I hang my head in shame about how long it has taken me to write this post. No excuses, I should have done it ages ago.

Anyway, a few years back, I came across this image of a Donnie that had been modified with a Fernandes Sustainer and scalloped frets. The owner discovered this website and reached out to me anonymously with a backstory of how he came to own it.

This is #25.

I only paid $1200 for mine new. I had been contemplating a JS1 and had never heard of a JS3 or JS2, and discovered they were pretty much sold out; I called all over the country trying to find one. Finally I called a dealer in Dallas who said they didn’t have a JS1 but had a JS3. When I asked what that was he said it was basically a JS1 with skulls painted on it and signed on the back by Joe Satriani, and if I recall correctly he said Joe himself passed it along after picking what he wanted to keep. I replied that I wasn’t really a skull kind of guy, and could I return it if I purchased it and didn’t like it?

He said “no,” and contemplating no others being available I decided to go for it. I told him if I really hated the skulls I could always have my friend who owned a body shop paint it white… Definitely I am the most unworthy Donnie owner on planet earth! But I fell in love immediately with the looks, and thought about putting it away in a closet, but playing it I fell in love in another way. I now own two early JS1s and can say the Donnie is absolutely unique as to playability as well as looks. The neck is a little thinner. It was wired a little differently than the JS1s and differently from any schematic I have seen online.

It was so good I made a decision then not to view it as a museum piece, but as a tool, like a hammer, that was meant to be used -even begged to be used. It is still the best playing guitar I have ever held to this day; no matter what else I compare it to whenever I pick it up there is just some sort of magic fairy dust there…

As you can gather I moved one potentiometer into the hole that once hosted the switch, nested one of the two Fernandes switches where the old tone control was (covering the too-large hole with a white paper “eyeball” covered with glossy tape (looked better when first done, ha, should revisit), and drilled another hole for the other Fernandes switch. A real head turning stage performer in the 90’s, I thought.