazzision” became the basis for a Lakland Skyline Series signature bass made by the Chicago bass company Läkland nearly 20 years later. In 1980, with the popular Blues Brothers Band touring regularly, Fender gave Dunn a new bass to try, the company’s first active electronics equipped model, the Precision Bass Special. Duck’s bass (serial number E0xx009) was finished in his favorite color, Candy Apple Red, with a matching headstock, and featured a one-piece maple neck, and gold hardware. He played this bass briefly, before gifting it to a friend.
just...BASS! 