John on Ibanez WH-10 and His Signature Tone
In an exclusive article on Music Addicionado – a website that appears to be a social network for musicians, collectors and fans of music, John shed some light on the Ibanez WH-10, the pedal that contributed to his signature tone from his earliest days as a professional musician. This cult pedal was re-issued some years ago in a version that is more solid and it sold out quickly. So, how did somebody known for a large pedal board back in the days get acquainted with this fan-favourite?
“When I first joined the Chili Peppers Ibanez was really friendly and gave me the wah pedal along with two or three guitars. I played the guitars for a while but the band—by which I mean Anthony and Flea—was totally against it, and so when I switched to playing Fender Stratocasters I smashed the Ibanez guitars on stage just to make them happy—but I definitely kept the wah pedal!”
Unlike the current reissue of the WH10, the original was made of plastic rather than metal. “It is easy to break,” says Frusciante. “For example, the last time the Chili Peppers were on Saturday Night Live, at the climax of the song we played I would hit the wah pedal for an extra boost. I’d keep the pedal toward the high position and just play really fast and dirty, but I stepped on it too hard and broke it. I’ve broken several of them on stage, and now I’m left with only one, but I don’t really use them anymore anyway. In the Chili Peppers I was playing like Jimi Hendrix and I stopped doing that when I quit.”
You can read the rest of the feature here.
While it is not clear when and how this interviewlet* took place, it was done by Barry Cleveland, who previously interviewed John for Guitar Player Magazine in 2006 and the two dissected every song on Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Stadium Arcadium.
* We have been making up words since 2004, for as long as we have sucked summarising articles and there never was a “we”.
