“The guitar turned out to be my savior,” John 5 told us in a recent revealing and exhaustive interview about his career – and accordingly, he has built up quite a collection.
Here, he gives us the lowdown on his 10 favorite weapons of choice – from his Fender signature models to treasured gifts and his iconic LED Telecaster.
1. Fender Esquire
This 1966 Esquire sports Fender’s spaghetti logo, which by this year had been almost completely phased out in favor of the company’s thicker gold-and-black transition logo.
“This Esquire is very close to me because it was the first vintage guitar I owned and served as my introduction to vintage guitars,” John explains.
“I bought it from Norman’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, California, and I used it on my first two instrumental records. It’s very precious to me, and even though I’ve used it a lot, I’ve taken good care of it.”
2. Sinner Telecaster
Featuring artwork by an artist John declines to identify, this custom Telecaster bears a design based on the cover of his 2021 album, Sinner.
“This guitar also lights up,” John explains. “I just keep this one for songwriting. I call it my ‘couch guitar.’ I just play and write with it.”
3. Goldie Telecaster
“Goldie has probably been on more songs and to more shows any other guitar I own,” John reveals. “This was my number one guitar, and I played it all day and all night. It’s been refretted already once.
“The metal pickguard has been replaced twice because I played it so much that I dug a groove in there, which indented the metal. Fender saw that and said, ‘This isn’t good for you. This could get in your skin.’ I mean, I just played it so, so much.”
4. Ghost Number One
“As I said, I used to play Goldie all the time, but it was really getting old and beat up. But now Ghost Number One has taken its place, and it’s all I play. It’s my number one guitar.”
In development since 2019, the Ghost has an electronics complement of two DiMarzio D Activator pickups, a master volume and a kill switch. John gave the prototype its debut on his 2022 summer and fall tours. It hasn’t left his side since.
“I’m using it on the new Mötley Crüe music, and I’ve used it on all of my new songs. There’s just a magic behind that guitar.”
5. Custom Fender Telecaster
This custom job features the by-now familiar complement of DiMarzio pickups, a master volume and kill switch.
“This was designed for the Mötley Crüe shows, and I also use it in my shows as well,” John explains. As for the finish?
“Sea Foam Green is my absolute favorite color. I have this similar thing about Tobacco Burst Les Pauls. There’s just something about the look of that I love. I think this is just a beautiful, beautiful instrument.”
6. Fender Strat
“I got this guitar for Christmas when I was 12 years old, and it was my very first real guitar. I started playing guitar at around seven years old, but I didn’t really have a good guitar until I got this.
“I took care of it like it was a piece of gold – like it was a baby. I washed my hands before I played it. I put it back in its case after I played it. I just took very, very good care of it. And it shows.”
7. Ghost Number Two
“Ghost Number Two was created when I joined Mötley Crüe,” John explains. “My original Ghost doesn’t have a vibrato, and Mick Mars used a Floyd Rose or a tremolo on most of the Crüe’s songs, so Ghost Number Two was born.”
Like its companion, the guitar is used “on every Mötley Crüe song live and in the studio as well,” John says.
“It’s just as important as Ghost Number One, but I don’t use it as much outside of Mötley Crüe because I don’t like to rely on a tremolo; I prefer to do everything with just my hands.”
8. LED Tele
“A guy named Ken Meyer made this guitar for me. He came up to me at a NAMM show and said, ‘I’ll make you any guitar you want.’ I didn’t know him but he seemed to be a nice person.
“I said, ‘Okay. I want a guitar with LEDs on the front.’ And he said, ‘I can do it.’ And sure enough, he did. I’ve been using that guitar for close to 20 years. It plays incredibly. So hats off to Ken!”
9. 1971 Blonde Telecaster
“I had to get it because it reminded me of Steve Cropper, and I’ve always loved him,” John says of this vintage beauty.
“A lot of my heroes played Telecasters, including those pickers on Hee Haw. I thought this was the only shape an electric guitar came in. Because it’s in mint condition and all original, I don’t take it out much at all.”
10. EVH Strat
“This is a guitar Eddie Van Halen gave to me when these guitars first came out, and I was just absolutely blown away that he did it,” John says, clearly still awestruck by the experience.
“My hero gave me one of his guitars, and he was so proud of it as well. That was a time I’ll never forget, and I cherish this guitar.”
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