John Squire’s 2012 Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster “Fools Gold”

John acquired this red Fender Stratocaster sometime during The Stone Roses reunion tour in 2012. In an interview with Guitar.com, he mentioned that while he took the guitar on tour, he mainly kept it in his bedroom for warmups and practice, as he felt it sounded a bit “puny”—meaning weak or lacking in power.

However, years later, he ended up using it to record most of the Liam Gallagher & John Squire album in 2023. During the writing process, he was on vacation and put together a portable recording setup to continue working while traveling. This minimal rig likely included his guitar, a laptop, an interface, and AmpliTube, allowing him to record wherever he was. ^[1]

It’s a Todd Krause Custom Shop and the inscription is from Fools Gold. I bought it during the Roses reunion and it was a hotel guitar because it always sounded a bit puny. But it was just in this room when I started writing the album. I knew I was going on holiday during the writing period, so I thought, ‘Why don’t I get a mobile system together?’^[1]

The guitar can be heard on almost all tracks from the album and was also used in live performances during that era. It appeared in the music video for Just Another Rainbow, where its distinctive look was clearly visible.

According to Squire ^[2], it is a 2012 Todd Krause Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster, completely stock apart from an inscription on the body quoting lyrics from The Stone Roses song Fools Gold.