What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found inside a used guitar?

[jpricewood]

My D-55 arrived yesterday, and to my surprise, I found about six pony tail holders inside of it. The guitar sounds fantastic, so the tone wasn’t affected, but I still found it funny.

[Misifus]

While not “wierd”, per se, I inherited a Guild F50R from my brother. When I got ot home, it was in dreadful shape, no strings, no nut, no bridge pins, and missing most of the binding on the neck. As I handled the guitar, I could hear something inside it. Investigating, I found a couple of long packages wrapped in aluminum foil. Being that I was quite familiar with my brother’s proclivities, I feared that there was some sort of narcotics that he’d left in it. Fortunately, further investigation revealed that he had saved the missing binding from the neck and I was able to get it repaired. It is now fully functional again.

[jklotz]

I interned for a luthier a while back. Guy comes in with a vintage tele he just bought, 70's I think. Asks for it to be cleaned up, set up, frets leveled and crowned, dated, etc. When the pickguard was removed, we found a little baggie of something stuffed into one of the pickup cavities. White powder. We just threw it in thew trash. My guess is it was somebody's disco stash from way back when. We told the new owner and we all had a laugh about it.

[Ben M.]

I bought an old parlor guitar from a Goodwill in Maine on ebay.

My last name and 1898 were written in pencil on the back through the sound hole. I didn't know this when I bought it.

I was a little creeped out but thought well, It must be fate. Unfortunately it sounded terrible.

I did some work on it to get it playing better and put it on craigslist.

I make arrangements with a guy who's interested to check it out. We meet and it turns out we know each other from an open mic night we both used to go to.

He's buying the guitar for his girlfriend who I also Know from the open mic.

Later I found out she loves the guitar and named it Martha which was my grandma's name.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by jklotz

I interned for a luthier a while back. Guy comes in with a vintage tele he just bought, 70's I think. Asks for it to be cleaned up, set up, frets leveled and crowned, dated, etc. When the pickguard was removed, we found a little baggie of something stuffed into one of the pickup cavities. White powder. We just threw it in thew trash. My guess is it was somebody's disco stash from way back when. We told the new owner and we all had a laugh about it.

So you passed up the only chance you'll ever get to try vintage nose candy. I commend you on your responsible nature but come on. You only live once.

[CoffeeFan]

Not in the guitar itself but, years ago, I once found a bag of weed in the case of an old beater I'd bought.

And, yeah, I did...

[bho]

I was given a 60’s Martin that hadn’t been played in over thirty years. The case was full of odds and ends, including a spoon.

[jklotz]

Originally Posted by Ben M.

So you passed up the only chance you'll ever get to try vintage nose candy. I commend you on your responsible nature but come on. You only live once.

I dunno man, doesn't that stuff have an expiration date or something??

[Don Lampson]

Originally Posted by Ben M.

So you passed up the only chance you'll ever get to try vintage nose candy. I commend you on your responsible nature but come on. You only live once.

It could have been heroin, which could kill you deader than a beaver hat, just like in "Pulp Fiction"... In the late 60s I repo'd a car. In the trunk was a fishing tackle box, containing a .45 auto, and a baggie, with about an once of unknown white powder? I wanted the pistol, but a cop friend ran the serial number, revealing it to be stolen, so I gave it to the guy who hired me..

My repo pal said "I wish we knew what that powder is? I'll bet we could sell it for lots of money to someone!" My pal kept it was several days, but nobody we knew could identify what it was, so it was thrown in the trash... We probably threw out a couple of grand worth of smack?

Don

[Michael Watts]

Quite a large bag of marijuana.

[Rinaz]

I found some hair and something similar to it and I don't even know what it is...

[davidbeinct]

Originally Posted by bho

I was given a 60’s Martin that hadn’t been played in over thirty years. The case was full of odds and ends, including a spoon.

Given some of the other posts I have to ask-how big was the spoon?

[hat]

mouse turds?

[EZYPIKINS]

Originally Posted by hat

mouse turds?

Ha Ha Ha
Did you try them?

[Alan Carruth]

One time we got in a guitar to work on that had an odd buzz on one particular note. It was a low-end WalMart GLO. WHen we looked inside we found a strip of metal, cut from a tin can. One end of it had been inserted under one of the top braces when it was glued down, and the free end had been bent around in a loop that almost touched the top, so it buzzed whenever you hit it's resonant frequency. We bent it around until it snapped off; problem solved.

It reminded me of the friend I had who used to put double shots of filling into the doughnuts on paydays. Lots of folks with jelly on their chin.