John Frusciante’s 1965 Marshall JTM-45

This Marshall was used as John’s main amp on the Californication album, usually paired with a Marshall Super Bass. Interestingly, even though John recorded some of the songs on it, the amp was never used on tour, but a 200W Marshall Lead was used instead.

(Talking about ‘Around the World’:) That’s a Fender Jaguar I borrowed from our recording engineer, Jim Scott. I like Jags – they get a really cool, cheap sound. I played it through two Marshalls: a JTM 45 and a 100-watt Super Bass. That Super Bass is great. It’s so thick sounding.

Guitar Player (UK), September 1999

I used a real old ’65 Marshall. I also used a 200-watt bass head that I used on Blood Sugar – I use a bass head and a guitar head at the same time; that’s how I play. I had a good sound for this album, but Louie [the band’s right-hand man] doesn’t want me to take the heads on tour because he thinks they’ll break.

Guitar One (USA), September 1999

Obviously, this is conflicting info regarding the bass amp, so it’s unclear whether it was a 100W Super Bass or a 200W model.

What is known for sure is that as soon as the band began rehearsing the songs from Californication, John started using a Marshall Silver Jubilee paired with another unknown vintage Marshall – possibly the 200W Major. When the tour began, he also added a Fender Dual Showman to the rig.

Californication rehearsals. Photo credit: Unkown

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