My name is Michael James. This is my blogger account for my Web 110 Class that I'm taking at Wake Technical Community College. I don't have any pictures at the time, but will upload some soon. ^.^
Heres some information I need to have saved somewhere else than just on my harddrive. Californication Board is only:
Boss DS-2 -> American Big Muff -> MXR Phase 90 Reissue -> Ibanez WH-10 -> Boss CE-1
-> American Big Muff
> DL-4 (tapping)
On blood sugar he used the following:
Boss CE-1
MXR Phase 90
Boss FZ-3 Fuzz
Boss DS-2
Misc.
John uses Levy's leather straps, Schaller Strap Locks, and Dunlop Tortex .60mm picks. Dave Lee tunes John's guitars with a Peterson Virtual Strobe, a Boss TU-12 and I think he uses a Korg tuner too, noting that "You've gotta be sure, right?" He uses D'Addario XL .10's with a .11 on the top e
I usualy put the gain on my amp on bout half way with a touch off compresion then i kick in my ds-2 with a little bit of gain an volume maxed an it gets me quite close
cranked ds-2 into a relatively clean amp, but supersupersaturated powertubes (crank the master and set the preamp to the edge of breakup).
Don't forget the backbone of Frusciante's sound is his funky clean rhythm sound. You can hear it on tracks like 'Soul To Squeeze', 'Californication' and many more RHCP songs. it is his trademark sound.
A decent strat on the middle or bridge pickup setting, with some medium to heavy compression, into a clean amp, will get you there.
My favourite way to go after his rhythm sound is to use the humble Boss CS3 compressor into a clean amp. it isn't the most transparent compressor around, but it just nails that lo-fi squashed funkiness. in my opinion, the sonic stamp of the CS3 is very similar to Frusciante's tone.
When you select the bridge+middle or neck+middle pups on a modern strat, one pup is wired in reverse to the other and cancels hum (same principle as a humbucker), this wasn't a standard feature on some earlier strats, so I'd assume he reverse wound his middle pup so those positions were hum-cancelling. I think that's right, but feel free to correct me anyone
And on the far right, a DS-1 for the Gretch White Falcon. John always has the CE-1 right at the end of his signal chain to split the signal between his Silver Jubilee and his Marshall Major.
Oh, and a note on Big Muffs - at the start of the Californication tour, John used a Boss FZ-3. Around halfway through, he switched to a Russian Big Muff. Finally, right at the end, he started using an American Big Muff, which he's been using ever since.
For example here, the rock of Suck My Kiss and the slow ballad I Could Have Lied didn't get played, which are among the high points of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. However, other tracks were played, which compensates for this. Another slight disappointment is that the song Soul To Squeeze was left off the DVD, depsite being played, as John Frusciante broke a string on his guitar. It's a minor omission, but it would have been nice to see it on here.
MXR Micro amp
EH Big Muff
Boss DS-2 distortion
Ibanez WH-10
EHX Holy Grail
Mooger Fooger 12 Step Phaser
Boss CE-1
Boss FV-50
Moog Control Processor
Mooger Fooger MuRF
Mooger Fooger Low Pass Filter
EHX Electric Mistress
Guyatone VTX Vintage Tremolo
Digitech PDS-1002 Delay
Line 6 FM-4
Line 6 DL-4
Phew... probably missed one or two but there you go... ;)
John uses a Marshall Major 200W amplifier with KT99 tubes and a Silver Jubilee, both stock. The amps are run simultaneously through a Boss chorus where he goes in mono and it comes out in stereo. So that way whether the chorus is on or not the signal gets split to the two heads. The Silver Jubilee is just a little bit dirty at that volume [...] [the marshall majors are] special because at 200W you can have it loud and still be real clean. It's basically like a bass amp. John plays so much clean stuff, all of his distortion or overdrive is from his attack on the guitar to the different pedals."
He's also been know to use a Marshall Superbass 100W for recording because it has a really thick tone. I think this was used in particular on Californication and Blood Sugar Sex Magic.
His head is an actual Marshal Silver Jubilee 25/50 it is the same model as what Slash used back in the day before he had his own Signature Model (which is almost identical but some people argue they sound different).
The Model of This Guitar :EDWARDS ESP John Frusciante style Strato Original relic vintage series.
The Manufacture Age of this guitar:2005 Made in Japan. The BODY:ALDER.
About The Neck & Finger Board:Straight Maple Neck.Rosewood finger board.240R.Jumbo frets 216.
Fret Condition:Fret life 100%.No fret buzz..
About the Electric Circuits and Pickup:Seymour duncan Antiuquity Hot on it`s front and middle.Rear PU is an Antiuquity Custom,5 Way PU Selector, 1Vol 2Tone.No Noise.
Weight of This Guitar: 7.27lb. 3.3kg.
Nut width : 1 11/16 "
