I used to have a redneck family live next door to me. Eventually they moved out (Thank God) and left a mountain of trash by the street for the city to haul away. I was going out to my car one day and shaking my head at it when I noticed the headstock of a guitar sticking out of a garbage can. I pulled it out and it was in pretty rough shape, see the "before" picture.
It started life as a three pickup Yamaha RGX312 with a crappy Floyd Rose knockoff. There was a dent in the side of the neck, half the bridge was missing, and it had sharpie marks all over it. I was going to part it out but after looking at it I decided to rebuild it. I took it to my friend Danny who filled in the routing for the tremolo, and it was he who decided to paint it gold. I then took it to my guitar fixit guy Kerry who installed a hardtail bridge, put a nut on it, and shaved where the neck meets the body to decrease the angle for the new bridge. Then it was my turn, Danny designed a pickguard for me and I cut it and cut the holes for the pickups, then wired it up. I bought a Strat pickup and a GFS P90 off Fleabay, both alnico, and wired it like a two pickup Gibson.
I call it my Garbagecaster, which is appropriate considering where I found it.
I was quite pleased at how it played and sounded. It has a Telecaster vibe to it that is nice. The neck is different from what I am used to, it's a real flat radius, but it plays real nice and those pickups sound pretty damn good.
I gave this guitar to my friend Lincoln, who is just starting out learning to play.
Click here for a close up, and below I've put before and after pics, quite a change, eh??