30 years ago, the Red Hot Chili Peppers stood poised on the edge of international stardom as they prepared for the release of their breakthrough masterpiece, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The album proved John Frusciante to be one of the greatest guitarists of his generation and he rapidly ascended to guitar hero status.
Many hours of fly-on-the-wall video footage were captured for the Funky Monks rockumentary which chronicles the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Among the film's many great moments is the sequence where Frusciante nails his solo for the song “Mellowship Slinky in B Major.”
Speaking to Guitar Player in 1991 about the recording Frusciante said, “I like to keep things simple. Those MESA/Boogie amps were too hard for me to understand. For most of the basics, I used two Marshalls: a guitar head for edge and a bass head for punch and low end. I split the signal with a DOD stereo chorus pedal. For some overdubs I used a Fender H.O.T. practice amp, but for a lot of parts, even solos, I just went straight into the board. You can get amazing, funky tones that way. In fact, a lot of my distortion is from overdriving the board."
And when asked about his choice of electric guitars the guitarist revealed, “My main guitar was a ’58 Strat, though I used a Les Paul reissue on a couple of things. I also have a ’57 Strat, which someone had screwed up by putting on those big stupid frets that everyone uses these days. I vomited and told them to make it fretless. That’s what I used for the “Mellowship Slinky” solo. Some people think those big frets help your vibrato, but I make a point of using as little vibrato as possible, though I might do it more if I had long, pretty black hair. And I didn’t use any whammy bar.”
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