Fender has unveiled the John 5 Telecaster Collection, offering a trio of signature versions of the original mass-produced electric guitar that soup it up to the Mötley Crüe guitarist’s specifications – and it includes the return of his cult-classic Ghost Tele.
These signature guitars need little introduction. The Ghost was released as a limited edition US model in 2023. John 5 has been touring with the prototype Phantom for years. It is his go-to guitar for Crüe shows.
The collection includes a Custom Shop version of the Phantom, all in black, equipped with a Floyd Rose, plus an Indonesian-made model, and a similarly affordable sibling in John 5’s Ghost Tele, which arrives in that familiar Arctic White finish with matching headstock, plus red binding, pickup bobbins, inlays, logo and controls.
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All three have a pair of DiMarzio D Activator pickups, and are far removed from the kinds of Telecasters that Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan played back in the day. These have the high-output humbuckers, go-faster C neck profiles, and killswitches as standard.
As John 5 explains, he wanted Fender to make a “monster” out of a guitar he fell in love with at the tender age of six.
“It’s such an odd story because I loved guitar and guitar players, and I would watch TV and listen to records, and I was, like, six years old! I had a little acoustic guitar, and I would strum on it,” he says, speaking to MusicRadar. “But I wanted an electric guitar, and I saw this TV show, and they were all playing Telecasters, and I thought, ‘Oh, well, that’s what an electric guitar looks like, and that’s what I want. I want an electric guitar.’”
The six-year-old John 5 didn’t know any better. He thought this was the only show in town when it came to electrics.
“I just thought all electric guitars look like Telecasters,” he says. “I didn’t even think there was another shape. I was so young, and I think that’s where my love for the Telecaster began, seeing these guitar players with these shiny, sparkly Telecasters.”
If that’s how John 5’s love for the Tele started, it was about to get much deeper as he turned pro and found some success. He could then get his hands on the vintage Telecasters, old gold from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Given that modding is such a big part of Fender ownership culture, it might surprise you to learn that John 5 left his Teles stock.
“Oh God, no. I don’t know how to work on guitars at all. I’m the worst,” he says. “Because I just spend so much time playing.”
Those vintage Telecasters served him well on record, but performing live was a different ballgame. He needed humbuckers, and Telecaster Deluxe gave him the idea; it proved what was possible with the Tele platform. Launched in 1973, it was Fender’s answer to the classic rock boom, when players were gravitating towards guitars with humbuckers. Also, if John 5’s signature Tele could be a little easier to play than the ‘50s models – which had no contouring on the back of the body to speak of – then that would be ideal.
“The Telecaster was called ‘the plank’, and it was difficult to play. You gotta fight that guitar,” he says. “You gotta fight that guitar to play it. It’s not an easy guitar to play. Us old vintage telecaster pickers, that’s what everybody said, and that’s what has been talked about for decades.
(Image credit: Fender)
“I’m not the first one, but I thought, ‘Well, let’s make a Telecaster that’s really comfortable to play, and that just looks like a monster. And that’s exactly the whole reasoning behind the Phantom.”
John 5’s Custom Shop Phantom borrows a little from Fender’s contemporary US lineup. It has a two-piece alder body with Ultra contours, with a 10” to 14” compound radius ebony fingerboard. Also, to faithfully perform Mick Mars’ original Mötley Crüe guitar parts live, the Phantom had to have a double-locking Floyd Rose vibrato.
One of the reasons it has taken so long to produce this sequel to the original 2023 limited edition Ghost is because John 5 wanted to test the prototype Phantom on the road Eddie Van Halen-style.
“I love to have a prototype built and take it on the road, and record with it, and travel through the most extreme weather conditions,” he says. “The most brutally hot shows in Arizona or the coldest shows in the middle of winter in New York, or something like that. And I wanted to see how this guitar performed over a certain amount of years. Because I love quality; it’s so important to me.
“I took it in the studio and I recorded a few records with it. I toured with it, recorded with it, did all this stuff, put it through the most extreme conditions, and it’s a phenomenal guitar. It’s a phenomenal guitar, and I’m so proud of it.”
(Image credit: Fender)
John 5’s Indonesian-made Phantom and Ghost have nyatoh bodies, an artist-spec C profile maple neck, a 12” fingerboard radius (ebony on the Phantom, maple with red dot inlays on the Ghost), and you have a choice of hardware.
The Ghost has a six-saddle bridge, the Phantom a Floyd Rose FRTS2000 Special Series vibrato, with the Phantom featuring that Ultra-style 1-ply black anodized aluminium pickguard and the Ghost featuring a mirror ‘guard.
It’s the guitar I’ve been using the whole time on the Mötley Crüe tour, and it’s just phenomenal. It really is. It’s my favourite guitar
“I just want someone to buy something and love it, and it will be a great guitar for the rest of their life,” says John 5. “The overseas Phantom is a guitar that everybody can buy and enjoy, and go jam in your garage, and go have fun with it. It’s a great guitar. And… it’s affordable, it’s got a Floyd on it, and everybody could pick one up and buy it. I think that’s what’s important. If that Phantom came out like that when I was a kid, I would gravitate towards that right away, because it plays so well. It’s got a great neck and it sounds really cool. It’s got a [whammy] bar.”
And these are a lot of guitars for the money. The John 5 Phantom is priced £1,149/$1,299. The Ghost is £1,099/$1,299. Remember, they’ve got the same DiMarzio humbuckers as the Custom Shop Phantom – and the Custom Shop model is priced at £5,599/$6,000. Is it really worth the difference? Well, it’s exactly the same as the Phantom that John 5 plays onstage with Mötley Crüe, and he says so.
“It’s like driving like a Rolls-Royce or something,” says John 5. “Or a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. You’re just like, ‘Oh my God.’ I mean, that Custom Shop Phantom is just phenomenal, and I just love the cutaway, and I love the contour that it fits your body, and it’s the guitar I’ve been using the whole time on the Mötley Crüe tour, and it’s just phenomenal. It really is. It’s my favourite guitar.”
The John 5 Telecaster Collection is available now. For more details, head over to Fender.
