Jay Turser JT-137

335 copy Semi hollowbody. Laminate top. Came with two humbuckers. Beautiful sunburst finish. Tuners cheap generic.

The pick ups weren't bad but replaced them with Seymour Duncan Phat Cats.then she purred.

Set up was good but the guitar was used. Tuning pegs were generic replaced them with Schallers.

The guitar seems solid. The electronics and hardware are average for a guitar in this price range. Buttons replaced with strap locks.

Playing for 30+ years. I would replace it if I could get a used one same condition and price. I like this guitar because as is she is a repectable starter guitar. Modified she'ds a great gigging guitar.

Mine is the same JT 137 as described here; has been compard to a Gibby ES 335 or an Epiphone Dot, but actually compares more directly to a Epiphone Sheraton II. It's an out of production, Chinese made semi-hollow body, natural "Honey Blonde" poly finish with standard two humbucking pups, 4 pot control set-up. The reason I say it compares more closely to a Sheraton is in the finish and details, ex. my JT 137 has a nicely "flamed" woodgrain top, gold "plated" hardware (tail, bridge, tuners, etc.), five-ply binding on the body, neck, and headstock, and multi-piece (V-shaped abalone or MOP) block fretboard inlays, as does the Sheraton, but not the ES 335, nor the Dot (you have to look to the custom shop versions for these appointments). Fit, finish and hardware looks good, but will it hold up? The natural finish reveals some minor imperfections in the wood. But for the price, I'm happy.

I'm a rocker, playing classic rock, blues, rockabilly, southern and even a little country. This guitar sounds just like you would expect a semi-hollow body to sound; lots of depth, sustain, tone, and when you over drive your amp, feedback. The pups sound good for stock Chinese made versions of PAFs, but with less warmth and depth. The pots work fine, but are nothing like the old gibbys (what they now advertise as "Memphis tone" pots). No static, so far... Once again, for the price... Overall, sounds great when played well!

After an easy set-up it plays surprisingly well! Neck is straight and easy get around, frets are nicely finished, no rough edges, fretboard looks to be a decent quality rosewood with beautiful multi-piece inlays and multi-ply binding up the neck and headstock. Nice touches! The action, intonation, and pups needed adjustments as you would have to setup any guitar. The top is nicely flamed (but not bookmatched) of unknown wood type. As I stated, the natural finish reveals some minor imperfections in the wood; some dark lines in the grain on the sides and back and a few minor tool marks that had not been sanded to perfection. Could have been bleached out and sanded to perfection, but for the price... Overall, looks beautiful from a distance!

I've had this guitar for about a month, so no problems so far. Gave it a once over at set-up and tightened a few things (strap buttons, etc.) So far nothings fallen off... I'd never play a show without a backup, but I feel like I can depend on it.

Bought it used off of Craigslist. What's customer support?

I have played guitar off-and-on for about 35 years; in that time I've played just about every brand, type, style out there. When I think back to my first guitars, most were junk! Even the "nice" guitars were hit or miss. It's amazing to think that you can now buy a guitar this nice for such a low price! I bought this used for about $200. and got a hsc used for $50, so for about 1/3 the price of a Sheraton I got a guitar that's about 90% a Sheraton. For about 1/10 the price of an ES 335 I got a guitar that's about 80% a gibby. Cool!

can't find serial number or any indication of year. maple neck.. gold hardware blonde horizontal "tiger stripes" .. stop tail, hum pups of unknown brand but they are real compatible with my amps. Reading the reviews below it seems as if Turser has been making changes or this isn't a 137 as I was told. This neck is comfortably full. Beautiful 2 piece mop inlay on frets. I took this guitar to lower price on VOX and had the up for auction on Ebay and pulled it off because it is just to good to parts with, they must have high quality luthiers in the east that work for cheap because this is as fine of a guitar as Iv'e had in appearence and QC and better and more versatile then all but a little heralded "BURNS BISON" which compared to this Turser is somewhat limited with my catalog which is for thyis guita is HOOKER, R.L.BURSIDE, Hopkins (electric) evens make a decent sound if your a T BONE WALKER man Early Hooker and T Bone play fat boxes but thats what the appeal is. The toggle is close by to the pots which is the way I like it, why waist sonics with 20" 's of connection wire to toggle.

I never heard of Jat Turser, I took it from the wall just to work with the VOX, I stuck a couple of other well know big bux guitars in the VOX and the most popular of the 335 style was sweet but couldnt get decadent, its not just talk, to each his own but I enjoy seeing a GIBSON addict doing an A-B test with at least this Turner. As far as tone variety, it can do the very decadent J.L.Hooker Boom Boom from the Blues Brother movie to close too although not dead on to T-Bone Walker... thats quite a distance between one and the other. I don't know if "dislike" is the word but I am not one for looking at a guitar as if its a car. I would prefer if the hardware wasn't gold and it wasn't quite so atractive. I admit to being behind the times coming from the LOUIE LOUIE era but its a new guitar world. I should have said early on.. I don't use a pick, I use the meat of my fingers and that does lend itself to different criteria. I got a Jag, Gold Top and blah blah blah, but these days all I have been playing for 3 months is the cheap Jay Turser.. although I never would get rid of any of my more prestigious guitars, I won't part with this, below I saw where one player wouldn't trust his gigging, he must have gotten a lemon, that sux. This Turser will make a good "clear the stage" if needed. Needless to say, I am really happy with this particular Turser.

The strings are set low on this guitar plus they need changing but it allows for raunchy smack the fret sounds with out pullin too hard, also 2 hew nuts were loose on holding the pots in, but I say big deal.. it ain't like I have to steam a piece of wood on a mold and replace a side. Tonality suits me for stadard and open tunings. I really don't care about the hex uts but to be acurate fir the review, I'll bring it down to a 9.

I do use it by itself.

Don't have a clue, fix my guitars myself, its not rocket science.

I'm 55 and been doing it for long time. My other gear are to many to mention em all but they are very good also, just exspensive. I bought this guitar as a package deal to bring down price of Vox amp with intentions of putting on Ebay which I did and then pulled it off because I thought "I must be nuts to get rid of this"

2004 JT137 (similar to Gibson ES335) Hollow body electric with wood block in pickup and bridge area. Made in China, probably using a lot of Computer Numerical Control cutting, which makes for incredible precision and consistancy. 2 Humbucking pickups with volume and tone controls in standard configuration. Good tuners. Stop tailpiece. How do I rate it for features? It has everything this kind of guitar should have and nothing it shouldn't. I guess that makes it a 10.

I play jazz, blues, heavy rock, and country. I find that this guitar can do all those very well. This guitar sounds great. I plugged it into my Tech 21 Trademark 60 amp and out came that BB King sound. I fiddled with the knobs a bit and out came all those Steely Dan sounds. More tweaking brought me a really nice sweet jazz sound. I do a Santana style lead on some tunes using massive distortion and sustain, and the JT137 gives me great CONTROLLED feedback at high volume, and sweetens up the rather raunchy sounding amp into a musical smooth, beautiful sound that sings like a human voice. I had come close to these sounds with other hollow body guitars, but the JT137 absolutely nailed them. The tone and sustain are INCREDIBLE!! When people ask, I say it sounds more like a 335 than a 335 does. 8^)

Setup was ok to play, but I think many manufacurers, including Jay Turser set their guitars deliberately too low, use light strings, and tune them a semitone down so that people who don't know better will drool over how easy it is to press down the strings without hurting their poor widdle uncalloused fingers. The strings were so low that some of them were buzzing slightly.

I had to loosen the truss rod about a 1/4 turn. The neck was too straight, and needed that very slight sag in the middle about the thickness of a dime or quarter that makes guitars work properly.

Neck is nice and thin. It reminds me of a 1960 335 or one of the thinner strat necks.

Intonation was ok, but not perfect. I immediately set the strings up to "blues" height so bends would be cleaner and intonated it. It's real nice now.

I have several different Jay Tursers, and they all had the minor, but irritating problem of one or more controls being slightly loose. It's a very simple thing to tighten them up and they don't seem to go bad again after that. It's more annoying rather than being a big problem. You'd think they'd hire someone who could use a set of pliers at the factory.

Pickups were too low. I raised them up as high as possible and pulled the pole pieces out to within about 1/16th of an inch of the strings, because I like a lot of tone and sustain. The guitar screams now.

Sure I needed to set it up a bit, but it's well worth it for the quality and sound of the rest of the guitar. What's the big deal about doing a minor setup job once on a guitar you'll probably play for the next 20 years.

Fit and finish for this guitar is excellent. This guitar looks, feels, sounds, and plays better than many guitars you could easily pay $4000 or more for. The finish is a beautiful flame top cherry sunburst with gold plated hardware and pickup covers, gold knobs, and a nice red tortoise shell style pickguard. Pickup rings and truss rod cover are an attractive cream color. The top, back, neck, and headstock are bound with a nice cream colored binding, and the fret markers and logo are a nice abalone inlay. It's possibly the most beautiful guitar I own.

I use this guitar for a lot of live playing. It's durably built like any good stage guitar. I expect it to be still playing fine 30 years or more from now. It's my main axe. I take it everywhere.

Jay Turser guitars come with a lifetime warranty, but I doubt if I'd ever use it. By the time you've paid shipping, you might as well have just repaired it yourself or had a good local guy do it. I don't think anything will go wrong with this guitar that can't be easily fixed.

I've been playing about 33 years, much of that professionally. I currently have two G&L strats, two JT134s, a Larry Coryell jazz guitar, a couple acoustics, and a nice Cort Bass. I have owned probably half a dozen Fender strats including a '63, a tele, a jaguar, a Gibson ES175, and a Gibson SG, an early Epiphone electric, and a couple Hagstroms. I run Tech 21 and Rivera amps.

I bought the JT137 expecting it to be just another guitar in my arsonal, and it's turned into my main axe. It does everything I want a guitar to do, and does it all really well while sounding incredible. There is something about that body shape that gives a nicer sweeter tone than any other guitar I've ever played, including other hollow body guitars.

If this JT137 was stolen, I would order another one so I could play it while awaiting trial for murdering the bastard who stole the first one. 8^)

I love the sound and feel of this guitar. To me it has the sweetness of a really good strat and the fullness of a les paul, and yet tho it has the best of both these worlds, it has it's own sound. I play it through a Tech 21 Trademark 60, and it sounds awesome.

2004 Model Year; China manufacture.

Tinny sound with light strings .009/.042

Terribly flawed in manufacture.. under the finish you see tool marks. The nut was not glued in. One of the pearloid inlays was installed even though slightly cracked. Tool marks in fret wood. Poorly set inlays. Control knobs were stripped and were thus installed with glue to hold them on the control pot shafts. The fit of the binding was not properly finished.. tool marks in plastic can be seen.

In all, this unit could not qualify as a factory second by other manufacturers. Poor qulait control evident. Really poorly constructed.

With construction flaws, I am reluctant to say this axe will hold up under extended playing.

I own Dean, Washburn, Guild, Gibson and Fernandes.. this is the worse axe I have seen in construction quality.

I have Jay Turser semi hollow body thin line guitar with a beautiful inlaid Dragon neck. Based on pictures of Turser models it appears to be a JT137. I understand this is a very rare semi hollow body guitar because Turser had to stop production of the Dragon neck design due to a law suit from PRS. The Dragon inlay runs right down the neck from the 1st fret all the way to the 20th. It is quite spectacular. It has 22 frets, plays very well, and has a great range of tone.

I bought this guitar to use for mainly blues and rock. I absolutely love it and think it was outstanding value for the money. Great range of tone from very bright to mellow.

Overall the guitar is excellent. The binding on one small portion of the head stock is a little rough, but other than that it is very nice indeed. The Dragon inlaid neck is beautiful.

The guitar seems very well made, and has a nice solid feel. Perhaps a little heavy for some hollow body fans... but great sustain.

Absolutely love this guitar. How it plays as well as how it sounds and looks. It if were ever lost or stolen I would not be able to replace it because of the Dragon neck. If this guitar is representative of the quality, sound, appearance, and playability of Jay Turser guitars then I would not have any hesitation recommending this brand to anyone.

2003 Jay Turser JT-137 - Closest to a real ES-335 I could afford. Made in China. Maple over ply top. Basswood sides and back. Maple neck. H/H pickups. Tune-o-matic bridge with stop tailpiece. Unknown type of tuners. Included cheap guitar cable. :-)

I was a little skeptical about these guitars, but bought them based on the reviews here. I'm blown away by how nice this guitar sounds... acoustically and electrically. I plugged it into my PodXT and am amazed by the range of sounds. It's got the BB King bite I was looking for.

I need to adjust the intonation as it was horribly out when I got it, but this should be easy. The finish is absolutely incredible on this guitar. The binding is pretty much perfect. The only even slight flaw I could see is that the finish around the neck joint is slightly uneven. Hardly a complaint.

Havn't gigged with it yet, but I can see it surviving just fine... The gold plated hardware I fear will tarnish, but I can't say as of yet. I wouldn't gig it without a backup the first time, but any other time if it makes it!

I ordered another instrument along with this one from them (A JT-50) and the neck was badly cracked. I emailed them and they are sending me a replacement immediately. Jay Turser's customer service is light years better than those larger manufacturers!

I've been playing acoustic guitar for 13 years. I just started playing electric 6 months ago. I own a Line 6 Variax, a MIM Fender Tele and a 70's Ibanez PF100 Les Paul Clone. This is now right up there with the fender in terms of beautiful and solid instruments. If it were stolen I would buy another one without even a thought. Jay Turser guitars are quality for the money, and I would highly recommend that anyone considering one find a dealer in your area and check them out... then order from Jammer's Music! :-)

This was bought new in February 2003, so it was probably made in '02, in China, as with all Turser electrics. Mine is a cherry sunburst with all the standard 335 style features, but with gold hardware and very nice ab inlay.
All the hardware, tuners, humbuckers, tuneamatic and stop tailpiece are (apparently) top quality stuff)

I am primarily a blues guitarist and I have always used a 335 style guitar through a Music Man 100RD amp. These pickups are awesome and compare to the best sounds I can get from my Gibson ES345. They are deathly quiet when not used, no buzz or hum or anything, and have a fullness that is rich with harmonics and overtones. This is a much heavier (and a little larger) guitar than the other Turser 335 (the JT 135, now the JT 133). It probably has the same pickups, but has more sustain and power. It is as heavy as my 345, so it must have a nice big solid block of wood in its insedes like the 345.
How to put this? Sounds fabulous.

Didn't get it from the factory. It will need a little tweaking sometimes down the road to get the action down, but it doesn't bother me that much right now. It has a flame top which is not perfectly bookmatched, but not too bad really. The stop tailpiece is a hair off line also.
But it is a beautiful and playable guitar nonetheless.

After using Tursers on my last gig, I am ready to say they can easily be used for a main axe. Takng my 67 ES 345 to a bar is not going to be necessary with this guitar and the Turser Colonel I have.
It's a pretty guitar, but its made to play.

I have e-mailed them a couple of times for a local dealer and not recieved a reply, so I gues they have some ways to go to get this together. They have a "limited lifetime warranty" but I suspect you will have to try getting things done with the dealer that sold it to you. It could be tough to send it back to China for repair!

I have been playing for about 35 years on and off (since I was four LOL) and am very happy with this axe. It is a very nice guitar for 4 times what I paid for it, and will serve well to give my 345 a cozy case to rest in at bar gigs.
The best feature??? The sound it gets!

This is a 2001 Jay Turser JT-137 (Gibson ES-335 copy, but it may as well be it's brother). It's Korean . All the standard stuff is there.
Honey sunburst. Great tailpiece , gold hardware, Grover tuners!! Medium frets on a , "mother of pearl" inlays, rosewood neck.

I play rock, blues, spacy stuff, noisy stuff, smooth stuff, rough stuff, sad stuff and kick ass stuff with this guitar. It provides me with the versatility i need. It has great penetrating feedback from it's wonderful resonance, very controlable. I play through a Fender Deluxe Hot Rod Tube amp and with the reverb it kicks ass! It distorts the tubes really well, the pickups are clean and punchy. And it sounds really nice unplugged too, loud enough to jam with a smooth acoustic.
I like the touch, it is sturdy but has alot of flexibility for those 1 1/2 bends.

The action was nice. Played great right out the store.
The pickups were fine. The ouput jack was loose and when I got it home it stopped working, so I brought it back, and they fixed it, but the inaccessability of the electronics did create a little downside.
And the pickup selector tends to get loose, it doesn't stay on the neck pickup all the time.

This guitar can surely become someone very own work horse!!!!
It will probably be mine for quite a while, like i said, it's sturdy!!! Very sturdy!! And dependable, til now anyway, i've had it for a year...

Got it repaired for the input jack pretty fast service, at my local music store,hey I know the guy!!

I've been playing 13 years. Have a fender hot rod deluxe tube amp, ibanez old 70's guitar pedal processor, ibanez acoustic, some boss pedals, soundcity head and home made cab. I would probably buy it again if I had it stolen or something but would try to pay less, not because it's worth less but because i saw for less after I bought it.

features flame maple top, 2 humbuckersb bound neck and body, inlay on neck, you know the rest. nice tall frets, not jumbos, higher than fender am std frets, not quite as wide. finish is mediocre, a few flaws, but otherwise pretty nice. some bleed over from the binding, no big dal, considering the price. grover tuners, real good.

well, i play mostly rock and metal. i have gas, so i saw this axe, saw the price, and thought, why not? i use a marshall silver jubile, 50 watt, with marshall and carvin cabinets. this guitar sounds imo, much better distorted than clean, anyway. you get a nice dirty kansas distortion. (think of the solo in caryy on wayward son). bridge pickup is fine, neck is fine. i mean fine, because i generally replace the pickups in every guitar i own, usually bill lawrence, www.billawrence.com , these pickups will stay. they do th ejob. i am sure if i replaced them, the guitar would sound better, but for $250, why bother? you can cover many musical styles with this guitar. itfeeds back nicely when you crank the amp...VERY COOL!

factory set up was fair. action was too low, and i need to file one fret, as i fret out on the sixth string, about 18th fret. no biggie. action is stiff and great. finish is adequate. if you want better, go spend 3x more for a comparable epiphone, or 8x for a gibson. will ray put it best...."gibson is about 20% better"......" wood on the inside is the famous "asian mystery wood." mine is actually two pieces on top of each other to form the block. again, not the best craftsmanship, but she is solid as a rock. controls all work well, no pickup or control buzz. the color, by the way, is natural or natural honey? it is actually pretty darn bright. it is almost a yellow, not like a butterscotch blonde, more of a lemon yellow. looks pretty good.

solid axe. no two ways about it.

dunno

i have been playing about 25 years. i own 3 telecasters, rick bass, charvel model 1, and have sold more guitars than i currently own. i have the jubilee, a marhsall jcm800 and a laney aor 100 head, and various cabinets. if stolen or lost, it would be replaced. i love the fact that i have a hollow body now, the price to value ratio is off the charts. favorite feature is that it sounds like nothing else i own and it sounds pretty darn good. if you want a new guitar, with hollow body tones that is solid, and you dont want to drop a load of cash. this is for you. it is a keeper. initially i thought, "i wont die if i get a scratch on it, because it is so cheap", but i will baby this like my other guitars costing 3-4 times more. this guitar is that good.