06STADIUM ARCADIUM RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

(2006)

On this expansive double album, guitarist John Frusciante was reinventing himself. Having generally stuck with a more minimalist approach after 1989’s Mother’smilk, Frusciante spread his wings on Stadiumarcadium – cranking up the fuzz in the right places for thicker chords and tastefully improvised leads. And his funk chops certainly hadn’t diminished, either. As Cory Wong tells TG: “There’s a song called Humpdebump that’s seriously underrated. It has such a sick pocket, feel and groove. I love the way John uses all aspects of [his] Strat and all the pickup positions to get such a variety of tones.”

He may have started out as more of an acoustic player on 2001 debut Room Forsquares, but on Continuum, his third album, John Mayer redefined himself as the electric champion we know today, now standing as one of the most respected blues players on the planet. More simplified and soulful than anything he’d released before, with glassy single-coil leads that were every bit as lyrical as his voice, Continuum attracted a new audience outside of the mainstream charts, now arguably his core fanbase. Although it wasn’t chosen as one of the singles, Slow Dancinginaburningroom quickly became one of Mayer’s signature anthems, with countless covers and backing tracks surfacing online. The song also played a big part in inspiring the neo-soul movement thriving today.

Mayer famously switched to PRS guitars in 2014, but the main guitars on Continuum included his then-recently acquired 1964 sunburst Strat, the 2004 Black One Strat made by Custom Shop master-builder John Cruz (heard on third single Gravity) and his Gold Leaf Strat for the track Vultures. “The Gold Leaf is what I wrote the song on,” he explained to TG at the time. “It’s got that incredible second position – what do they call it, the quack? That’s the quackiest Strat of all time! Vultures does not work on another guitar. That weird, hollowed-out, out-of-phaseytype sound. I’ve never taken that gold Strat and played any other tune on it than Vultures.”