[pic=Close-up of Billie Joe's writing on the heel of the "Blue" neck]122812_rsz_blue_copy_heel-1.jpg[/pic][note]Editor's note: The post below was written by Lee Taylor (GetMyRocksOff on our forum, GDC). This is Lee's story of how he came to own the neck off of one of Billie Joe's copies of "Blue." I thought this was pretty awesome, so we wanted to share it with other fans. Photos are at the end of his writing (click the thumbnails to view the full photos).[/note]

I'm a 25 year-old BIG Green Day fan from Massachusetts, and I've been playing self-taught guitar since the age of 11. I'm an avid Green Day collector, too, checking eBay consistently since 2001 to browse and occasionally buy rare vinyl, CD singles, and now the Holy Grail. I've stumbled upon an eBay auction titled "Fender Custom Shop Maple Strat Neck belonged to Billie Joe of Green Day."

Something like this never happens, it's unheard of. I checked the auction every day until it ended and for what I can only imagine as a combination of skepticism and a steep asking price, I won the thing as the lone bidder for around the price of a Mexican Fender Stratocaster (about $300-$400). I was floored - still am. The seller said that he rented out tour buses in the 90s, and had Green Day take one of his buses out on a leg of the Nimrod tour. While cleaning out the bus afterwards, this guy found the neck abandoned in a closet. The band never returned his calls about this heavily road-worn used neck. 14 years later, he lists it on eBay.

Continue reading this editorial after the jump...