Good Time Boys
Dispirited, Kiedis accepted an invitation to audition for Thelonious Monster, wound up meeting Frusciante and eventually recruited the guitarist for a reformed Red Hot Chili Peppers. (Smith was hired through auditions.) Heading into the studio with producer Michael Beinhorn, the Chili Peppers addressed Slovak’s death and the evils of addiction in the powerful “Knock Me Down,” which earned the band its first major MTV play. But it was their powerful, punk-edged remake of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” that finally gave the band the hit it had been hoping for.
In 1992, the Chili Peppers signed to Warner Bros. and released the Rick Rubin-produced BloodSugarSexMagik. Finally, it seemed, everything was going right; between the rap-driven “Give It Away” to te Hendrix-flavored ballad “Under the Bridge,” the band had finally made its mark commercially.
This is where things get complicated. Just as the Chili Peppers were poised to headline the 1992 Lollapalooza festival, Frusciante told the group, in Tokyo, that he was leaving. Zander Schloss, whom Kiedis and Flea knew from Thelonious Monster, joined the Chili Peppers for Lollapalooza but was replaced by Arik Marshall (Formerly of Marshall Law) after the tour. Marshall toured with the band for almost a year before quitting in 1993; his replacement, Jesse Tobias (from the L.A. band Mother Tongue), barely lasted a month.
Finally, ex-Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro signed on, and played on the 1995 album One Hot Minute as well as a version of “Love Rollercoaster,” which the band cut for the soundtrack to 1996’s Beavis and Butt-head Do America. Despite the success of One Hot Minute, Navarro and the Chili Peppers at some point apparently became dsenchanted with each other and enacted a mutual decision to part company. The band began jamming with John Frusciante, who ultimately returned to the fold. The Chili Peppers entered the studio in 1999 to begin recording what became Californication.
Hot Tamales
The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ gear
John Frusciante’s principal guitar for Californication was a ’55 Stratocaster, but he also used a ’62 Strat and a ’65 Telecaster that’s “similar to the kind of guitar that Syd Barrett used to play in Pink Floyd, and also similar to what Jimmy Page played in the Yardbirds,” says Frusciante. “Those are two of my favorite guitarists.”
Matthew Ashman from Bow Wow Wow was another inspiration. So when Frusciante saw a 1955 Gretsch White Falcon like the one Ashman played, he had to have it. “That’s probably the most beautiful guitar I’ve ever seen,” gushes Frusciante.
“Fugeddaboudit,” concurs Kiedis.
Like Ashman, Frusciante strings the Gretsch with .012s, and uses it for parts of “Otherside,” “Californication” and the melody sections of “This Velvet Glove.” But those aren’t the heaviest strings he uses. Frusciante also employs a 1950s-vintage Gibson ES-175 on “Porcelain,” and that guitar is strung with an .013 set.
Frusciante isn’t totally addicted to heavy strings. His Strats are strung with .010s. “You know, you can’t really play funk on .012s,” he says. “But I did feel, based on the two or three guitar players there are in rock music who play with .012s or .013s, that I could develop a style that would go with Flea’s bass playing on strings of that size. So I wrote a couple of songs using that guitar, and it worked out well.”
Flea, by contrast, has no idea what kind of strings he uses. “I got a roadie, and he puts them on,” he says. “I always used to used GHS boomers, and maybe that’s what they are.”
Flea’s amps are Mesa/Boogie cabinets with Gallien-Krueger heads, and his effects include a fuzz pedal, a wah-wah, an auto wah and a booster pedal. “And I don’t know what kind any of ‘em are,” he says, laughing.
He knows a little more about his bass, but then again, he should – it’s a Modulus Flea model. But even there, his input into the design was fairly minimal. “I said, ‘Yeah, it’s good, and make it look like a Fender because hat’s the coolest-looking bass there is,’” he laughs. “The main thing I like about it is that you can beat the fuck out of it and it doesn’t go out of tune. And it can be in different temperatures, and the neck doesn’t warp because it’s made out of graphite, or whatever it is. I was having a lot of problems with that before, which is always kind of a nightmare for me.”
The other thing Flea likes about his Modulus is that it’s silver and sparkly. “I don’t know if you saw X with Billy Zoom, but he played that sparkly silver guitar,” says Flea. “I just loved that. He had this weird smile on his face, and he looked really cool.”
– J.D. Considine
