Jay Turser... any good?

[SeanJovi]

I remember playing a low end Turser strat a long time ago. Don't remember much, but it was pretty playable for a sub-$200 guitar.

 

Any opinions on their Tele style guits? Ebay has some of 'em for real cheap. I'm in the market for a cheap Tele to use as a beater, and these Jay Tursers actually look really nice. Double binding, gold hardware, HB in the neck for around two bills is not bad at all.

 

What's the verdict on these axes?

[D-log]

There decent... some are absolute crap, while others can sound amazing. Your better off buying it local so you can test it out before you buy. If you do buy it on ebay though, have at least a basic knowledge of how to do a setup and preferably some fretting skills in case you get a dud.

[Floritar]

The paisley Tele is a good one, I have it, it stays in tune sounds real nice and looks Great.

[twotimingpete]

I think mustache man has one

[twofoolsaminute]

I have the JTLT Tele and it is fabulous. I also have a vintage series Turer tele from Canada That I really like except it's a top loader.

 

Anyway. I've been pleased with Jay turser above some other budget brands, but some of the models are made of mystery wood. Both of mine are made of alder, but the paisley and deluxe are made of some different lighter softer wood. I'm not sure about the rosewood tele, but it is not all rosewood. the pickups are ceramic but not bad for cheapies. I really like the feel of them, though.

 

But, for the money I think Xaviere is a better deal for the quality components you get.

[weather.at.8]

I bought a JT300M (Strat copy with a Maple neck) for $115 new off eBay a few months back. Great guitar for the money. I don't know how it compares to the SX or Xaviere guitars but it was *easily* better quality than any of the Squier Bullet Strats I've played.

[A_Gitarman]

I bought a Turser to satisfy my tele GAS a few years ago...

 

 

 

Mine needed virtually nothing out of the box; setup was good, action/ intonation were fine, & the hardware is decent. My only change was to add new pickups & a 5-way switch to give it some more tonal variety.

 

As others have pointed out, though, you really need to be careful who you are buying from if you choose to go the Ebay route. I've heard that a lot of sellers will try to pass off what would otherwise qualify as a B-stock item as new/ A-stock.

 

I've gotten two of my Tursers (the tele and a jazz box) from musiclandcentral via Ebay auctions and both were GREAT. They have the reputation for being THE place to get a good Turser. OTOH, I bought my third Turser (A 'Warlord' flying V) from another place & not only did I find more than a few paint runs in the finish, but I had to give it a complete setup with fret level before I considered it gig-able.

 

For the sake of comparison, I also bought my brother an SX tele a couple of years ago for his birthday & it was also very nice & compared favorably to my Turser (& at about $70 less, but minus the fancy finish, gold hardware, & double-bound body). My only gripe there is that the SX guitars have JUMBO frets and a fat neck, whereas the Turser leans more towards the 'traditional' side of things.

[Karma1]

A few years ago I was looking for a cheap backup/beater guitar and I bought a used Turser Les Paul goldtop copy off Craig's List for $80. It turned out to be a suprisingly good guitar. I enjoyed playing it so much I threw in a Duncan Jazz and Gibson 500T that I had laying around and it sounds great. I think Jay Turser puts out some well made and nice looking guitars for their price range.

[HanSolo]

I've owned a few. I had a JT-137 (Like a Sheraton) that I wish I had kept. I also had a JT-134 Jazz box and a CutlassQ (too small) that were nice guitars and played great. The only dud was a Strat QMT300 that was very tinny sounding. I bought them from both Musicland and Strings & Things. Nice people to deal with and the guitars never needed a setup

 

I also have an Aslin Dane JTLT (Tele Custom) which I am told is the same as the Turser. It is the nuts. I bought it from a forumite and was wired wrong. Had a cap where there shouldn't have been one. I clipped it off and the thing sounds just great.

 

There is a Rosewood Tele (George Harrison Copy) on Ebay for $169 BIN right now. It is new with a couple tiny dings in the edge of the headstock. That would be a great buy

[Radar-Love]

 

Jay Tursers are somewhat of a hit-and-miss brand -- though a lot more hit

than miss. I have a couple each of their upper-end Telecasters and

Stratocasters.

 

Telecasters: The red paisley Tele became an Esquire. The Custom with

flame maple top lost the large neck humbucker and gained a Kent Armstrong

Firebird neck pickup and the bridge pickup was replaced with a Rio Grande

Halfbreed (I may add a Strat middle pickup, later). Both required pickguard

changes, tuning machine replacements, new switches, pots, and capacitors.

 

Strats: One is a 2009 JT300M medium-weight with maple fingerboard and

pale blue alder body. The other is a 2003 JT300 with a rosewood fingerboard

with a black basswood body. Both of these Strats are *very* different in

nature because of their body wood.

 

 

The pale blue Strat is very vintage-y in feel. I haven't done anything to it

yet, but want to install a set of early-60s type Strat pickups in it and a new

tremolo.

 

 

The black Strat is freakishly light in weight (at least compared to a normal

Strat). It's close to being as light in weight as a Parker Fly. In fact, it

seems close to being a hollowbody in nature more than a solidbody Strat!

 

When I discovered that some of these Turser Strats (as it was a few years

back) could be very light and had some unusual acoustic properties because

of their light weight, I went on a hunt at area Turser dealers to find "the

lightest one." I hit what seemed like the best and lightest of the few dozen

that I tried. It was black (I was hoping for white or red, but I don't mind

black). Since 2003 / 2004, Turser quit using basswood and has been using

alder, so that high resonance mojo is no longer available.

 

I'm still playing around with pickups on this black strat. It's turned out to be

a bit more complex finding a pleasing Strat pickup for this guitar because of

the increased resonance. I've tried a set of Fender Texas Specials with a

couple of treble bleed capacitor changes and they were always just too edgy

for this guitar. I need something a touch darker and not necessarily high

output.

 

 

 

[gergbee]

I bought one for $60 a couple of weeks ago. It's one of those vintage looking ones. It's a top loader and the bridge is a bit rattly but I fixed that . The neck had no relief at all and the neck pickup is kinda muddy. Pickguard was thick one ply stuff, flashing visible. All fixable stuff.

 

I think if you are prepared to do some work and maybe replace some parts you could have a nice guitar for not much cash. I was in a pawnshop yesterday and they had one just like mine for $230...no thanks. I think it was new though.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

 

There decent... some are absolute crap, while others can sound amazing. Your better off buying it local so you can test it out before you buy. If you do buy it on ebay though, have at least a basic knowledge of how to do a setup and preferably some fretting skills in case you get a dud.

 

 

This^

[IBDBB]

I only changed the nut on this one.

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[sfarfsky]

I got a $100 JT Strat a few weeks back. It was the most cost efficient guitar in that particular shop

 

The pups and tuners weren't up to my standards. Regardless of what you get in that price range it will probably need some sort of upgrade

[BAXANDALL]

I have a thin line resonator guitar by them. It's ok. The guitar itself is nice. The action sucked upon arrival, the pickups are decent. It came with a piezo and a single coil P90 size in the neck. The neck is nice. Intonation will be a challenge and raising the action will also be a challenge due to the floating tail piece and bridge attached to the resonator.

[Grantus]

I've owned one Turser and sold it as fast as I could.

[DaleH]

Some are not bad at all. Some are not that great.