Red Hot Chili Peppers – By the Way

John Frusciante began using the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb around the time of the "By the Way" release in 2002. It was a regular feature on his pedalboard during the album tour, indicating its likely use in the studio sessions. This pedal also played a prominent role throughout the "Stadium Arcadium" era, as evidenced by the image available on Equipboard.

According to the research of John Frusciante Tablatures, Frusciante used a PDS-1002 from the By The Way tour to the Stadium Arcadium World Tour. This 2006 photo shows two adjacent units.

John Frusciante used a Fender Toronado electric guitar in an orange finish in the "Can't Stop" music video. You can see him with this guitar at 0:54, 1:02, 1:12, and so on throughout the video.

In this interview with Vintage Guitar, Frusciante says that around the era of the Red Hot Chili Peppers album By The Way (released in 2002), he favored Telecasters over his more usual choice of Stratocasters:

"Around By The Way, I played Teles more than a Strat."

In this photo, he can be seen performing live with his sunburst Fender Telecaster with a white pickguard and rosewood neck. The pickguard has the distinction of having an "F" on it from the Fender logo.

John Frusciante also gave a sunburst Tele to his replacement in Red Hot Chili Peppers, guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. In this rig rundown video around the 24:50 mark, Josh Klinghoffer's guitar tech Ian Sheppard shows a Tele in Klinghoffer's setup:

Great old... I think it's a '67 Tele? A Tele custom, that was actually John's [Frusciante], he gave that to Josh many years ago. I mean he had that when he was playing with PJ Harvey when I first met him. Again great guitar, you can do anything to that and it won't go out of tune.

It's unclear whether the Tele in the photo is the same one he gave away to Klinghoffer.

This guitar was used in the Can't Stop music video. Additional proof is a notarized document from South Carolina.

The guitar had been rented by the video production company that the RHCP used for the Can't Stop Video from Outlaw. They sold it and the strat changed the owner a few times and now it is owned by me.

One of Fleas modulus basses, this one has the aboriginal paint job

At 2:28 into this video of Flea's rig rundown, his tech talks about a few of Flea's basses which he uses in addition to his primary Modulus one:

“This Modulus bass has the custom Aboriginal finish on it, it's beautiful. He plays it on By The Way, we tune it to drop D. Pretty much the same [as his main bass], this one has a Seymour Duncan pickup in it, but the same preamp.”

In this picture we see Flea's custom model Modulus Flea Bass which was nick-named the ‘Punk Bass’ due to its decoration; it was painted red, white and blue and covered in graphics featuring Flea’s favourite punk bands. This bass was used to record most of By the way record and was used as flea's main touring bass

Flea, the bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers, incorporates pick playing alongside his signature fingerstyle and slapping techniques. He began using a pick on the album "Californication" and continued on "By The Way" and "I'm With You." Notably, in the studio, Flea opts for a Dunlop Tortex Standard 0.73mm pick. However, during live performances, he often uses a 0.60mm Tortex, likely borrowed from bandmates John or Josh. Songs where Flea uses a pick include "Parallel Universe" from "Californication," "This Is The Place," "Don’t Forget Me," and others from "By The Way," as well as "Annie Wants a Baby" and "Even You Brutus?" from "I'm With You." This information is sourced from a 2002 article on the Red Hot Chili Peppers fansite, TheChiliSource.com.

Used live with RHCP, as featured in this May 16, 2012 Electro-Harmonix Blog post

Congratulations to the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!

Chris Warren (tech + keyboardist) with the band texted Suzi Matthews while on tour to let her know that Anthony Kiedis is using a V256 Vocoder on “By the Way.” And Josh Klinghoffer’s rig includes a Cathedral Stereo Reverb, Freeze Sound Retainer, Holy Grail Reverb and a Deluxe Memory Man Analog Delay/Chorus/Vibrato.

Chad Smith can be seen playing DW 9000 hi hat stand at 0:14 in this video.