Just for the heck of it, and so those interested don't have to jump to another website I thought I would paste a copy of my original post at HarmonyCentral from back in 2013 right here....
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Posted August 1, 2013
I see this question/message is kind of old, I hope someone is around to read it still. I may have some info on the Saunders Guitar Builder you are asking about. I hope it is of some use...
This is going to be a kind of story about an almost forgoten part of my life (only because I am getting old and I have had 2 strokes and 1 heart attack thus far).
My name is Richard and I used to live in Upland California back in the 1980's. I don't recall the exact year but I am 100% that it had to be no earlier than1982 and no later than1984 and I was between the ages of 17-19.
I responded to an ad in the local paper for a part time job. The job was working part time for about 7 dollars an hour, which was great for my age and that year, and it was cash. I only worked a few evenings a week, but it was great part time money for me.
The job was working for a man named "John Saunders" he also lived in Upland in a small neighborhood just west of 8th street & Euclid Ave. I don't know the address and I am not 100% sure if I could pick the correct house or street anymore, but it is a possibility. If I ever get that way again. I currently live about 60 miles from Upland.
The job was sanding guitar bodies that John said he made himself. (I specifically wrote "said he made himself" because I never saw john make anything.) Don't get me wrong, I am NOT calling him a liar, he was just very secretive most of the time... Not all the time... haha, but most of the time. There were many times I asked him information about his guitars and he was very firm about never answering any of them. I guess you just had to be there. It was like he was working on a secret government project.
There were times I had asked if I could watch him cut them out, or paint them, or even assemble them, and he would never let me watch anything. I had to show up at a very specific time in the evenings. It was almost never the same time or same days of the week. I would never know when I was working again until I was leaving, then he would tell me when to show up again...
When I would show up, there would be guitar bodies hanging up in his garage ready for me to sand. He was Very Very particular about the sanding process. Some of the time the bodies were raw wood, other times they were painted. I very rarely ever saw a neck, and never saw any of the other hardware. I am guessing it was in the house. I am using the word "sand" loosely. What I mean by sand is... If the bodies were raw wood and rough I actually had to sand them from coarse to fine and have them ready for paint. If they were painted already, I had to use different grades of "scotch brite" pads on them, to get them ready for another coat of paint. All sanding was done by hand, and even at only 17 or so years old, I remember how beautiful and pefectly smooth his paint was. I remember how proud he was to have the "Saunders" name for his guitars.
At the time he seemed like a very strange guy, He would rush me to the garage and then disappear into his house, only coming out to check on my process once in a while. Now that I am older, I still think he was a bit strange, but so am I, and if he ever got rich, then he would be Eccentric right?
I worked with him for only a few months probably on about 20 or so guitars, both Bass and 6 string. John did tell me that he was a Bass player, but I never heard him play. I only worked with him those few months because I had a job opportunity in Colorado with my brother and I moved there.
Just before I moved, there was the one and only time John was open with me, I think it was when I told him I smoke weed. We sat down and smoked a joint and he told me some crazy stories about a trap in his back yard he made with a 2x4 and nails and how he had found it one day, it had been tripped and he said it was covered in blood. He then explained that it was to protect his Pot Plants... Later that week, he gave me a whole plant that had been cut and dried and it filled an entire grocery bag. He never showed me his actual plants or growing area or the trap, but I can promise you (and so can my friends) that I did have a grocery bad full of pot... We smoked it all.... LOL We had so much, we actually would use a small BBQ in the middle of the room, pile it up and let it burn, and then smolder, and everyone in the room would be wasted... I know someone in Upland still remembers those few days... I don't know who though... I don't remember who was there... HAHAHA
This was about 1982 or so, I was about 18, and he looked to be about 40. When he was telling me about the 2x4 trap, he said it was similar to traps he made in the war, so I am guessing Vietnam. I was young, his age could have been anywhere from 35-50. But I never tried goind in his backyard that's for sure!
I only lasted 6 months is Colorado and then I came back to Upland. So I went back to my old day job, and I stopped by John's to see if I could work on Guitars again. He said he had quit building guitars and I remember he was very very excited, even exstatic about some type of electronic device he created that he said was going to make him RICH. He even invited me in to show it to me. I remember not having a clue as to what it was. He tried explaining it to me, but I still didn't get what it was. I don't think it had anything to do with guitars or music.
I remember being confused about how someone so particular about his guitar building could just walk away from it. But that is what he did as far as I know.
I asked him for some more pot, but he didn't give me any... LOL
That was the last time I ever saw or talked to John Saunders.
If you do the math based on my assumption of his age at that time, he could be anywhere between 65 and 80 years old now
I tried to look up any John Saunders with guitars on the web today, I didn't find John, bit I did find a "Paul" Saunders in Canada that builds custom guitars.. His website says he has been making guitars since 1979... Maybe it is him and he moved to Canada... Maybe my memory has faded and his name was Paul, and not John. I really think it was John, but anyways, you can check out this guys site and ask him if he ever lived in Upland California. By the way, this site is almost all acoustic guitars and all the ones I worked on back in the 80's were solid body electric. Sorry, after all these 30 years I don't remember what he looked like enough to tell if this is him or not.
Link Removed UPDATE: I called this guy, it is NOT him.
I hope this information has helped someone in some way to find Saunders Guitars from the early 80's in California. If not, I hope it was at least entertaining.
Final words: Anyone that really wants to find the Saunders that built the custom guitars back in the early 80's in California should have enough info from my post to find him. There are so many websites that you can pay a few bucks and they give you anyones personal history. From my post you can guess his age and address enough to find him on one of those sites. He lived just west of 8th street and Euclid Avenue in the city of Upland California, 91786 in 1982. If I ever drive down to that area again I will drive thru that neighborhood and try to remember the house and get the address, and then I will update this post. Until then, Good Luck
UPDATED......
UPDATED......
I figured out more info searching on the web:
John H. Saunders
351 Orchard Ln
Upland, CA 91786 ?
worked at these places:
Oxford International Proteus Biomed
Advanced Technical Aerojet
DRS Sensors
Technipower Hewlett Packard
Abbott Labs
Ditech Networks
Epri
Glentek
Swr Engineering
Tyco Electronics
Chaffey High School
Tobias Guitars
Aerojet Azusa CA
Aerojet ElectroSystems
Hughes Aircraft
This has to be the guy..... although I doubt he still lives at that address....
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The white T-bird body is an Epi that I mounted his neck on. I saw the NOS neck on eBay years ago and bought it. Later I saw another like it (on eBay) but was outbid. Never seen a whole bass other than the yellow one that 
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