John Frusciante’s 1968 Fender Stratocaster

This 1968 Fender Stratocaster was John Frusciante’s main guitar around the time of the Mother’s Milk album release in 1989. It was seen frequently during this period, most notably at a gig at Dam Square, Amsterdam, on August 26, 1989, and in the Knock Me Down music video (though it may have been a different, identical-looking guitar).

Strat Stolen

According to John, his 1968 Stratocaster was stolen sometime in early 1990.

I played mostly Strats and Les Pauls on the record. (continued) For a while, my main guitar was a ’68 Strat, but it was stolen. Since then, I’ve gotten a couple of others that I’ve fallen in love with. But our basic philosophy is that our tones are in our fingers, and the particular instrument you play, or what kind of pick you use, doesn’t matter much.

Guitar Player (USA), April 1990

However, John’s guitar tech at the time, Robbie Allan, stated that the guitar was actually a 1969 model, and that John replaced it almost immediately after it was stolen.

I remember one night we played in Austin, Texas and I would put the guitars all together and I wanted to do some other stuff, when I came back one of his Strats was gone, someone had just walked in and stole one of his ’69 Stratocaster from him. […] The next day we found the same guitar, bought it for two grand and nothing was ever said about it again.

JF EFFECTS Interviews: Robbie “Rule” Allan (2020)

According to the same interview linked above, after this guitar was stolen, John went on a shopping spree and, at one point, owned around 15 different Stratocasters. These included both original 1960s models and Fender reissues. Unfortunately, due to the lack of detailed information about these guitars, they will be omitted from this list for now.