John Frusciante is an experimenter.
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Known for his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) over more than three decades, the guitarist has been making his own music since he was a teenager. Writing and recording as a teen, Frusciante even attended his first Red Hot Chili Peppers show when he was 15.
Through experimentation, Frusciante differentiates each rig setup per project, from the Chili Peppers to his solo and other collaborations. In the studio, the guitarist has also crafted his own recording techniques, many of which he picked up from longtime RHCP producer and collaborator Rick Rubin over the years.
First joining the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1988, Frusciante appeared on their fourth album, Mother’s Milk, then Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1991 before leaving the band in 1992 to pursue a solo career and work through his addictions. By the end of the decade, a newly sober Frusciante returned for the band’s biggest-selling album, Californication, then parted ways once again in 2009 before coming back in 2019.
Outside of his on-and-off tenure with the Chili Peppers for more than 30 years—and his songwriting credit on dozens of RHCP songs, including “Give It Away,” “Breaking the Girl,” and “Scar Tissue,” among others—Frusciante has also released 13 solo albums from his 1994 debut, Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt through his dual album releases, I and II, in 2023, in addition to four albums under the moniker Trickfinger.
Though Frusciante has played plenty of Gibsons, some Rickenbacker and Gretsch, over the years, Fender guitars have been a mainstay for the guitarist.
Here’s a look at five Fenders Frusciante has used over the years with the Chili Peppers.
1. Fender 1963 Telecaster Custom
The Telecaster was first inspired by the advent of television when the guitar was launched in 1951. Fender then added the Precision Bass that same year. Around the time of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2002 album, By The Way, Frusciante began gravitating toward Telecasters over his regular Strats.
“Around ‘By The Way,’ I played Teles more than a Strat,” he said.
Frusciante even handed over a sunburst Telecaster to his RHCP replacement, guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.
2. 1961 Fender Stratocaster
By 1954, space exploration inspired Fender to craft the Stratocaster. The guitar was meant to sound as if it arrived from another … musical stratosphere.
As far as gear and guitars go, on his solo recordings, Frusciante admitted to never using the same rig that he’d set up with the Chili Peppers. Though, when he has been with the band, there are three favorite Stratocasters that he specifically pulls out for the occasion.
“In the Chili Peppers, I always have a Marshall Major, Marshall Jubilee, and my old Fender Stratocasters,” said Frusciante of the ’61 Strat. “My main Strat is a sunburst ’62, my second favorite is a sunburst ’57, and my third is a red ’61.
3. (Early ’60s) White Fender Stratocaster
Frusciante has mentioned owning a “white early-’60s Strat,” which was initially rented to him before he bought it. Though he’s used the guitar, he said it’s not the most practical. “It’s the kind of guitar you can have some fun on, but it’s not really practical,” he said in 2009. “If you break a string and someone hands you that guitar, you’re not going to be able to do the same thing with it at all.”
Despite its lack of practicality, he did credit his old, white Strat with helping transition him into trying out other guitars.
“With the white Strat, it was a neat experience because it made me play different, and made the band sound different,” revealed Frusciante. “If I hadn’t gone through a phase of buying, I never would have come upon the White Falcon and some of the others. I definitely have used the SG and Les Paul in ways that also gave the band a different sound. I had to buy different guitars to see how they’d fit into my repertoire, into my songwriting, and into my playing.”
4. Fender Mustang
Over the past 75 years, Fender has introduced the Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Mustang, and other designs that found a second life later on, like the 1970s Starcaster resurgence after being picked up again by bands like Radiohead and The Killers.
First introduced by Fender in 1964, the Mustang had some musical legs over the decades, being preferred by Kurt Cobain, PJ Harvey, Norah Jones, and Thurston Moore, among others. Frusciante even has a red one in his collection.
“I also have a red Mustang, and it’s fun,” said Frusciante. “I feel like a different person on it, too, but it feels really comfortable, like an extension of me, but also that it’s a toy instead of a guitar.”
5. 1961 Fender Jaguar
“I love Fender Jaguars,” said Frusciante, who owns a 1962 version in Fiesta Red finish with matching headstock. It’s a guitar, Frusciante said he has owned longer than any other. “When I rejoined the Chili Peppers,” he added, “I just had one guitar—the red Jaguar.”
Frusciante even remembered when he first found the Jaguar in the late ’90s. “I bought that [red Fender Jaguar] at a guitar store, I think it was Voltage Guitars on Sunset, in 1997,” said Frusciante. “I didn’t have a guitar, and then I got some money and that was my Christmas present to myself.”
Fender first introduced the guitar in 1962 and the more affordable model later had a resurgence during the burst of punk and new wave in the 1970s when it was adopted by artists like Television’s Tom Verlaine for economical reasons.
Over the years, Johnny Marr, Frank Black, Dinosaur Jr.‘s J Mascis, Brian Molko of Placebo, and more have played a Jaguar.
Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/FilmMagic
