John Frusciante’s Unlimited Love/Dream Canteen Pedalboard (2023 Update)

Published : - Author : Dan Kopilovic
Posted under: Pedalboards

Since the Red Hot Chili Peppers announced that John Frusciante will be rejoining the band, every gearhead has been wondering what kind of gear will he use. Fortunately, we finally get an answer.

On April 1, 2022, RHCP played a gig together with the band Irontom at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. Irontom’s bassist, Michael Goldman, was filmed by his bandmate during a soundcheck, who then posted the video on the band’s Instagram page.

Goldman is seen testing out a smaller pedalboard, belonging to Irontom, while above it, we see a larger pedalboard which is prepared in advance for John Frusciante who would perform later on on the same stage.

John Frusciante’s 2022 Pedalboard. Photo source: Instagram/Irontom

A little fun trivia detail – Irontom’s guitarist, Zach Irons, actually owns one of Frusciante’s guitars – the 1961 Fender Stratocaster finished in white. He was even using it at the gig, as seen in the photos shared on the band’s Instagram page.

Zach Irons with the John Frusciante Stratocaster.

John’s “Unlimited Love” Pedalboard (Early 2022)

Below is the zoomed-in shot of the Instagram footage, with every pedal labeled with a number. Please note that two pedals on the far left are not visible in this particular frame, but they can be seen in the video.

John Frusciante's 2022 pedalboard labeled.
John Frusciante’s 2022 pedalboard labeled.
  1. Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble
  2. Boss DD-500
  3. Digitech PDS1002
  4. MXR Carbon Copy
  5. MXR Echoplex
  6. MXR Flanger
  7. MXR Phase 90
  8. MXR Dyna Comp
  9. EHX Big Muff Pi
  10. MXR Micro Amp
  11. Boss XT-2
  12. Boss DS-2
  13. Boss SD-1
  14. MXR M236 Super Badass Variac Fuzz
  15. Ibanez Wh10
  16. MXR Reverb
  17. MXR Reverb
  18. ???
  19. Moog Low-Pass Filter MF-101

Few interesting things to note here – first, John really seems to like his MXR pedals nowadays. He did use the MXR Phase 90 and the MXR Micro Amp since basically forever, but most of the other MXR pedals are something completely new.

Most notably, he ditched the EHX Holy Grail for the MXR M300 Reverbs – two in fact, which is pretty interesting. Perhaps he needed two different settings and needed to switch quickly between them. MXRs are a lot smaller than the Holy Grail, and maybe it was just a matter of making the pedalboard more compact.

He also ditched both the Line 6 pedals, the DL-4 delay, and the FM-4 filter. Now, at least for the delay, he’s using the MXR M299 Carbon Copy and the MXR Echoplex.

Also, this is the first time we’re seeing a compression pedal on John’s pedalboard – in this case, an MXR DynaComp, and we see a pretty big downsizing in regard to the Moog pedals. During the Stadium Arcadium era, he had nine of them on his pedalboard.

Another pedal worth noting is the relatively modern Boss XT-2 distortion, which John uses alongside the DS-2 – one of his go-to distortion pedals.

John Frusciante’s Apollo Theater Pedalboard (Late 2022)

By late 2022, John’s pedalboard changed somewhat. The photo you see below is from the Apollo Theater concern in New York, played on September 13, 2022.

We see that John added the Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler, which is a pedal he used a lot in the past. The pedal is marked with a piece of tape reading “Television” which means that John is obviously using this on “Throw Away Your Television”.

We also see that he added a Micro-Tron IV Mu-Tron envelope filter pedal. Interesting thing is that on the Mu-Tron he removed the far-right foot switch that activates the “Up and Down” effect. In any case, this is the only time we’ve seen John use this pedal, and he has since removed it from his pedalboard, so he was probably just trying it out.

John Frusciante's Pedalboard September 2022
John’s Pedalboard September 2022
  1. Boss DD-500
  2. Digitech PDS1002
  3. Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble
  4. MXR Carbon Copy
  5. MXR Echoplex
  6. MXR Flanger
  7. MXR Phase 90
  8. MXR Dyna Comp
  9. Moog CP-251 Control Processor
  10. Boss TU-3 Tuner
  11. Big Muff Pi
  12. MXR Micro Amp
  13. Boss DS-2
  14. Boss DS-2
  15. Boss SD-1
  16. MXR M236 Super Badass Variac Fuzz
  17. Ibanez Wh10
  18. MXR Reverb
  19. MXR Reverb
  20. Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler
  21. Moog Low-Pass Filter MF-101
  22. Micro-Tron IV Mu-Tron envelope filter

If you want to see how each individual pedal is set up, and to what setting, click on the image above and that’ll open up a high-res version of the image.

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