1997 Fender (Japan) Jerry Donahue "Hellecasters" Stratocaster Electric Guitar

This is a Japanese-made, Limited Edition, artist-model guitar made to Mr. Jerry Donahue's specs. It's got a big old '50s-style soft-V/round-cornered neck profile, maple board, a customized mix of Seymour Duncan pickups, and interesting (and useful) wiring mods. It also has "Hellecasters" inlaid at the 12th fret, pearloid fret markers, and cool, retro-cheese styling. The pickguard is blue sparkle! It has a trans-blueburst finish! You get what I mean...

Apparently, Mr. Jerry asked for basswood on the bodies of these guys because it kept the weight more consistent (and lighter). Frankly, even if the stuff dents a little more easily, I've always liked basswood Fenders and Squiers. It's got a bit more of that "pine sound" in its own way, I think -- a little more fundamental-ish, maybe?

The pickups are two Alnico II (Duncan APS-2) single coils in the neck and middle position and the bridge has a Tele-style (metal baseplate and added metallic/grounded pickguard area) version of a Strat-style pickup. It really does sound more twangy and aggressive like a Tele pickup.

To this mix is added a different wiring scheme where the middle tone pot becomes a 2-way switch that adds the neck pickup in the 2 and 4 positions (for "all-on" in those) with the "4" position having a further altered tone cap installed. In any case all of these extra sounds are useful and interesting and the implementation is elegant and doesn't involve a mini switch (like on my own Strat and I'm slightly embarassed by it).

This guitar is pretty clean but does have a minor amount of playwear and usewear with most of it being a scuffed-up pickguard from plenty of picking. I only had to clean it up a little and give it a thorough setup to get it playing spot-on.

Repairs included: setup and adjustments.

Body wood: basswood

Bridge: vintage Strat-style

Fretboard: maple

Neck wood: maple

Pickups: 2x Duncan APS-2 (Alnico II) single coils, 1x Duncan Tele-style Strat-sized

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16"
String gauges: 46w-10

Neck shape: medium-bigger soft V

Board radius: ~7 1/4"

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium

Scale length: 25 1/2"

Nut width: 1 5/8"

Body width: 12 3/4"

Body depth: 1 3/4"

Weight: 7 lbs 2 oz

Condition notes: it's pretty clean throughout save lots of pickguard wear from picking and the usual small scritch-scratch from handling through the body. The frets have only a tiny bit of playwear and are good to go. It has one little finish-chip/hairline thingy behind the bass side of the bridge on the top and one tiny little chip-out on the back "tummy cut" area, but otherwise any finish flaws are very minor and "average usewear." It appears to be completely stock. It's hard to see the "blue sparkle" in the photos of the pickguard but I shot some glared photos of it that hopefully show the detail. The trem coverplate on the rear has two cracked/chipped corners.

It comes with: a molded hard SKB case with a repaired handle. The whammy bar is missing but I've set the trem for a tiny bit of up-bend and mostly down-bend.