"The luthier said, 'I've never seen one that had this penciling inside. It's a ground-zero Jazzmaster.’ ” Thurston Moore was gifted a vintage axe when Sonic Youth's gear was stolen. He had no idea how rare it was

Anyone who's seen Thurston Moore play over the years knows he's a fan of Fender Jazzmaster guitars.

And there's one in his collection that's particularly special, and not just because it hails from the model's first year of manufacture.

On July 4, 1999, Sonic Youth's instruments and stage gear were stolen in Orange County, California, while the group was in the midst of a North American tour. The band members would recover a number of the guitars and basses over the years, but that of course did not help in the short term.

"We had to replenish our coffers with newly bought secondhand guitars at different music stores and re-create the band, as far as our sound goes," says Moore, who also lost lyric books in the theft. "Because we could never replicate the distinctions of each of those guitars."

To Moore's everlasting thanks, Patti Smith came to the rescue with a gift: her vintage Fender Jazzmaster.

"After the initial rip-off, the Patti Smith Group was playing in Northampton [Massachusetts], where we were living in the early 2000s," Moore recalls. "They stayed at our house. Patti shared the story about how their group also had their van broken into. All of the instruments were stolen, along with suitcases and all her signed, first-edition William Burroughs books."

Smith recalls that she purchased the Jazzmaster in the ’70s, from a shop across the street from Manny's Music, on 48th Street in New York City. "I think I put a metal nut and metal pickguard on it," she says. "I gave it to him, as all our equipment was stolen in Chicago in 1978. It was devastating. So I knew how it felt."

As Moore recalls, "She said, 'I want to gift you one of our guitars.' That was incredibly sweet and special and such an honor. I couldn't believe it. It's just a beautiful Jazzmaster, painted gold."

But Moore was in for another surprise when he took the guitar in for some work.

"I found out it's a day-one '58 Jazzmaster, with the year penciled in underneath the neck," he says. "I had a luthier take it apart. He nearly had a 'pack my bags and send me to heaven' moment. He was like, 'I've never seen a Jazzmaster that had this penciling inside. It's a ground-zero Jazzmaster.' I said, 'Yeah, it's a good guitar,’ ” Moore adds with a laugh.

"I remember mentioning to Tom Verlaine, 'Patti gave me this really cool gold Jazzmaster.' He was like, 'She gave you the gold Jazzmaster? Oh, man, I really wanted that guitar.' That's her nature, though. She has this great, kind quality as a friend, that when somebody gets burned, she wants to help make it right."

The Jazzmaster is still in Moore's possession, and he's used it on some of his solo albums — although not his new solo album, Flow Critical Lucidity. The guitar has been seen of late onstage in the hands of his co-guitarist, James Sedwards.

"I treasure it," Moore says. "I keep it very safe and secure when I'm not" using it." He adds, with anther laugh, that, "Talking about it is funny because I always worry that Patti’s' gonna read an interview and say, 'Hey, I always wondered what happened to that guitar. I want it back!' "

Thinking back on the theft, meanwhile, Moore says the event made a profound creative impact on Sonic Youth that went beyond replacing their instruments.

"In some ways it was really interesting because it allowed us to become new again," he explains. "We had to reinvent what we were doing. And it took us awhile to get back to playing the material we were up to playing 'til that point 'cause we had to find the guitars to do so. And even then it wasn't exactly the same. But it became a real opportunity for us to grow, I think."