When Jerry Donahue, the famous "string bender" of the group "Hellecasters," wanted a custom Telecaster that could give him the best of both worlds for touring and to meet his demanding playing style, he turned to Fender's Custom Shop. Together, they designed a Telecaster that has a vintage 52 bridge and pickup with a true 52 Tele V shaped neck. They took a 62 Tele bound body, plus the added touch of a vintage Stratocaster sound with a Strat Pickup in the neck position, along with the extra touch of the famous "out-of-phase" Strat sound by using some tricky custom wiring—thus you have a JD Tele! Kind of a Strat-o-tele! Fender's Custom Shop started manufacturing the Jerry Donahue Custom Shop Tele (some going at a pricy $3,200!). Later the Fender's CIJ factory came out with a Jerry Donahue Signature Model. Some of these varied, as did the rival US Custom Shop models. The JD Teles came in 4 colors: transparent sunburst, red, blue and solid black all double-bound editions.

   The stock JD had interesting 5-way switching. All the guitars below have my modified 5-way switching, but I wanted to explain the stock version before going on to the customized versions.

    Here is how the STOCK switching works: Position 1) The Bridge PU give Jerry's favorite customized 1952 vintage sound. Position 2) The Bridge PU and the Neck PU out-of-phase. This gives that unique Strat sound, as it puts a Tele PU and the Vintage Strat PU in an out-of-phase mode. Really cool JD trick. Position 3) The Bridge PU and the Neck PU in parallel, like a stock Tele in the middle switch position, creating a sweet full rhythm sound. Position 4) The Neck pickup going through the tone control. Position 5) The Neck PU by-passing the tone control.
 

If you're considering this guitar, you're doing so for it's great neck and tonal capabilities. It's a very clean guitar, having only some pickswirling on the pickguard and a Fender USA, 3- latch hardshell case. We rarely get the opportunity to acquire one of these JD Teles, so please enjoy the photos and let us know if you have any questions or requests.