Jay Turser Cruiser

My guitar is a new (2008?) JT-CRUSDLX; cruiser deluxe; semi-hollow body 1968 telecaster copy. It is important to identify this guitar as the '68 style as opposed to the '72 thinline style, due to differences in the pickups.
I put a question mark after 2008, because, as far as I can find out, the "new" CRUSDLX is built with an opaque, smoked plastic pickguard, and this was delivered with a (much nicer looking IMO) 3-layer black/white/black pickguard. Prior to actually receiving this guitar, I spent a significant amount of time trying to decide what to do with the pickguard: paint it?
25 1/2 inch scale, 21 frets, pretty standard telecaster setup, standard telecaster pickups, rosewood fretboard on maple nech, semi-hollow alder body with cherry-burst finish and cream binding on front edge. The neck is 1 5/8" at the nut. The guitar was delivered with .090 gauge D'Adario strings, pretty high-end for a cheap guitar but not necessarily to my liking. I immediately changed them for a set of .010 GHS pure nickle Burnished roundwound strings that have a bit more edge to them...
The finish on this guitar is spectacular! Beautiful cherry burst with deep, thick clearcoat. There are no flaws that I can find. i would compare this guitar, at first blush, with any MIA telecaster.

I play country/hillbilly/blues, and this guitar is spectacular at that. The semi-hollow body makes it a bit lighter and mellows the sound some, just the kind of subtle difference I was looking for from the typical standard telecaster. The pickups aren't as hot as I'd like, and I will probably change later. I play through a Fender Deluxe Reverb and a Boss ME50 pedal, and I get exactly what I want with this guitar with minimal effects input, no matter what I'm looking for at that particular time. I could easily get the nastiest growl or crunch out of this guitar if I wanted to.

The guitar was well setup when it arrived. I tuned up, did a little intonation and was ready to go.

I will play this guitar at my next gig. No, I wouldn't go out without a backup. You never know what kind of wierd **** might happen. Yes, I think it will be a very dependable instrument.
Strap buttons: My one big complaint to this guitar. I always keep a couple of sets of Schaller straplocks in my gig bag. The screw holes on this guitar, from the factory, are too large for the Schaller straplock screws. Pissed me off. I will have to look for a brand of straplocks with larger diameter screws.

Lifetime warranty, not sure what that means.

I've been playing 33 years, and played in many, many different situations in a number of styles. I love telecasters. When I strap one on, I feel like the Boss! Yes, if it was lost or stolen, I would buy another one! I am thinking of the JT-LTRW even now.
Honestly, this guitar doesn't have anything special to recommend it, except that it is a pretty good example of the '68 thinline telecaster at 20% the price of a Fender. Is there anything more to say? If you know and like teles, you know what I mean.

This is a Fender Thinline Telecaster clone with a "Cherry Sunburst" style finish, 21 fret maple neck w/ rosewood fretboard, and "vintage Kluson-style" tuners.

The body is bound with an "aged creme" plastic binding, and it came with a pearl pickguard. It would have looked better if the pickguard had been the "aged" style also, as this would have matched up color-wise, but for $147 I guess I can't complain.

The nut is plastic, the bridge is "vintage ashtray-style" with 3 barrel sattles (not compensated barrels).

Tone controls are standard vol/tone/3-way switch with the "barrel-style" switch knob.

When it all comes down, it's a Tele. It *sounds* like a Tele.

The sound is jangly, bright, and open. The neck pickup is a bit muddy and dark, not quite as articulate as I would like.

The stock pickups are decent, a little noisy, but will probably be replaced shortly with a set of hand-wound pickups. The neck pickup is RWRP, so the middle switch position is hum-cancelling.

They are also fairly "hot" pickups, overdriving my amp fairly easily, but not unpleasantly so.

Stylistically, I play everything from alt-country and blues, to alt-rock and progressive.

The pickguard initially didn't fit right, and I noted that this was because the holes are not drilled correctly. Several of the pickguard holes are drilled at weird angles, or stripped out. Nothing that a few toothpicks and some careful work didn't fix... with one exception - there is one hole between the pickguard and the bridge that is visible, and this is bad. Nothing that can't be repaired, but still, it was a new guitar, you wouldn't think that it would *need* repairs right out of the box.

The "cherry" part of the sunburst started to bleed over a small part of the F-hole binding, but it scraped off easily. The back of the body is an unidentifiable wood, I would guess basswood. Some pretty sloppy routing is visible through the F-hole. The top (which is supposed to be Ash) looks decent, except for the 1/8" hole where the screw was misplaced.

Overall, the action is good, without buzzes. Nowever, the low E string won't intonate properly, and no matter what you do with the truss rod and the action, the low E string either buzzes, or goes severely sharp when you fret it. The nut likely needs to be re-cut, but this will be fixed when I replace it with a bone nut.

It's a guitar, made in a factory. Pretty much the same as most ogher guitars that are made in factories. The parts are sound, and the assembly, if not spot on, is certaily not far out from the quality control of many of the major American manufacturers.

I expect that with minor tweaks and adjustments, this guitar will last for many years to come.

Definitely worth the $147 I paid for it.

I have never had an issue requiring me to deal with the manufacturer.

I have been playing guitar for 16 years, so far.

I own a Strat with an L.R. Baggs acoustic tremelo bridge, a funky little First Act guitar I picked up for when I travel, a 1970's Takamine 12-fret acoustic, a 1970's Yamaha acoustic, and a Cort NTL-20 w/ a Baggs i-Beam pickup.

I record (and occasionally gig) through a 1951 "Rex" tube combo amp (6w class A hand wired, generic "Kalamazoo" amp, volume+tone), 1970's Crybaby wah, Danelectro "Daddy-O" overdrive, Danelectro "Dan-Echo" delay, and Behringer "Vintage Distortion" (EH Big Muff Pi clone).

If I had thought about it, I would have asked if this guitar had the option to come with a maple fretboard.

If it were stolen, I'd be mad, because these are getting to be hard to find.

I love the tone and (most of) the playability. I hate the fact that the low E string goes sharp whenever you fret it, and that the pickguard wasn't on straight.

Ive compared this with Squer thinlines ar almost twoce the money, and Fender thinlines at around 10 times the money, and it seems to hold its own, overall.

I wish this guitar came with an all maple neck, maybe in a nice warm, glossy amber color.

Jay Turser Telecaster Thinline copy.Natural clear finish--beautiful wood grain and very nice binding.

Good for my music style--Blues jazz and rock. Good sound and very responsive pickups especially the bridge--has good bite for lead solos. Has all the tone variety of a fender thinline tele--tone knob however has a limited range--doesn"t seem to have a gradual attenuation

Factory set was good--intonation good but a little fret buzz. Had to file a few frets but not much. Wood seems good--guitar feels light like a semi hollow body. Very pleased with clor finish and grain of the wood. Neck straight and adjusted well. Feels good when playing. However strings too light for my style--definitely have to change if you are a seasoned player.

Plan on using on my numerous gigs and when recording.

Lifetime wattanty whatever that means--hope I do not need customer support

Been playing 40 years semi-pro and this is my 12th guitar in my collection. GOOD value for the money--I am impressed with the overall quality for the price.I would certainly replace if lost or stolen.

2005 Jay Turser 1969 Telecaster Thinline Hollowbody Copy. Made in China.
The finish is a Natural Transparent, and the body wood is NOT Alder, Ash, or anything I've ever seen before on a guitar. Its very cheap looking. As a matter of fact, the body is made up of 12 pieces of this mystery wood. Yes 12!!! There are many areas where small blocks of this wood, not even 1" in width, are glued in, right next to larger pieces of this same wood, and no attempt was made to match the grain.
There is binding on the top of the body and in the F-hole, and its very sloppy, lots of gaps between the binding and the body that weren't even filled in with filler!
The tuners are Kluson copies, bridge is a vintage 3 saddle replica. All metal used on this guitar is very thin.
The neck is maple with rosewood fretboard, 22 medium jumbo frets, fairly flat fingerboard radius.
Read below.

It sounds like a Tele. It's not as clear and brilliant as a MIM Fender Tele. The hollowbody design doesn't seem to have any effect on the sound of this guitar, unlike the MIM Fender RI Thinlines I've tried, which sound a bit more open and mellow than a solidbody Tele. This Jay Turser has ceramic magnet pickups, which can sound harsh especially in the bridge position. It's a little noisy.

This is the category where this guitar fails horribly. When I first took it out of its box, the first things I noticed was the ugly wood and that the bridge was sitting at an angle. After a closer look, it turns out that the bridge was mounted way too far up on the body which makes it impossible to set the intonation correctly. The bridge was also mounted about 1/8" too far to the treble side of the neck making the high E unplayable. So I tried to adjust the neck by loosening the neck bolts and shifting the neck over, but that didn't help. In fact, when I removed the neck I discovered another glaring issue - the holes in the neck were drilled at various angles and one of the holes is about 1/8" off center!
When taking the guitar apart I noticed that almost every screw was drilled at different angles, not straight into the body at a 90 degree angle. The holes for the bridge were way off center. It seems there was no attempt in drilling any of the holes correctly. Some of the holes were stripped as well as some of the screw heads. The route for the bridge pickup and the neck pocket looks like it was hand cut with a chisel.
The hardware on this guitar is about the cheapest I've ever seen. Soft thin metal, soft poor quality wood, poor craftsmanship, etc.

I've already plugged the existing holes for the bridge and redrilled but unfortunately the wood is so soft the attempted repair failed. I should have returned it to Music Land Central.

Dennis at Music Land Central says he would try to contact the Jay Turser company to see if they can get me another body. Well that was a week ago and I haven't heard from Dennis since then, so I assume he forgot or doesn't care.

This guitar is my first Jay Turser - and it's also the most poorly crafted instrument I have ever seen in my 15 years of playing the guitar. It truly is a piece of garbage.
I have an SX Tele that cost about half as much and it has a 3 piece alder body and the only issues with it were that the neck pocket needed some leveling and the 3-way switch replaced, but that's it.
If you're shopping for an inexpensive Tele of Strat style guitar, I would avoid Jay Tursers and look into SX and Squier.