John Anthony Frusciante is an American musician. He was born on March 5, 1970 in Queens, New York. He was the  guitarist of the funk rock band, Red Hot Chili Peppers.  He has also made a number of solo records. Some of these albums have been made with other artists, for example Josh Klinghoffer. In December 2009 Frusciante claimed on his website that he had left the band over a year ago.

Early RHCP era (1988-92) 
John Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1988 after the previous guitarist, Hillel Slovak, died of a drug overdose. The band went on to record and release their fourth album, Mother's Milk in 1989. Following an international tour, Frusciante co-recorded the band's fifth album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. In 1992, he left the band because he was overwhelmed by the international success of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Frusciante abruptly announced his departure from the band just a few moments before a performance in Tokyo. He ended up playing the show and left quickly for a plane back to the USA.

1992 to 1997 
From 1992 to 1997, he recorded a couple of solo albums, which received various criticism due to Frusciante's use of lo-fi and strange synthesizer effects. Frusciante released Niandra LaDes & Usually Just A T-Shirt in 1994 as a cure for there being "no good music around any more". From the time of being out of the band, Frusciante had started to experiment with drugs such as cocaine and heroin. In 1997, he released Smile From The Streets You Hold because he needed money for drugs at the time. He later took the album off the shelves as he did not feel comfortable with it being sold.

Return and Red Hot success 
Band mate and long-time friend Flea asked John if he would like to rejoin the band in 1998. Frusciante was so overjoyed by the question that the band regrouped and started the recording process. In 1999, the band released Californication. During the Californication tour, Frusciante recorded some more songs in what would eventually become To Record Only Water For Ten Days, which was released in 2001. Frusciante returned to the recording studio in early 2002 in which they would later release the band's eighth album, By the Way. Four Years later the Peppers released their ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium. In December of 2009 he announced that he would leave the Red Hot Chili Peppers and focus more on his solo albums.

Solo records and side projects 
After yet another world tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frusciante decided to release some more of his own material between 2004-2005. During this time, John released six of his own solo records, some of which were co-written by Josh Klinghoffer.

Equipment 
John has used a wide range of guitars throughout his years with RHCP and as a solo artist. He is known for using a lot of guitars under the Fender brand. He was number 18 on Rolling Stones list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003. In 2011, he was at number 72. Below is a list of equipment that John has used through the years.

Guitars 
 '55 Fender Stratocaster (2 color sunburst with maple neck
 '61 Fender Stratocaster (olympic white finish)
 '62 Fender Stratocaster (3 color sunburst finish) heavily beat up *his favorite guitar
 '63 Fender Telecaster (with Fender "f" on pickguard)
 '61 Fender Stratocaster (Fiesta red)
 '65 Fender Mustang (Red)
60's Fender Jaguar (for warmups and solo career)
 '56 Gibson ES-335 (two color sunburst finish)
 '61 Gibson SG (custom cherry red finish)
 '69 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty
 Ibanez RG250 (for recording of Mother's Milk)
 Martin 0-15 acoustic
 '55 Gretsch White Falcon

Amplifiers 
 Marshall Major 200W (KT 88 tubes)
 Marshall Silver Jubilee (50/25 watts)

Picks 
Green Jim Dunlop Tortex 0.88mm picks (from 1989 to 1999)
Orange Jim Dunlop Tortex 0.60mm picks (from 2000 to 2012 current)

Strings 
 D'Addario XL .010s-.046 (with a .011 on the high E string)

Effects 
 BOSS CE-1 Chorus
 BOSS DS-1 Distortion
 BOSS DS-2 Turbo Distortion
 2x Digitech PDS-8000 Delay

 Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress Flanger
 Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
 Electro-Harmonix POG Polyphonic Octave Generator
 Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb
 Ibanez WH10 Wah
 Line6 FM4 Filter Modeler
 Line6 DL4 Delay Modeler
 MXR Micro Amp
 Moog MF-101 Low-Pass Filter
 Moog MF-102 Ring Modulator
 Moog MF-103 12-Stage Phaser
 Moog MF-105 MURF
 Moog MF-105B Bass MURF
 Moog CP-251 Control Processor
 Electro-Harmonix Microsynthesizer
 MXR phase 90

Discography

As a solo artist 
 Niandra LaDes & Usually Just A T-shirt (1994)
 Estrus EP (1997)
 Smile From The Streets You Hold (1997)
 Going Inside EP (2001)
 To Record Only Water For Ten Days (2001)
 From The Sounds Inside (2001)
 Shadows Collide With People (2004)
 The Will To Death (2004)
 DC EP (2004)
 Inside Of Emptiness (2004)
 A Sphere In The Heart Of Silence (2004)
 Curtains (2005)
 The Empyrean (2009)
 Letur- Lefr EP (2012)
 PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone (2012)
 Outsides (2013)

RHCP 
 Mother's Milk (1989)
 Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
 Californication (1999)
 By the Way (2002)
 Stadium Arcadium (2006)

Ataxia 

 Automatic Writing (2004)
 AWII (2007)

References

Other websites 
 John Frusciante's official website
 Red Hot Chili Peppers official website

American rock guitarists
Musicians from New York City
Electronic musicians
1970 births
Living people
Red Hot Chili Peppers