Watch John 5 put on a shred clinic in blistering new Strung Out playthrough video

John 5 plays one of his hot-rodded Fender Telecasters in his studio
(Image credit: John 5/YouTube)

Electric guitar hero John 5 is currently busy preparing to hit the road with hard-rock titans Mötley Crüe

Even in the midst of those rehearsals – the first of which was described by Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx as "fucking epic" – and preparations, the guitarist has still found time to work on solo material, as evidenced by today's premiere of a hard-hitting new solo song called Strung Out.

The song, the guitarist says, was inspired by his insatiable need to create on the guitar, and, as such, it features wild two-hand tapping – including an incredibly tasty section with unison guitar and bass guitar tapping – crazy kill switch antics... you name it. You can watch its playthrough video below.

"This song is called Strung Out because I am so obsessed with playing guitar that when I don’t play and create new music for a while, I start to go a little insane," the guitarist said in a press release. 

"There’ll be more Creatures [John 5's solo band] shows sometime in the near future and I really look forward to playing this song live."

For the video, John 5 uses one of his favorite Telecasters, a hardtail model equipped with just a single volume knob, a pair of humbuckers, and the aforementioned killswitch.

Though the guitar in question won't serve as the guitarist's main six-string for the Mötley Crüe dates – a role, John 5 revealed in a recent rig tour, that has been awarded to his Floyd Rose-equipped gold custom Tele – it will almost certainly make at least a few onstage appearances in the coming weeks.

John 5 was recruited to Mötley Crüe's ranks following the retirement of the band's longtime guitarist, Mick Mars, last October. The band will set out on a world tour with Def Leppard this month, which will begin with a pair of shows at the Mark G Etess Arena in Atlantic City, New Jersey on February 10 and 11.

For a full list of Mötley Crüe's tour dates, visit the band's website.

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Jackson Maxwell

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.