Total Guitar Hero Worship Explosion

Forget the socks on cocks and the smack breakdowns – John Frusciante is still most famous for his stunning playing, here’s why…

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, losing one guitarist to heroins could be seen as unfortunate: losing two almost seems like carelessness. And yet, with the grim inevitability of Spinal Tap’s drummer turnover, that’s exactly where the Red Hot Chili Peppers found themselves back in 1992, when John Frusciante was forced into a six-year sabbatical by the same drug that killed his predecessor, Hillel Slovak.

Even if Frusciante had never hit another clipped funk chord, his understated virtuosity would still be titled under genius. Drafted into his favourite band aged just 18, the L.A prodigy’s economical playing was the perfect tonic to Flea’s slap-bass excess, and turned 1989’s Mother’s Milk from gurning feat-rock into something vital and genuinely potent. Behind the incendiary gigs and sock abuse, however, a storm was brewing – and after casually knocking out the guitar album of the 90s with Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Frusciante slipped into freefall.

In any normal account of rock star excess, of course, this story would end with Frusciante pawning his Stratocaster to find a spiralling smock habit, no small wonder to see him emerge clean and lean in ’98, rejoining the Chilis for their two finest albums to date, Californication and By The Way. Frusciante now releases solo albums at the rare most people make cups of tea, and – most impressive of all – his talent still burns red hot. A funking legende.

When John Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he was an unashamed disciple of punk, who had learnt the guitar by clattering along to the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bollock swore allegrance to the Germs and was heavily wayed by the nosebleed racket of Black Flag. “I was 11 years old when I first picked up the guitar,” Frusciante told TG in 2001, “It was after hearing the Germs. And I loved Black Flag, the song Revenge – that was the first time I ever tried to learn a solo. It wasn’t a very succesful attempt ‘cos I was very haphaxard. And there’s lots of noisy feedback so you can’t just learn the solo by playing all the notes.”

It’s easy to spot the punk influence in the Chili Peppers’ music – have another listen to Give It Away – but Frusciante has always cast his net much wider than the simple three-chord racket. He also namechecks influences as diverse as Funkadelic and Sly and The Family Stone – you’ve heard Higher Ground, right ? – alongside such 80s guitar heroes as Johnny Marr of The Smiths, John McGeoch of Magazine and Bernard Summer of New Order (primarily for their texturing and atmospheries), The Spanish-sounding Cabron (from By The Way) was a direct product of Frusciante’s love of Vini Reilly of the Durutti Column – a flamenco player and a master of textured guitar parts – while he also has an unhealthy respects for Depech Mode synth parts. “That’s how I practise,” Frusciante told TG. “Melodically, I’m more influenced by Kraftwerk records than by guitar solos. I try to get away from playing flashy stuff and concentrate on not playing solos at all. I sit on the bus listening to Music For The Masses and play ever part, I can play along four times and each time play something different. It takes a lot of technical precision.”

After the wah-drenched funk of Mother’s Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, this is the next generation of Frusciante’s playing – guitar lines that are as much about percussive rhythm as they are about melody. Check out tracks like Parallel Universe and By The Way for the best examples of this; speedly circling repetitions that echo the synth lines of the 80s and require considerable alternate picking ability to keep up. When Frusciante does strum chords, he’ll generally hit all of the strings – simply mutting the ones he doesn’t want to ring out.
How else do you nail his sound?

Well, Frusciante wears his guitar slung low, and this has the effect of placing his strumming/picking hand about halfway between the bridge and the neck. This gives a warmer, fuller sound than picking in mind. Frusciante also favours the neck pickup on his guitar uses limited vibrato and suggests “hitting the strings hard.” No problem there.

In terms of gear, Frusciante has been spotted toting a Gretsch White Falcon and Fender Telecaster in recent years, although he told us in April that “the main guitars I use are a Tele and a Les Paul. Between these two you can get pratically any kind of sound”. We’re not contradicting him here – we’re sure he knows what guitars he uses – but based on the interviews, footage and live shots we’ve seen, Frusciante still seems to favour his 1962 Fender Stratocaster – an instrument whose years of, ahem, “love” have seen half its sunburst finish scaped off. This is the guitar he used to record the By The Way album (the sustain is better than the ’58 Strat he used on Californication, apparently), along with a Gibson SG that cropped up on a couple of tracks. The Chili Peppers man also tends to use 0.010 gauge strings (or 0.012s if he’s playing the White Falcon) and favours Jim Dunlop’s orange Tortex picks. Even we can afford those….

Frusciante has recently claimed to have stopped using Marshall amps (in favour of Vox), but there’s little doubt that this brand played a significant part in his signature tone over the years. When playing the Strat, his setup would typically feature two Marshalls – a 200 watt Major and a 25/50 Jubilee head into 4×12 Marshall cabinets – while his White Falcon moments would find him using a Fender Showman, again in tandem with the Marshall cabs.

You won’t find much chattering up Frusciante’s pedalboard – he prefers a sparse, organic feel to his sound – but that’s not to say he’s short of a stomphox or six. Californication featured heavy use of an Electro- Harmonix flanger and a Big Muff, alongside various Line 6 echo pedals, while Frusciante also favours Boss overdrive pedals and holds the classic MXR Phase 90 and Roland CE-1 chorus pedal close to his heart. For all that, it’s the Ibanez WH-10 wah-wah pedal that has become Frusciante’s unofficial favourite. “I’m still using it,” he told us, “It’s on the song Don’t Forget Me, but there’s not as much wah on By The Way as previous albums. I just turned it on and kept it in a trebly position.”

As ever, it’s a much about how Frusciante plays as the actual gear he uses. Check out the Peppers’ DVD at Hyde Park to get a feel for this approach to the guitar. It’s a physical relationship, and to simply listen to the albums is to miss the sweat and the soul that Frusciante invests.

CLONE THE TONE

Channel: Overdrive
Gain: 4
Treble: 8
Mid: 2
Bass: 6
Reverb: 7

To really nail John Frusciante’s fruity guitar sound, you’ll need to get your hands on an axe with singlecoil pickups. If you have humbuckers, you need to use lower settings on your amp. The above settings are based on a Strat-type guitar.

First, plug your guitar into the overdrive pedal, then connect that to your wah-wah and plug that into your amp. Select your guitar’s neck pickup and turn volume and tone to full and your amp’s master volume to 5.

If your amp has clean and overdrive channels, select overdrive. If you have a single channel practice amp, you’ll need an overdrive pedal. Some amps have just bass and treble controls – set the bass to 6 and the treble to around 8. If you have a middle control, set the bass to 5-6, middle to 1-2 and treble to 8.

If your amp has a gain knob, turn it up (3-5) until you get mild crunchy distortion. If using a distortion pedal, the same applies: don’t set the pedal’s distortion or drive knob far above halfway. If there’s a tone control, set it around halway.

Start to strum and you’ll hear a warm but crunchy distortion. Turn the neck pickup’s vol down until the sound gets cleaner, and you should have a tone very close to John’s basic rhythm sound – clean but edgy, with a warm bass tone and bright treble. For solos or power chords, turn the volume back up to full.

To get that nasal lead sound with even more drive, click on the wah-wah pedal and lodge it halfway up.

FRUSCIANTE ON A BUDGET

So, what would John Frusciante’s rig cost to buy? Well, adding his vintage Strats, old Marshalls and rare pedals would probably take you over the £.10,000 mark. What a pisser. Being slightly now realistic, let’s go for a basic Marshall/Fender combination, plus a Bass overdrive and Dunlop Crybaby wah-wah.

A ’62 Fender Vintage reissue Strat will let you back around £.1.250, while a 100 watt Marshall DSL 100 head and 4×10 and would sting you for the thick cost of £.300.

Throw in £.150 for the pedals and it’s starting to look like you’ll need well over £.2000 for a professional (single amp) setup along Frusciante’s lines.

The good news is that it can be done a lot cheaper. And the great news is that you can come pretty close to it with almsot any guitar/amp combination. If times are tough, a Squier Standart Stratocaster will get you into Frusciante waters for a tritting £.199, while Marshall’s AVT20. combo amp is a realistic choice at £.249. However much you’re feeling the pinch though, we’d still recommend sticking with the pedals we mentionned earlier. A decent wah is paramount when you’re aping the Peppers, so it’s worth splurging £.110 to get your hands on a Dunlop Crybaby pedal – while a 30, the Boss SD-1 overdrive pedal is a great choice to emulate Frusciante’s more hairy-chested moments.

Try the Squier Strat at £.199 – it’ll get you close to Frusciante’s sound. As for amps, Marshall is the one, along with a Dunlop wah and SD-1.

ESENTIAL LISTENING

New to John and the Chilis? if you only buy one Chili Peppers album, make it…
Blood Sugar Sex Magik was John Frusciante’s second album in the Chili’s guitar hot seat. His first, Mother’s Milk, proved he was a more than adequate replacement for Hillel Slovak, who died of a drug overdose in 1988. On Blood Sugar… Frusciante began to leave behind the influence of his flashier heroes Steve Vai and Van Halen to concentrate on muscular riffs and tasteful but rockin’ solos. John played a major role in the writing of the album’s most famous tracks, Under The Bridge,a melodic ballad that marked a departure from the Chili’s funk-rock. This song and Blood Sugar Sex Magik’s other ballad I Could Have Lied set the standard for much of the Chili’s later work as such, the album represents the band at their funkiest most introspective.