Jay Turser Hawk 12

No use going over all this stuff again. It's about the only guitar I have that I have left completely stock, except for lighter strings. (08's and on up) Mine is gloss black.

I have had about 4 other electric 12's, and this one is the BEST sounding I have had. The tap switch makes all the difference. The pickups are amazing sounding for the price. (or any price, for that matter) Full, bright, rich, jangly, tinny, full, or any other catch phrase I can think of, will work for this guitar.

I adjusted the string height when new,, but nothing else. To be honest,, the hardware looked a bit cheap to me at first,, but I've playeed it for over a year now, and it has been rock solid. The action is really good for a 12, and that is a VERY important thing. I use a capo,, flat picks, finger picks, or just plain old finger style picking on it. It's all good. Haven't tried a bottleneck yet,, but who knows??

I have played it live, and I use no backup for it. It's never let me down yet.

I have dealt with the Turser people a couple times for other guitars I have. No problems yet.

I've been playing for 35 years. Owned this for over one year. I would probably replace it if lost or stolen. I have a really nice Eastwood Nashville semi hollowbody 12,, and it does a LOT of sitting on the rack. It was three times the cost of this one, and it is a VERY good guitar, but I would rather play this one.

The nautural maple neck feels much better than loads of plastic sealer or lacquer. Also the jumbo frets have a great "feel" up and down the neck.

This post follows a previous one after 20 months of ownership. Now that I have
discovered the subtle changes available with the coil tap switch I find it much more
versatile. My settings: all knobs full up, CT switch in "neutral", bridge pickup on
for general chords - pulls in the bottom with just a touch of treble glisten; flip
to bridge pickup for cutting leads.

No structural issues at all. The string plate (not the standard stop tail piece) by being
screwed into the hard body seems to contribute to good natural sustain. The neck
width makes fingering easy, even chording at the D frets, and open up everything
above the 12th fret for lead notes unthinkable on another 12 string.

I replaced the nice stock buttons with "strap lock" type. After a while the screws
wiggle loose, so coated the screws with white glue to stay firm.

I recently changed the order of the first 8 strings (octaves 2nd). To do this you must
file out the old octave slots to accept the fatter string. I used the old appropriate
fat string in each case (nickle wound) as a mini file to widen the slots and gently take
them down so the string will sit below the top edge of the nut. Patience; about 5-10
minutes of filing per slot. The re-strung sound difference is amazing. I also lovered the bridge a bit and this brings the humbuckers closer for added snap and sparkle

24-fret solid body 12 string electric. Two HB pickups with coil tap switch for SC series, SC parallel & HB. Small solid body, mine is transparent cherry red in color, nicely finished, unknown wood. The neck is fairly wide but this is a good thing on an electric 12 that you may use for 1-2 songs in a set. It's wider than the neck on a strat 12, about the same as the 12-string neck on an epiphone SG double neck. A lot of the extra width is on the outer edges of the high and low e-strings, to appreciate this all you need to do is have your finger slip off the edge of the fretboard once or twice on a narrower neck 12 to appreciate the advantage of the wider fretboard. I find it very comfortable and perfect for the occasional use it gets. The pickup switching is a real bonus on this guitar. You get a wide variety of good, usable sounds. Basically outstanding features on such a cheap guitar. Only thing missing is a bridge fully adjustable on all 12 strings. This presents the usual 12 string intonation funkiness, but on the plus side lends that 12-string jangle character to the sound (my trick is to tune the octave strings very slightly sharp, this gives a fairly good match through most of the fretboard). My only complaint on the features side is that the combination of the 24-fret neck, 12 string headstock and very small body results in some neck-heaviness. There is no need for a 24-fret neck on a 12 string, esp. one without individual string intonation! Fretting way up high on any of the octave paired strings is comically out of tune. Better to have a shorter neck & more balanced guitar. That said, this is minor compared to all the other great features of this guitar. I'll drop my rating to 9 since I think the neck-heaviness could have been avoided, otherwise everything is great.

This guitar sounds fantastic. Given the price of the guitar I assumed I'd have to swap out the pickups, no need at all, they sound great. I use all settings, although in gigs tend to use the neck PU in HB mode most. But great variety and they all sound good. No noise at all, very rich & clear. I'm not really anal about trying to replicate a Ric 360/12, but you can get this guitar to sound reasonably close, and more importantly, the sound is very pleasing, and is excellent in a live setting.

My guitar was set up perfectly (I was very pleasantly surprised), however I think this was done by the store (thanks Eddie, great job!) so I can't comment on the factory set-up. The finish is nice and seems durable. The frets on mine are perfect, no rough edges, no buzzing whatsoever. I was frankly really surprised at this. Also, my nut has no sharp edges at all. All the details are taken care of, no flaws whatsoever, this thing is really well put together and finished. A little bit of oxidation on the metal parts, I think due mainly to it having sat for a long time in a beachfront music store.

One thing deserving special mention is that this guitar stays remarkably well in tune, even in extreme weather & gigging situations. A REAL plus in a 12 string. I REALLY appreciate the very solid switches, I have a Danelectro and and Epiphone and both came with very cheap switches which I have since replaced. The switches on this guitar(PU selector and coil tap) are rock-solid. The rest of the guitar seems to be very solid, I've had it out quite a bit and no problems whatsoever.

I'll give them a 5 based simply on the fact that I tried contacting Jay Turser twice, once by phone and once by e-mail, no problems with the guitar but I wanted to ask them where the serial number was (turns out it doesn't have one!!). The phone call got me through to an actual guitar guy who seemed to know about the guitar, so once I got the serial number info we had a nice chat. On the other hand, the e-mail didn't ever get answered. So 10 on the phone call, 1 on the e-mail I guess.

Been playing for several years, mostly jazz but now doing some pop/rock as well. If stolen or lost I'd get another one for sure - for this quality & sound at this price you just can't pass it up. I didn't have much to compare it to, not too many elec 12's around, but did look at a strat 12 which was harder to play, three times as much money, and basically just sounded like a strat (not that that's bad), didn't have the variety of the Turser. Basically, this guitar is perfect for an electric 12 - cheap enough that you can justify having it for 2 or 3 songs, but sounds SO good you're glad you have it on stage for those songs.

China import that I expected to be quality-wise in the " you get what you pay for" range. I have played a Japanese Epiphone 12 with a DeArmond pickup
clamped across the sound hole for years and was delighted to find the neck on the Hawk to mirror the "feel" of the Epi acoustic. At last(!) plenty of low fret room unlike the "scruch" neck on Rickenbacker. The tailpiece is simplicity itself for restringing. Action, set-up and tuning great out of the box, and this
12 STAYS IN TUNE even after days of un-use. Nice trans red finish and non-
glossy maple neck feels good to the hand. Noted one blemish on the edge
of the black headstock that looked like it had been touched out with a sharpie
marker.

Grew up in 70"s Bay area around Airplane, Quicksilver (had a nice chat with
the late John Cippolina backstage once at a Berkeley club - very accessible
and courteous man) and loved Byrds. Played through college with different
combinations of friends. This guitar I set wide open, and switch between the middle position fror blend to the bridge lickup for high lead jangle. Through
the clean channel on my Rogue 65 RMS 2-12 (the poor mans "TWIN") it is
like a bell with good natural hang time. I think a compressor would add to
it like the chords on McGuinn"s BACK FROM RIO album. Boost settings are
the usual growl. I also use a boss tremelo pedal wide open to tap in the Cippolina trade-mark Bigsby flutter to certain notes or chords without worrying about untunig a 12 string. Sterling sound.
going out of tune

Body is beautiful and well finished plum red allowing grain to show through.
Sharp corners at end of nut could use some patient dremeling. Also the
bass tone control pot seems to go from bass quickly to mid-tone at the end of
its rotation. The coil t5ap switch is a mystery to me. Left in the middle it does
nothing, up it is faint and "tinkley", down it is muddy? Guitar seems neck heavy. I tried moving the back strap nut up the body several inches to no
avail - put a crome rivet in the hole and moved it back. Knobs are TELE like.

Feels quite solid. My musician son gave me a Guitar Center standard tweed case for it for Christmas. I had to take out the pad at the headstock end to get it to fit, and raise the neck support because of the angled headstock. Yes,
a keeper.

Got it on E-bay for less than >buy it now:. Ordered black - came in red in box marked "Black>, like it better. No other contact.

I have been playing for about 30+ years, mostly for fun now. It still thrills me
to hear that electric jangle coming out of an amp. Buy one and play it often.
This stay in tune electric 12 string will bring a smile to your face.

My guitar is a standard Hawk 12. This review is specifically about modding it to sound like a Rickenbacker 12 string.

The coil splitters work well and give you a Strat 12 sound - quite useful.

I'm writing to disagree with the posters who contend that you can get a Rick 12 souind from the stock Hawk. It depends on how close you want to get, I guess, but my Hawk does not sound close to my old Rick 12.

Here's what to do to get a LOT closer quickly and relatively cheaply.

1) Replace the beidge pickup with either a Rickenbacker pickup ($100) from Ed Roman in Las Vegas or with a Memphis pickup ($34.95) from http://stores.ebay.com/Guitarfetish-Store. Very big difference.

2) Replace the capacitor on the treble tone control with a 47 pF capacitor. Big difference.

3) Restring with Pyramid strings, with regular strings first, octaves below. It does make a difference.

This will bring out the crackling highs up around 12 kHz that make the Rick so distinctive.

Very good fit and finish.

Have not stressed it.

Since it's been almost three years since my original review of the Hawk 12, I though it was time for an update...

No reason to change my opinion, the sucker still sounds great. Get some pretty neat sound running it through my Boss ME-5 as well.

I hafta say something about the comments below that the neck is "like the north end of a baseball bat" and the "width is the size of a football field". Out of curiosity, I measured my Ovation Custom Balladeer and my Peavey T-60 at the nut. The Ovation was 1 5/8" on the nose, the T-60 was a hair wider than that. The Hawk measured 1 7/8" -- about a 1/4" wider. I'm not sure a 1/4" could be "shaved off both sides of neck". Makes for one hell of a skinny neck to try a hold 12 strings. To each his own, I guess.



Baladeer

OK, it's spent most of its life sitting in my unheated, unair conditioned garage/studio in Tampa. So if your looking for environmental testing, this would be it. No rust, no pitting, no warping, no nothing to complain about. I just wish my D'Addario strings would hold up half as well.

No need. Nothing to bitch about.

So I gave it all tens this time to make up for the fours.

If were stolen, I'd ask RJE how much he wanted for his.

And for the record, I've been doing this since the 60s as well.

Everyone before me has this down better than I could say it. Read this part in their reviews and come back here.

Carries the old Rickenbacker twelve sound well, although it's a solid body and not semi-hollow; for the money, WHO CARES??

Playing thru a Crate Blue Voodoo 120H head, searching for a nice 4x12 cabinet- I have to go thru my old single 15" Kustom with a nice Eminence speaker- and it sounds EXCELLENT. No noise. No fret buzz. No nothing. Clear, cutting tone, bright and shimmery with the chorus from the DOD Ice Box (get one of these, best chorus out there) when you want it, nice and subtle when you want to just "back up" a tune and fill it in. I see many people complain about the neck- it's just right for me. Feels as good in my hands as my Taylor 355e, and is just as playable, too.

I took this out of the box, tuned it, and VOILA!! I was again pleasantly surprised at the QUALITY, FIT & FINISH of this guitar.

I won't tell you what I paid for it, it'll make you sick (it was at least $100 - or more - under what YOU paid for it, I got a GREAT deal on eBay this nite). I've got one other Turser, a JT200-DC, a really hot guitar, and when I saw I could pick this up for super cheap, I said, WHY NOT? Especially after reading the reviews here on it.

As stated above, this sucker was right on out of the box....plugged it in, and just went to town with it. My guitar player (a Zappa protege) just went bonkers over it. Couldn't believe what I paid, now HE wants one. (Go get your own....)

I'll use it mostly in the studio, but I'd take it anywhere without hesitation. I never play without at least 3 guitars (I play a Raven RP450 mostly, the JT200-DC and an old Yamaha SE200 on stage, and that's not counting my bass), now it's gonna be 4.....I'll need a ROADIE soon if I keep this crap up.....

Dennis at MUSICLAND CENTRAL is the best. Fastest shipping on eBay, and he's just a peach to deal with. Can't wait to buy more axes from him. Turser's Lifetime Warranty has yet to be tested; by what I've seen in my two Tursers already, it won't ever be needed. That says ALOT to me.

I've been playing since 1963, professionally for over 30 years. I do recording mostly, done ALOT of commercial work, as well as hired-gun stuff. Own my own 32 track digital studio (NOT a shoebox or PC, it's a state-of-the-art facility based on Yamaha's AW4416 and 01V). I play bass and guitar, keys....use an old Kustom B1 w/ 2 15" cabs, the Blue Voodoo for guitar and my Hammond X77; I own nine guitars (Taylor, Jay Turser, Raven, Takamine and Yamaha), loads of stomp boxes/processors, and other gear; this guitar ranks high on my KEEP list.

If I lost it (or somebody stole it) I'd get another one IMMEDIATELY.

If I ever found the guy who took it- well, let's say he'll be very uncomforable with that 24 fret neck and 12 tuners shoved up his wazoo.

BUY IT if you can. Nice axe, can't beat the price.

2003 Chinese made 12 string. Solid top with open hummbuckers, vol, vol,tone, 3 way toggle and 2 way coil splitter. Standard tune-a matic type bridge and A small tailpiece. Tuners are Grover type, and stay in tune with out any problem. 24 fret neck that is pretty wide but very comfortable to play. I have large hands and fingers, and this is the best 12 string I have ever played. Gloss black guitar came with gig bag, cord. strap and picks.

As a seasoned guitar player in my late forties, I play everything. 60's pop, classic rock, Jazz, country and new age. I use various amps, from a classic Fender tube to a new Vox solid state. The Hawk 12 is very quiet, and seems compatible with any amp that I plug into.
With the 3 way toggle & the coil splitter, you can get a wide variety of useable tones, everything from classic Byrds to Tom Petty etc. The pickups sound pretty good, But I might install some real hummbuckers in the future.

The guitar was set up at the factory or dealership. I only had to tune 3 strings and it was ready to play! The fit and finish is perfect, not a flaw to be found! Are you listening Fender and Gibson?
If the Chinese can produce a quality, playable instrument for under $300.00, why the hell can't you. Well, that's a whole other story.

I don't play out anymore, but I would not hesitate to use this live. It seems very well built. The finish seems to be put on very heavy, and should last. All the hardware seems solid and looks to be trouble free.

I bought this online from Backstage music in Hunington Ind. The BEST online experience I have ever had. Great customer support and fast shipping. Comes with limited lifetime warranty. Dealer threw in a gig bag, picks, cable and strap, thanks brian!

In 35 years of playing, I have owned a ton of guitars and gear. 20 years ago I wouldn't been caught dead playing anything but an American axe. While Jay Turser won't put the big boys out of business, they have stuck another nail in the coffin. The guitars coming out of Korea and the far east, are incredable! For less then $300.00 I have a great, playable 12 string that is just as good as any Ric I have played.

2001 Jay Turser JT-Hawk 12. Made in china I believe. 24 frets. 3 way selector and 3 way coil splitter. Dual humbucker pickups. Maple body I believe with a glossy black finish. Solid body with a tune-o-matic copy bridge.

This thing sounds excellent! I bought it expecting it to mess around with 12 string half expecting it to be cheesy and low quality. To my delight I found this instrument to be quite the contrary. The sound is the most awesome thing I have ever heard come out of an instrument for the price I paid ($239) There is no noise at all and the coil split switch gives you infinite tonal possibilities. I can play anything from country twang, classic rock, to heavy metal witht his thing. I love it.

Action is perfect. I like my action low, and the strings are very close to the fingerboard and it is extremely easy to play, but there is no buzzing or anything. The finish is excellent and there are no flaws with alignment or anything. The neck is straight and fast.

I think this would easily withstand live playing. The hardware seems fine and the finish is very deep. Strap buttons are solid. I could definitely use this without a backup. This thing even competes with my friends Rickenbacker. Excellent!

Never had to use it and probably never will. Lifetime warranty.

Ive been playing long enough to know a good guitar from a bad one. I own Ibanez electrics, Takimine acoustics, I have in the past played Rics, Gibsons, Jackson/Charvel and everything in between. This guitar is in my top 10 definitely.

follow up jt12 hawk. well i did string up and hook up with my fender twin (tube) found interesting array of sounds. upon closer inspection i noticed the humbuckers were not properly aligned below strings causing an audible imbalance in my top string sound. will first try to compensate with different string in that area. personally i feel a quarter inch could be shaved off both sides of neck. i noticed one review stated the neck was slim-what jt 12 hawk was he playing?? the bridge is like an ancient kay or harmony arch-top and the 3 screws holding tail piece (strings) appears to be a tradgedy waiting to happen. the finish is real nice and is a very smart looking guitar.

as a single muscian i require a big bass from my E and A string sets and this seems to be a plus. the lighter strings deliver an unmistakable old Dan 12 sound. never liked Dan's. as isaid i use fender twinn with both speakers dissconnected and run thru 2 fender 4x12 cabs. then i dont even use reverb, i like the purest-cleanest signal from my guitar as possible. i think ill stick with my Strat 12.

action appeared ok till i plugged in then i felt it was a little high. already said the p/ups (bottom set) were not alligned properly w string placement. on my Stat 12 it would be an easy adjustment,not so with turser. must move entire p/up assyembly 1/16 inch. oh, the damn thing buzzed!! pegs are tight, and the volumn knob is 0 to 60 linear.

strap buttons are indeed solid-and ill keep it as backup only or for a few "D" tuning songs. again the finish is beautiful and the neck feels like the north end of a baseball bat.

i filled in and sent warranty card today. Maggio music was very helpfull working with me as e-bay tied up my phone lines for 3 days trying to convince me that i couldnt spend my money with them; went directly to their vendor and concluded the transaction in 5 minutes. do you think they wanted to be rid of it maybe? just kidding. a score of 10 for majjio music in NJ and a no opinion for the rest

been pro since late 60s. wished i asked how big the neck was! If it were stolen i would wait for the complaints in south ga. track him down and beat him with it, then give it to him! no i wouldnt replace it with another, but it sure sounded good in print. im subject to buy those $50.00 rolls royces!! i dont know anything at all about turser guitars other than what i bought. ill certanly do "hands on" befor i purchase unseen in future. (maybe) favorite feature??? its red and shiny.