Have you ever seen your old guitar butchered?

[Gartron]

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this

Back in 91 I bought a Jackson pro warrior, absoloutley loved it played like butter, sharkies, bound ebony, neck through, and had a weird switch that turned the tone pot into a wah wah.

anyhoo, after about a year of owning I went through a major Led Zepp, Free, Aerosmith phase and decided to trade it in as I had to have a Les Paul , the shape basically had became more metal than I was!!

a couple of months later I was at a local band gig and the guitar player was the owner of my old warrior , I couldn't believe what he had done to it.

He had removed the neck pick up, removed all the pots except the volume and for extra kudos put black tape over the Jackson logo and drawn XXX over the top of it , although it was no longer my guitar I still felt a pang when I'd seen the shape it was in , as I had basically treated it with kid gloves the entire time I had owned it ( in hindsight I relise if it all been done with care then it could be easily be put back ).

has anyone let a guitar go only to see it be abused, mashed up or destroyed?

[Chad]

Nope, I've never had that happen. I've always sold my guitars online, so I lose track of their whereabouts rather quickly. Regarding your Warrior...I could see how that might get your attention, but all of that should be simple to put back in place. At least there weren't any chunks of wood missing or major finish damage.

My first guiitar (a Washburn KC-60V superstrat) went through a phase. Its factory configuration was one bridge HB, one neck SC, 3-way switch, master tone, & master volume. At one point I ripped out all of the original electronics, slapped an EMG81 in the bridge, & put a master volume in the tone pot hole. This left an empty neck pickup hole and other holes where the volume originally was and the switch. I then applied stickers to cover the holes, then proceeded to put stickers all over the guitar. Kind of my lame attempt at a "Frakenstein". Years later, I cleaned off the stickers & put it back to its stock configuration. You can't even tell that I had a "stupid phase" with that guitar.

[Newc]

Nope, but I've bought plenty that were already abused, as well as abusing quite a few myself, like this poor defenseless WRMG body:

[rjohnstone]

Newc, you need help. :ROTF:

I'll say this... you've got one hell of an imagination to come up with some of these "mods".
The Halford-esque Warrior looks great!

[CharvelRocker]

I hate when anybody does crap like that to my gutiar, but if it had bene mine I would be pissed. Thats not at you by the way Newc Of course some people probably look at my Charvel and think its an abomination

[Axewielder]

My 1986 Dimas King V got butchered when I brought it in to a guitar shop to be refinished. It pains me to look at this picture.

[Gartron]

Ouch!! tell me thats mid refin!

[Rich#6]

I watched my strat get put into a ceiling fan because the guy was drunk and he was trying to put the strap on. Put a nice dent into the headstock. I made my friend sell it back to me.

[Axewielder]

Ouch!! tell me thats mid refin!

What happened here is 10 years ago I spec'ed the paint job to be basically a mustard yellow to loch ness green burst (the original dark Mustang Red paint was beyond trashed). The guy doing the work here in NC sold me on going in a completely different direction. He took quite a few liberties that were never discussed with me, and what I ended up with was this striped puke grey and off-white flowery mess with quasars painted on it.

The good news is that sent the guitar up to Paul at Big Head Guitars earlier in the year. I just chatted with him this morning, and the guitar is done!!! This time around, she's going to be Robbin Crosby Ferrari Red. Granted this is a King V and not a Double Rhoads, but she is still going to kick some major ass.

[Boxcar Willie 84]

had a les paul that was my main guitar for a while, sold it to a friend over the course of a long few months of him paying me for it, then as soon as he got it paid off he threw it around onstage at a show and broke the headstock off

[neilli]

He had removed the neck pick up, removed all the pots except the volume and for extra kudos put black tape over the Jackson logo and drawn XXX over the top of it

Well at least that was all reversible! He must have been a Scotti Hill fan....

[Scholomance]

I sold a dead mint USA custom quilted BC Rich Bich 10 string to a guy for nearly 3 grand. During the process of the sale, he told me he was going to strip the paint off of it. I didn't ever find out if he did it after he got it but it still pains me thinking about it!