John briefly used this guitar on Blood Sugar Sex Magik to record the solo on “Mellowship Slinky in B Major.” He purchased the guitar shortly before recording the album, but it reportedly had severely worn frets. John took the guitar to a local shop to have the frets replaced, but he was unhappy with the result and ultimately asked for the frets to be completely removed.
Well, the frets on this guitar were completely shot, so I took it to Nadine’s [a L.A. music store]. Actually, I took it in for something else, but the guy says, “Man you gotta get new frets.” And he put on these huge frets. Jumbos. Which were like shit. So wimpy. When I play, I press down hard on the strings. And when I did that with the jumbos, it didn’t even sound in tune. So I just told him to make it fretless.
Guitar Player, October 1991
The guitar had a sunburst finish and a rosewood neck. John referred to it as a ’57 Stratocaster in an interview, but that’s unlikely since it didn’t have a maple fretboard (all Strats made before May 1959 featured maple). It was more likely an original 1960s Strat or a reissue model.
I also have a ’57 Strat, which someone had screwed up by putting on those big stupid frets that everyone uses these days. I vomited and told them to make it fretless. That’s what I used for the “Mellowship Slinky” solo.
Guitar Player (USA), October 1991
Just as a note, this guitar is not to be confused with the 1959 fretless Stratocaster that John used later on.
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