John Frusciante’s 1968 Fender Stratocaster

This was Frusciante’s main Stratocaster around the time of the release of the Mother’s Milk album. It was seen on numerous occasions around that time, throughout 1989. Most notably it was seen during a gig at Dam Square, Amsterdam, on August 26, 1989, and in the music video for the song Knock Me Down (possibly a different, identical-looking, guitar).

John playing his 1968 Fender Stratocaster in Amsterdam, on August 26, 1989. Photo source: YouTube – Red Hot Chili Peppers – 1989-08-26, Dam Square, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Full HD

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

According to John’s guitar tech at the time, the guitar was actually a 69 model, and John basically went and bought a new one the next day.

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)

Also according to the same interview linked above, from the time this guitar was stolen, John went on a sort of a shopping spree, and at one point owned around 15 different Strats, some original 60s models, some Fender Reissues. Unfortunately, due to no way of actually doing any proper research on these guitars, they will be omitted from this list for the time being.

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