Found in dump (true story)

The letters you can't make out are "JD" -- that's for Jerry Donahue. The guitar is the Japanese version of the Jerry Donahue custom shop guitar.

The wiring is pretty unusual, and if you want to rewire it to factory spec with a new switch, there's info here on TDPRI, and in other placed on the internet.

They are very nice guitars -- I have a couple of them, and they were my main instruments when I was in a gigging band for about 5 years.

 

Dan Auerbach used to play one.

 

Cool story.Those JD model Teles were made by Fender Japan in the 1990s and are a bit of a rare model.The stock Strat neck pickup was intended to provide more Strat type tones to a Tele.As many can attest,the Japanese Fenders of that era were great guitars so it amazes me that someone would throw that in the trash....crazy!!

 

Good to see that one saved.

It may never sound quite like it used to, but it still has a lot of worth in it.

We can only wish the guitars in Katrina looked anything like that good. Alas, the amount of destruction on those was normally far worse as the substance they were exposed to was nothing as benign as rainwater.

 

Cool story. Maybe the neck will shrink back down, but I'd still be leery of it.

Nice guitar.

 

Candidate for a slide guitar?

 

I found an 1880s Dobson Silver Bell Patent Banjo on a rubbish pile once

 

I would replace the neck if it turns out to be unplayable and do whatever needs to be done to the electronics. With a story like that you just HAVE to get that guitar going again!

 

Great story. I was borrowing one of these for a while and my favorite thing about it was the neck profile. IMHO it's the best thing about the guitar.

 

Wow, great story.

Please let us know how this story ends. I mean after a reasonable drying out period to allow the frets 'to grow' a little, and anything else that given time may revert to being closer to original.

P.S. Just a thought. Send it to Alberta .... it's much dryer here and especially in winter ...

Should do it a world of good!

I could bring it back when we visit Comox, on the Island, this coming summer ...... honest!

 

Somebody gave me a Squier Strat out of a dumpster a couple of months ago. I was leaving a bluegrass jam, and walked past some guys who were moving into a house (this is a college town). One of the guys saw me carrying a guitar case and asked if I wanted a guitar they'd found in the house. Naturally your heartbeat quickens a little when you hear that and you hope it's going to be one of those Deke Dickerson stories...but it was a highly messed up yet not beyond hope red Squier Strat. At first I checked around to see if any friends' kids needed a first electric; there were no takers, so now I'm thinking about making some kind of Coodercaster out of it.

 

Have you considered taking off the neck and packing it in rice to help draw out the moisture?

 

I bet it was an insurance claim and the salvage was deemed unsellable.

 

Best I've ever found at a dump was a Boss Flanger

 

Cool story

 

Apparently there is a reason Fender puts this sticker on the neck plates of new guitars... Unbelievable..

 

Better than rice is a bunch of those Silicone Dioxide packets you might see in electronics shipments. Bake them in the oven for a few hours at 200deg F then put the packets in a plastic bag sealed around the guitar.

Great rescue story!


I have a similar storied lost puppy retrieved from the dump by the uncle of the previous owner. Mine is only an Affinity Squier though. When I got it the whole thing was a bag of parts of an abandoned project.

Great find and glad to see it's getting back to playing!

 

In the early 70's I worked at a small music store outside Boston and one morning on the way to work I found a Jazz Bass in the trash.
It had a cream / white body turttle shell pickguard, no strings or case plus it smelled like garbage.
I took it to the shop, took it apart, cleaned it, got rid of the garbage smell, re strung it and got a case. It worked perfectly I didn't play bass so I sold it for $ 125-175 I think

True story

Gary