John Frusciante Unknown Stratocaster (First Electric Guitar)
John’s first-ever electric guitar was a Stratocaster—or more precisely, a Stratocaster copy of some kind. Before owning it, he had an acoustic guitar, and to convince his father to buy him an electric, he learned to play the entire Sex Pistols album.
In an interview with Rick Rubin (see link in the quote below), John explained that before getting his first electric guitar, he was primarily into punk rock. However, owning an electric guitar opened the door to new musical influences, including Jimi Hendrix, which shifted his musical interests significantly.
I wanted to play an electric guitar years before that, but nobody would buy me one. And I just didn’t like the sounds of an acoustic. […]
Once I actaully had an electric guitar, I just became obssesed with Jimi Hendrix, and that lead me to being into Jeff Beck, and Cream…
John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers | Broken Record
While John hasn’t specified the brand of his first electric guitar, he’s mentioned that he was around 12 or 13 years old when this all happened, giving us an approximate timeline of when he began playing electric guitar.
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This Stratocaster is potentially seen in the footage of Ike live at Time Speed in 1986, posted by Matthew Goodman. Around the 8:16 mark you can see John playing some kind of Stratocaster with stickers all over it (can also tell it’s a strat by the headstock, a different guitar to the performance guitar he’s playing for the rest of the show)
The videos in 240p so it’s tricky to make out other details.