Fender Jerry Donahue Limited Edition Stratocaster

I believe there were 4-500 of these made in Japan in 1997. All are finished in transparent "sapphire blue"- a very nice subtle blueburst. 21 medium frets (I measure them at .038 tall). I play a lot of slide & prefer the medium frets- I can bend & shake fine but don't clatter on big frets with the slide. One piece satin finished maple neck- 4 bolt neckplate - pretty strong meaty V shape. Light weight 3 piece basswood body. 2 Duncan APS2 flat pole vintage style single neck & middle, one killer stag pole custom Duncan Tele single coil at bridge with steel plate.
The controls are great- 5 way switch, trad volume control, middle "tone" knob is a 2 postion switch in diguise, bottom control is single master tone. With the middle knob/switch at 10 the 5 way switch works like a regular Strat. With it switched to 9 you get Tele bridge PU on 1, neck & middle with a capacitor bass cut on the neck on 2 (very sweet & quacky), neck & bridge on 3 (killer Tele tone!!), all 3 PU's with bass cut on neck on 4 (full & toooo sweet!), & neck only on 5. So it looks just like a regular Strat but hides a BUNCH of great sounds, 8 different sounds in all.
Fulcrum trem bridge with nice heavy cast saddles that DON'T have the sharp corner that always breaks strings on Strats! A very heavy bridge plate and beveled block for bending flexibility. Mine is set up with 3 springs & I set it to float with the edge of the plate 1/8" off the body. Stays in tune real well though I don't dive too hard with it. "Vintage" tuners- not my fave but they are light weight & they do work smoothly & hold well. If it ain't broke don't fix it! I have D'Addario 10- 46's on it.

I have 5 Strats- my reference has been a '97 Voodoo with '69 PU's- very Stratty, all the complexity & chime & shimmer you could want. The Duncan neck & mid PU's on the Donahue Strat compare well. They are solidly Strat, with a bit less absolute high end than the Voodoo '69's but with a little more smoothness. I never thought I would say it but I think they at least the equal of the Fender '69's & maybe I like them a little better. The in between quack sounds are all there & the neck PU has the legendary full lead sound. The Duncan Tele style bridge PU in the Donahue is a monster- it is said to be patterned after Jerry's '52 Tele bridge PU. I believe it! I have 3 Tele's, one with '52 reissue pickups and the bridge PU on this Strat is right up there, very full & smooth with NONE of the icepick in the ear shrillnes of the usual Strat bridge PU or most recent Tele bridge PU's. I NEVER found a use for a shrill Strat bridge PU by itself, but this one is dream. I play rhythm, lead or slide on it, often WIHOUT turning down the tone control- amazing to me! The middle setting on the 5 way with the 2 way knob on 9 (neck & bridge PU's together) has very good Tele fullness & quack. Nice sustain from the heavy bridge parts & "low mass" tuners. Oh, yes, very good full sound unplugged! Since I got this guitar my other Strats & my 3 Tele's have certainly lost some of their "relevance". This Strat really does combine them well.
It does have the usual single coil noises & hums so I will eventually do a shielding job. OH, positions 2 & 4 on the "normal" 5 way swich are hum cancelling.
I play it through a GT-6 into a Blues Jr. with Reverend Alltone speaker, a '66 all original Pro Reverb, a Mesa MK II head with Celestion 75 & Bag End 1 12 cabs, and a Reverend Hellhound. This guitar sounds great through all. I leave the amps settings on "clean Fender" & boost to whatever degree I want with GT-6. Obviously, if you are a death metal head this is not your guitar but it goes beautifully from shimmery clean to pretty freakin' hard rock with great response in all.

Set up & adjustment were obviuosly not factory on a 7 year old guitar-got it from Elderly who set it up well, I tweaked a bit to personal preferences. VERY well made guitar, frets very well finished- (I go over them with a magnifier), very tight neck pocket, beautiful body finish, solid hardware, etc. The satin on the neck was a bit ripply for my taste- I spent an hour on the back of the neck with very fine rubbing/polishing compound & fixed that nicely. The deep blue sparkley 3 layer pick guard is subtle & cool.

This is as solid & dependable as any Fender. Nuf said!!

N/A used gutar with no warranty- I do my own work on them.

Played since '67. Own about 30 nice guitars now, have had many others. 7 tube amps of various sizes. Piles of pedals but process with a GT-6. Tend towards Fender guitars & amps (love the clarity & durability) but have many others (Gibson, Ric, Carvin, Parker, Hamer, Supro, Dobro, etc., etc.). I play original music with many flavors from country to "space" to a lot of blues & some nasty rock.
This is my main guitar! All the great feel & sound of a great Strat + a lot of great Tele thrown in. What more could I want! I don't sit & type reviews on anything very often ( I would rather play music) but this guitar needs one. It has everything I have dreamed of on a Strat. Thanks Jerry & Fender & Seymour!! Too bad there are so few of them around.

This is my baby, simply the best guitar i have ever owned. however, i have never seen a stock strat guitar that didn't need modification. the only mod i made to this guitar was installing a Fishman Powerbridge and a stereo jack. i control volume thru a Fishman PowerPedal,then to a Boss Acoustic Simulator and then to an amp or board or rack etc. i have in no way tried to alter anything else. at times i toy with the idea of replacing the body with a Warmoth or simular body;you know,a really exquisite quilted/flamed blueburst. the burst on my guitar is kind of dark in normal lighting. it takes good stage lighting to bring it out. one thing i might do in the future is to properly shield the guitar. Fender does okay, but more wouldn't hurt, especially for the distorted tones.

this guitar will seriously play any music out there. i've heard some guys say that you can't get SRV's sound or metal or whatever. granted the guitar would need more shielding to reduce feedback at loud volume levels, but if you're going to play a variety of music, you will have to have a good arsenal of effects and amps etc to do it right. to do the SRV stuff you will need the right kind of amp or you'll never get his sound.
the bridge pickup is a true gem in the fact that it has a lot more balls than a regular strat pu. the only sound issue is that you get a lot of buzz in any setting that features a single coil by itself while using distortion.
i've used this guitar for fusion,jazz,rock,country,metal,blues, etc. with the Fishman feature i guess i also use it for acoustic and fingerstyle guitar. i use 10's by Ernie Ball or Dean Markley.

the guitar was flawless except for the dime-size dent on the lower horn. that was there because of an accident at the store. my pal Felix at Groth Music in Bloomington,mn(where i purchased it) set up the guitar and i haven't changed anything(except when i added the Fishman) the only issue for me is that the finish is too dark,but what the hell, i didn't buy it to look at! Jerry actually wanted two color options but Fender wouldn't allow it. the other option was Olympic White with a tortise-shell pickguard, which i believe Jerry prefered. he had several of this model including the white version, but he sold the white one on Ebay about a year and a half ago.

if you can or would break this guitar maybe you shouldn't be playing guitar.

i don't think that i'll need it.

i want to be buried with this guitar. if i lost it or it was stolen, i would scour Ebay until another one came up.

I will try to add to, not repeat, the prior reviews, which were accurate. The pickups are specially designed and made by the the Seymour Duncan custom shop (cost $300 special ordered). In between positions can be hum cancelling depending on the position of the special switch. The neck was closely modeled after Jerry's '57 strat including the V and wear characteristics. The bridge pickup is placed a bit further away from the bridge to sweeten the tone. Special pickguard accordingly. Poly finish on body and neck. Master tone control. Overall, Jerry's take on the perfect Stratocaster

This is the most versatile, sweet sounding Strat I own. I play country and classic rock through an all tube rack setup. This guitar can replace a tele in country music and performs very well for rock and blues. Every position on this guitar is very usable. Sustain is excellent and the bridge pickup is the only single coil strat that I ever played that can be used effectively for rhythm. Refined sound works great for everything except trashy sounds.

I set my guitars up myself. I am not sure why a three piece basswood body was necessary. Is basswood in short supply? Not a big fan of poly finishes. This one looks great, but gets a little sticky when you sweat on it. This guitar stays in tune, even using the tremelo, better than any other vintage style strat that I have played. I have played 3 hour gigs with only minor tuning between sets, sometimes not even needed. I have played sets with this guitar straight from case to the stage.

This guitar is extremely well built and durable.

Good luck trying to get parts for this guitar. Good luck trying to talk to anyone at Fender about it. Good luck getting service from Fender for this guitar. Might help if you speak Japanese.

Been playing for 30 years. I play it through a CAE 3+SE and Rivera setup. I already bought a spare for backup,but only so I don't have to change strings in a pinch, not for reliability reasons. I wish it came in colors other than blue. I wish it didn't have a poly finish. I wish it had a one or two piece body, instead of three.

Fat V-shaped neck, Basswood body, 2 Duncan Alnico Pro II, and a custom-made bridge pick-up w/metal plate under the pickguard. 1 Vol, 1 Tone, 1 2-way switch for more switching options.Strat -trem, vintage tuners, came without case or gigbag.

This is a strat on the more "lighter side". It is not like a SRV model. Not as heavy, not as bluesy. Very "airy" sounding axe. Cuts through the mix very beautiful. The real difference to a standard strat is the bridge-pu and the switching.
The bridge-pu is a nice mixture of strat and tele. I personally think it's best of both worlds. One mayor spec why I purchased this guitar.

The other great thing is the switching:
2-way switch on 10 gives you the standard-strat switching.
2-way switch on 9 gives you this:
neck only(standard), neck-middle (slightly thinner sounding, very ssswweeet),neck + bridge(tele-like),middle-bridge(thinner, but on the more aggressive side)and bridge(standard).
So, in total you have eight positions to choose from.
The tone-control works very good, very musically.
Love the sound of this guitar. I don't feel like it has been made for Texas-blues but everything else you would want on a strat is there. In perfect manner.
Listen to the Hellecasters' "New axes to grind" and you'll find out how this guitar sounds. Most of Jerry's parts were recorded with this guitar.

Big V-neck. Now this is sth to really get your hands on. If you like a Steve Vai neck, stay away from this one!
The factory-set-up was, well, Fender-like. You have to make it perfect yourself. The poles of the neck-pu were not exactly in line with the 1st and 6th string. As usual.
Finish was done perfectly.

The 5-way switch is making ugly noise, when you use it.
But for the rest, I think it's build to last. It is a strat. It simply works.

Very good value for money. Beautifully put together, great lively sounding, good looking, GREAT neck, and an outstanding switching-system.
My favourite strat I found so far. And believe me, I checked out millions before...
The tele-like qualities are super-useful. If you are lucky enough to find one still, to give it a try.

1 PC V shapped fat neck,blue sb baswwod body,vintage hardware,brass saddles on a vintage trem,Seymour Duncan ALNICO II flat neck+middle and special "tele like" SD bridge pup,master tone control,master vol,and a two way middle tone pot that gives you all 7 pup combos.

This is a great sounding strat that can also sound a lot (but more "airy" than a tele due to the pickups.The SD Alnico II pro pups and brass saddles make this axe very smooth sounding.One of the best sounding strats I have ever played.

This is a Ltd Ed Made In Japan axe.The build quality is on par with the Fender US custom shop.The only thing that is not flawless on this axe is that the front pups pole pieces are not exactly alligned with the strings (but than again I have NEVER seen a strat no matter what the price,to have properly alligned pole pieces and strings on all pups!).

Build like a brickhouse,it is a Fender!

Fender was always helpfull.

This guitar has the best neck of any axe I have ever played.It is very hard to find one of these since they are no longer made.If you do grab it,strats don't get better than this.A very versatile killer sounding axe.