John Frusciante’s 1961 Gibson SG/Les Paul Custom

According to John, this SG can be heard during the breakdown section of Otherside (if you’re listening to the studio version of the song, this part comes at around 2:52 time mark), but most people will probably remember it for its appearance in the music video for the song Fortune Faded. At this point, it’s unknown whether the guitar was actually used during the recording sessions, but given the heavier sound in that song, it is highly likely that it was.

(talking about Otherside:) For the breakdown section, I used a ’61 Gibson SG Custom into a cranked Marshall JCM 800. I think that’s the best kind of distortion – a humbucker into a Marshall, like Eddie Van Halen.

Guitar Player (UK), September 1999
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Fortune Faded (YouTube)

Specs

John’s 1961 Gibson SG features a cherry red finish on a solid mahogany body, a sideways Vibrola tremolo, three PAF pickups, and a white pickguard.

Interestingly, since the guitar was made in 1961, it’s actually a Les Paul and not an SG. The model was only renamed SG (meaning Solid Guitar) by Gibson in 1963 after Les Paul requested for his name to be removed from this new model. Apparently, when the SG model was introduced in 1961 as a direct replacement for the old Les Paul model, which at that point was not doing so well in terms of sales, most people (including Les Paul himself) didn’t like the new version.

Be that as it may, the production of the first version of the Les Paul was on halt for whole seven years, until 1968. Given that many popular guitarists at the time, including Kieth Richards, Eric Clapton, Paul Kossoff, and Jimmy Page, started using the discontinued model, Gibson felt pressured, and put the old model back into production. The SG model was sold as a completely separate product from 1963 and even managed to surpass Les Paul as the company’s best-selling model.

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george wong
george wong
3 years ago

abuela wong said she met johnny boi