Fender has painstakingly replicated John Frusciante’s legendary 1962 Stratocaster for its latest Limited Edition Masterbuilt Custom Shop signature guitar drop.
There have been plenty of iconic Strats across the decades – Gilmour’s Black Strat, Eric Clapton’s “Blackie”, and Rory Gallagher’s own 1961 model, to name just a few – and Froosh’s own heavy relic’d sunburst model is comfortably up there with the lot.
Perhaps the main electric guitar from his entire collection, the ’62 has been used extensively throughout his Red Hot Chili Peppers stints, and was responsible for tracking – and bringing to the stage – a huge assortment of the band’s biggest hits.
A foundational aspect of both Frusciante’s heralded guitar tone and the wider RHCP sound, the 1962 model has become deeply synonymous with its influential owner – and now, at long last, it’s been reproduced by Fender.
You may recall that rumors of a Frusciante signature Strat began circulating in May last year, after Frusciante was spotted playing a replica of his original model.
More than a year later, a hugely anticipated signature version of the Strat – which marks Frusciante’s first-ever signature Fender – has finally dropped, but this isn’t your regular US-made signature, nor is it a more affordable Ensenada-made spin-off.
This is very much a top-of-the-line Custom Shop replica created by Senior Masterbuilder Paul Waller. As such, it commands a hefty price tag: $20,000, to be precise.
That expense is reflected in the level of detail that’s been applied to this replica. As Fender stresses, it “spared no expense” in recreating every detail of the source material, from the dings and dents on the headstock and neck, to the heavy aging of the sunburst finish.
Naturally, the electronics and the physical playability of the replica have all been modeled on Frusciante’s OG model. That means it has a “singular worn in quality that is usually only attainable with a pre-owned vintage guitar”, while the pickups offer an ILLITCH hum-canceling system as per the source material.
Those pickups, notably, are hand-wound single-coils built by legendary pickup winder Abigail Ybarra, who first retired back in 2013 after spending more than five decades working as part of the Fender family.
Underneath all the cosmetics bells and whistles, you’ll find a select two-piece alder body, a rift-sawn maple neck, and a slab rosewood fingerboard that offers 21 narrow tall frets and a vintage 7.25” radius.
Other appointments include vintage-style tuners, a bone nut, Vintage Strat wiring, and a vintage-style synchronized tremolo.
All in all, it’s undeniably the closest thing you’re going to get to experiencing the real Stratocaster, which Frusciante bought way back in the late 1990s when he re-joined the band for the Californication era.
“The main guitar that I played was my ’62 Strat, which is the same guitar that I got when I rejoined the band back in 1998,” he told Guitar World in 2022. “Back in ’98 I didn’t have money for a Strat, but I told them all I had was a Fender Jaguar, and I felt that I should have a Strat for it to sound like the band.
“Anthony [Kiedis] and I went to Guitar Center and he lent me the money to get a Strat, and it was the one that spoke to me off the wall. And ever since then, I’ve had many other Strats – from that period of time, generally – and that one that happened to be there that day, I’ve never found one better than that.”
Now, $20k is hardly accessible for the majority of guitar players, but fear not: Fender also rolled out the red carpet for Mike McCready’s own sunburst Strat, which received a similar Custom Shop treatment before a Made in Mexico variant arrived later down the line.
Could a similar thing happen here? There’s no guarantees, of course, but it would be a no-brainer for Fender, which clearly recognizes the historical significance of this particular Strat.
“Frusciante’s Strat is right up there with the most iconic Fenders of all time; being able to work on his first-ever Signature model was a true privilege,” notes Waller. “Recreating this instrument’s many beautiful imperfections was no easy feat, but behind every ding and dent is a story and it’s our job to make sure that this guitar’s narrative is told in full, stunning detail.
“For an instrument this heavily reliced, it still retains so much of its original beauty. A ton of work went into this one, and while much of that can be reflected in its visual components, the whole team is tremendously proud of how this thing plays.”
Visit the Fender Custom Shop to find out more.
