John Frusciante’s 1958 Fender Stratocaster (BSSM)

For the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, John used what was apparently a late 50s sunburst Stratocaster. However, there are some issues with this, because for that to be true, the guitar had to have had a maple neck, because rosewood necks were introduced only in May 1959. And, since we have a pretty good insight into what guitars he used on the album (all gear pretty much documented in Funky Monks), we know that none of them had maple necks, and therefore John had made a mistake in his statement.

My main guitar was a ’58 Strat, though I used a Les Paul reissue on a couple of things. 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

A thing to note here is that the guitar that John thinks is a ’57 Stratocaster, according to photos, also had a rosewood neck. This means that John either didn’t care to know much about the guitars that he was playing at that time or that he intentionally gave out wrong information.

John playing a rosewood neck Stratocaster during the recording of ‘Soul to Squeeze’ from the BSSM album. Source: Funky Monks documentary (1991)

That aside, it is also important to note that this is not the same guitar that John used in the late 90s and early 2000s – the one which most of the fans know as his main. This particular guitar was used from mid-1991 to mid-1992 when John left the band. A couple of Strats were seen again briefly in the 1993 short documentary Stuff taken at John’s place, and this could’ve been one of them, but either way, none were used upon John’s return to the band in 1998.

John’s Kramer (left), a sunburst Strat, and a random mandolin. Snapshot from the mini-documentary “Stuff”.

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Jack Huggins
Jack Huggins
5 years ago

Mark my comment as trash okkk

Jack Huggins
Jack Huggins
5 years ago

I have a 58 strat with rosewood ass well. Often times the body and the neck are different years