John Frusciante

This photo of John Frusciante's pedalboard from circa 2003 reveals he uses two Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion Pedals. Both of them appear to be the distinctively orange color, and have four knobs. They can be seen on the right side of the photo.

In this photo of John Frusciante singing into the mic, his Dunlop Tortex 0.60mm guitar pick can be seen in the microphone stand pick holder. This is a shot from the recorded Red Hot Chili Peppers performance Live at Slane Castle (recorded August 23, 2003 at Slane Castle grounds).

The 5th track into this performance has Frusciante performing a solo cover of the song "Maybe" by The Chantels. As he is singing, the camera slowly zooms into his side, and the picks wedged in the mic stand pick holder come into view (around 1:15 into the song). Judging by their distinctive color and layout of the graphics on the pick, they can be identified as the .60mm versions of the Dunlop Tortex. He has several of these wedged in the holder, meaning he uses them throughout the performance.

The DVD of the entire Red Hot Chili Peppers - Live at Slane Castle performance can be found on Amazon.

A mainstay on John Frusciante's pedalboard, his MXR M-133 Micro Amp Pedal can be seen in the bottom row of this pedalboard from circa 2006 (Stadium Arcadium era). It is to the right of his Big Muff Pi. The photo is from Guitar Player magazine, November 2006 issue. Photo credit David Lee.

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.

John Frusciante can be seen playing his Gretsch White Falcon Electric Guitar throughout this live performance of Californication with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, live at Slane Castle. A great close-up shot of the guitar can be seen at 0:39 into the video.

In an interview with Vintage Guitar magazine, when asked about some of his favorite guitars in his collection, Frusciante mentions his Gretsch White Falcons. In the same interview he talks about how he came to find it by purchasing different guitars thinking he would play a different way on each: "With the white Strat, it was a neat experience because it made me play different, and made the band sound different. If I hadn’t gone through a phase of buying, I never would have came upon the White Falcon..."

In this photo, John Frusciante can be seen playing live with a white Fender Stratocaster. In an interview with Vintage Guitar, in answer to the question "What are some of your favorite instruments in your collection" he mentions owning a "white early-’60s Strat". He says:

There’s a cool white early-’60s Strat that was rented to me at one point for some reason, and I just had such fun playing that I bought it. But it ended up not really being able to alternate with my other guitars; it’s the kind of guitar you can have some fun on, but it’s not really practical. 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.

Later in the interview Frusciante is asked, "Were many of your guitars purchased to have different sounds for recording, but not intended for use onstage?"

I bought them because I thought I’d play a different way on each guitar. But as time went by, I didn’t use them much. With the white Strat, it was a neat experience because it made me play different, and made the band sound different. If I hadn’t gone through a phase of buying, I never would have came upon the White Falcon and some of the others.

The article can be found here, and originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine.

This video titled Red Hot Chili Peppers - John Frusciante - Gear Rundown - Part 3 - Guitars was also submitted as a source for a duplicate entry, with the following notes:

Fender Stratocaster is probably most famous type of guitar used by John Frusciante. He started to use Stratocasters early in his career after being persuaded by Flea and Anthony. He used two stratocasters to record Blood Sugar Sex Magik: a 1958 one and a 1957 fretless one(used only on Mellowship Slinky in B Major). It is possible that after leaving the band in 1992 he either sold the guitars for money or they burned in the fire of his house. After reuniting with the band in 1998 and later writing and touring, several new stratocasters appear: his most iconic 1962 3-tone sunburst rosewood strat, a 1955 2-tone sunburst maple strat, 1961 fiesta red stratocaster(purchased just before Stadium Arcadium), 1963 Olympic White stratocaster(used mainly on tour).

An Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi can be seen in this picture of John Frusciante's pedalboard. Electro-Harmonix also confirms the use of the Big Muff Pi.

In addition to the English Muff'n, John has also toured and recorded with the Micro Synthesizer, Big Muff Pi (both USA and Russian), POG, Metal Muff, HOG, Holy Grail, and Deluxe Electric Mistress. That said, I'm sure you fru-heads are still going to email and tell me what I left out.

Used on Blood Sugar Sex Magik, John used the Dyna Comp on the solo of "Mellowship Slinky in B Major" and for the intro of "Under The Bridge" and if you go on YouTube and look up "John Frusciante recording Mellowship slinky in B Major solo" you can see it by his right knee next to the time.

You can see this pedal featured in the new setup of RHCP for Unlimited Love Tour.

This is a scan of a magazine interview where Frusciante talks about using a Fender H.O.T. practice amp during the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik:

"I like to keep things simple. Those MESA/Boogie amps were too hard for me to understand. For most of the basics, I used two Marshalls: a guitar head for edge and a bass head for punch and low end. I split the signal with a DOD stereo chorus pedal. For some overdubs I used a Fender H.O.T. practice amp, but for a lot of parts, even solos, I just went straight into the board. You can get amazing, funky tones that way. In fact, a lot of my distortion is from overdriving the board."

John is clearly seen here using a Vox AC30 during a gig with Ataxia in 2004.

In this photo, John Frusciante's red Fender Mustang can be seen next to him. In an interview with Vintage Guitar, he says:

I also have a red Mustang, and it’s fun. 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. The same for the Duo-Sonic.

Interview found here, originally from Vintage Guitar's April 2009 issue.

The Boss SD-1 can be seen beside his turbo distortion from this photos of their performance of "these are the ways" on the Jimmy Kimmel show April 1st

Akkording to John Frusciante Effects he used a TS9 at a show on April 14th 1989 at Shafer Court (Virginia Commonwealth University). The pictures are a little blurry but as the TS9 has a pretty unique look it seems to be pretty certain.

John Frusciante can be seen holding a white Fender Jaguar in this photo (the photo is originally from the November 2006 issue of Guitar Player magazine).

According to this rig diagram, John Frusciante uses a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal.

In an article from Vintage Guitar magazine, John Frusciante's 1962 Fender Jaguar in Fiesta Red finish (with matching headstock) is mentioned. When talking about his favorite instruments from his collection, he says:

"I’ve had most of these guitars for a really long time. When I rejoined the Chili Peppers, I just had one guitar – the red Jaguar. I started collecting and my friend, Vincent Gallo, helped me find a lot of guitars."

The actual guitar is pictured, with the following caption:

This 1962 Fender Jaguar in Fiesta Red is the guitar Frusicante has owned longer than any other.

Frusciante himself mentions this guitar, though there is an interesting inconsistency between what Vintage Guitar magazine says, in that Frusciante says it is from 1961:

"I love Fender Jaguars. The guitar I’ve owned the longest is a red Jaguar from around ’61. It has a matching headstock."

Original article can be found here.

John Frusciante's Marshall Silver Jubilee 25/55 100W Amp Head can be seen during his Fuse Studios performance of “How deep is your love”.

In this photo John is clearly using Marshall JCM800.

I play a MESA/Boogie amp, I forget which one. It broke before we started touring. All the knobs on it are frozen so I can’t move them, but they’re frozen in a good spot, so it’s okay. For the album, I played through a Soldano head, which goes to “11.” I use a Boss Distortion pedal, an Ibanez wah-wah, and a big old ugly Boss chorus pedal. On the album, a lot of the effects were done in the mix. The solos were recorded with just the guitar through the amp. {I like green [Dunlop] Tortex picks}. I use D’Addario strings, but only because I’ve been using them ever since I started, and I like having stupid habits like that. My roadies think I’m an idiot. Just to be dicks, they put D’Angelicos on my guitar, but didn’t tell me till later. They fooled me.

In an April 2004 issue of Guitarist magazine, John Frusciante talks about using the ZVex Fuzz Factory pedal on his studio album Shadows Collide with People. He says, "Well, there's the Fuzz Factory. That guy (Zachary Vex) makes really interesting effects and he handpaints them himself. The song Water has that crazy guitar sound at the end of it and that's just me playing right-hand finger harmonics and that's the sound that came out of the thing!

John Frusciante - Water (track 14 on Shadows Collide with People): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McH-5snJ32E

John Frusciante plays his Martin 0-15 in the official music video for Road Trippin'.

In this rig diagram of John Frusciante's rig circa 2001, one can see a Fender Dual Showman.

He has used the CE1 for all he's career for main chorus sound. I think he used also the CE2 but can't find nothing. This photo is from the Californication's recording sessions, but this pedal can be seen in every live video and pedalboard pic.

"My main guitars are Yamaha SG2000s. My favorite is a purple one from 1980." says John Frusciante in this Premier Guitar interview.

John Frusciante has been associated with the Marshall Major Amp Head, a key piece of gear in his setup. However, the current submission on Equipboard lacks a valid source to confirm this association. If you have a reliable source, please update the submission to reflect this information accurately. Otherwise, the submission should be rated as "Completely Incorrect."

From a Vintage Guitar Magazine article, "John Frusciante: Red Hot On The Empyrean" it is revealed that John Frusciante owns a 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom:

The Les Paul is a ’69, but I’m not sure what years the ES-175 and 335 are from. I don’t play those much; I bought them because Steve Howe played them, but they don’t really go with my style that well. I feel like Strats are an extension of me, and a Jaguar feels like the next closest thing to being an extension of me. Les Pauls and SGs seem like a further stretch. With a 175 or 335, I feel like a totally different person. I barely see a relationship to the way I play and the way those guitars are set up. You grow up developing a style on a Strat, and that’s what you play all the time.

Article can be found here.

In this scanned article from Guitarist magazine, June 2003 edition, Frusciante's pedalboard can be seen. In the top row of the pedalboard, the green Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeling Pedal can be seen.

John Frusciante says in the video that,"this is mine I bought it recently" (at 7:06) and he uses it in the dani california video.

John is clearly seen using a Boss FZ-3 on his 1998/1999 Californication recording session pedalboard and it remained on his tour pedalboard until 2000.

In the "Show Me Your Soul" music video, John Frusciante can be seen playing a black Stratocaster, particularly visible at 0:23 and 3:50 during the solo. While the exact year of this guitar is uncertain, its features—such as the rosewood fretboard and smaller '50s-style headstock—suggest it is an early '60s model, possibly between 1959 and 1963.

Additionally, photos from a shoot with William Hames show Frusciante posing with a similar black Stratocaster. Although not confirmed to be the 1962 Fender Stratocaster Prized Black, the guitar closely resembles early '60s models. Despite limited information on this specific guitar, evidence from the video and photos indicate it is likely an early '60s Stratocaster.