John 5 says his signature Fender Telecaster is coming soon and it is called The Ghost

Back in September 2021, during a guitar rig breakdown with John 5’s guitar tech James "Shotty" Shotwell, eagle-eyed viewers were granted a glimpse of the heavy metal maestro’s upcoming signature guitar – a Fender Telecaster which at the time was still in the prototype stage.

Now, almost 10 months later, John 5 has revealed some more details surrounding the elusive model, confirming in a new interview with Ultimate Guitar that his upcoming signature electric guitar is indeed on the way, sooner rather than later.

The Rob Zombie axeman also divulged some of the specs we can expect from what is being called “The Ghost”, and revealed one of the upcoming model’s biggest influences – Fender’s ultra-white Supreme Stratocaster.

“We're calling it The Ghost, and it is beautiful,” John 5 said. “It's all white. It's got red binding, red pickups and hardware. And it is gorgeous. 

“It is an amazing sounding guitar and an amazing playing guitar. It's just one of the coolest things I've seen in a while, and I love it. You know, it's been in the works for a while and everything came to a screeching halt in 2019. It is just an unbelievable guitar. And yes, it is coming to fruition very soon.”

As for the white-painted fingerboard, the guitarist elaborated, “To be honest, I saw the Supreme guitar they did and that had kind of a painted neck and I give credit where credit's due. But that guitar was in such a very, very, very, very limited production I was like well why not get this out to the population so that everybody can get this because it's so beautiful. 

“It's just like when the Les Paul came out,” he reflected. “They only made like 100 of them [in the original run], so nobody would get to enjoy that beautiful guitar. I'm not comparing The Ghost to the Les Paul. I'm just giving an example of something that, if it's such a limited run, just imagine how terrible that would be. 

“Like if they stopped at 100 and there were only 100 Les Pauls ever made. So I was like, let's make this something that we can get out to the public so everybody can enjoy it.”

John 5 also revealed some spec details, including DiMarzio pickups, a sole volume knob and a kill-switch. Other discernible appointments include the red body binding and three-way selector switch.

“It's very simple,” John 5 concluded. “But it's very complicated to get that paint, right. The dots and everything. It's just, it is something very special.”

As far as Teles go, it’s certainly up there with some of the most rad options we’ve seen in recent times. In fact, it could even challenge Jim Root’s own streamlined signature Tele for the mantle of “The Most Metal Telecaster in existence” when it finally comes. But that remains to be seen.

When it does come out, though, it will be John 5’s second signature Fender Tele, following the release of the Squier J5 in 2009.

The Ghost has no official release date, though with John 5’s promise it will come to fruition soon, we can’t imagine it will be too long before an official confirmation from Fender arrives.