Jay Turser JT-143

Excellent feature description in one of previous posts.
From the website:
# Full size gingle cutaway hollow body jazz guitar
# All wood mahogany with rosewood pickguard
# Floating humbucking pickup at the bridge
# Volume control, trapeze tallpiece
# Floating tune-o-matic bridge
# Colors: MAHM
Looks and sounds awesome!

Bought it for Jazz, Swing and blues. Works great for all of them. It is a little quiet on the unplugged side, but the sound is rich and echo-ey. Sounds very much like a resonator one. Amplified, the sound is fairly balanced between an acoustic and a traditional jazz box. There is no tone pot, so it's up to how you move your amp's controls to get the desired sound. I got it to cover rockabilly, swing, blues and country without any problem. It does not produce that much feedback as other archtops (maybe because of the low acoustic volume, which is a plus). I got it near my 50W amp at volume 5 with no problems.
It has a completely unique voice, it is lovely.

The action out of the box was unbelievable good. Had to be set up for intonation as ALL real archtops. Found the specs on the web: Measure from nut to twelve freth, double it, place the bridge there. Intonate low E, proceed with the rest. Just a note that the JT143 comes with the bridge already angled! (high E closer to nut) I was trying to make the angle myself when I noticed this handy feature. Means, bridge goes parallel to the nut.
The finish is beautiful, oily mahogany body and neck. Gold plated hardware looks awesome.

Played at four gigs already, no problems. Great comments from bandmates on looks and sounds.
Seems good enough to last forever, if nobody stomps a boot on the thing.
The finish should aged nicely with time.
Strap buttons seems ok, I put a heavy leather strap on it.

Got it from web dealers of Jay Turser. Excellent communications before the transaction.

Get this one right now! Compares head to head to similar products by Cort, Epiphone, Gretsch. Don't let the name on the headstock fool you. The factories and materials are likely the same as the ones used to manufacture the big names in asia.

I actually decided to purchase this guitar based upon the previous review AND kind e-mail input from the reviewer as well(Thanks Mike!).

You're gonna' want to buy this guitar BECAUSE you want THIS GUITAR...definetely a "niche" sort of instrument. Mike pretty much detailed on the specs on this guitar.
I bought mine from Instrument Pros online, and opted for the high-gloss finish.
What a BEAUTIFUL instrument!!! Solid mahogany body and set neck...Mother-of-pearl AND abalone inlays on the frets...MOP inlay of the Jay Turser logo on the headstock, but(curiously), just a bland sort of ivory binding along the top/bottom edges of the body, Would have thought the abalone or MOP would have been used like on other JT models...oh well. Have one bad scuff on the top binding near the volume control, but you probably wouldn't notice it right away.

Gold hardware and Grover-style tuners are nice, and the rosewood pickguard co-ordinates with the fretboard nicely...just a great-looking guitar all around!

Only has one volume control for the semi-floating neck p/u, but doesn't seem to be a too much of a drawback for this type of instrument.

Love the full, rich sound of this instrument. Have to believe that the solid mahogany body and neck make a BIG difference. Again.....after getting some invaluable input prior to buying this guitar, I pretty much knew what to expect. I use 10-42 flat wound D'Addario's chromes, and they tend to have a mellow sound anyway.

Curious to play this guitar through various effects that one would normally reserve for death metal and such......cutting back on the distortion can yield some remarkably useful, bluesy soundscapes. I play directly into an effects box, then channel that into the computer, so I can't comment on feedback howl at only moderate levels into an amp.

Aside from the one area of the binding, where it looks like somebody slipped with a file, the guitar is otherwise flawless. Set neck has no extraneous glue, and the high-glossfinish is about as good as they come.

Action on the guitar out of the box looked ridiculously high, as if the bridge were on stilts, but curiously, it didn't feel high when playing. Lowered the bridge anyway, and have no problems with fret buzzing, even with extremely light gauge strings.

Although this guitar is really a dreadnought with a floating neck p/u, and is quite an armful, it plays more like a Les Paul(to me)....just not nearly as heavy!

Guitar seems well-made, but it IS pretty lightweight...couldn't say how it'd hold up on the road......didn't get a hardshell case with it, but will probably do so.

This guitar is worth the money(just under $400) for the looks alone!

I'm doubly pleased that it's great looking AND great-sounding

Dealt with the wholesaler of Jay Turser guitars previously because of a warranty/defects issue with an instrument purchased from a questionable reseller on EBay(Recycled Music), and they replaced the guitar for me without a problem, although it took a month to get it.

Been playing guitar since the mid-60's (off and on), and although my styles of playing have changed, a great instrument is still a great instrument...regardless. If you're wanting a nice, mellow-sounding jazz box that's also incredibly beautiful, consider this guitar. Glad I decided to go with the high-gloss finish rather than the oil-rubbed one(think of a very large violin). Would definetely buy another(if available) if something happened to this one.

2005, China, 22 medium jumbo frets, solid mahogany top, back, and sides, hollow body with spreader block to arch top and bottom. 3.36" side thickness, 12.5" upper bout, 16.5" lower, 21.5" long body, mahogany 3 pc. neck w/rosewood fretboard joins on top at the 16th and bottom 19th fret, Venetian rounded cutaway. Single mini-humbucker attached to neck, with single gold knurled knob volume on Venetian section, tune-o-matic bridge on floating ebony, deluxe trapeze tailpiece, gold hardware, Grover style tuners, rosewood pickguard. Neck at real bone nut 1 11/16th" to 2 5/16th at the 22nd fret, thickness 7/8ths" all the way, C contour. MOP and abaslone wedge block inlays, full triple binding headstock and body top, single body bottom and neck. MOP logo and abalone sphere/MOP horns decorative emblem on headstock. Satin mahogany, oil on mahogany finish, black painted headstock top w/black plastic truss rod cover. F-holes in body also bound with creme binding. Bought with deluxe case $55 extra. Simple acoustic electric jazz guitar, deluxe style.

I play blues/hard rock/metal and this guitar is only suited to the blues. It is very sensitive to power and gain, and sounds best on 30 watt or less amps or tube amps set for no more than that power--or it feeds back in a howl. Palm muting the two bass strings works up to a point. Sounded thinly rich with good high end on Pignose Hog, Laney Protube50 halfstack up to half, Pignose G40V up to 3/4, Drive AE30 full, and the best on a 5 watt Boutique EL84 1x12(Blues Junior variant). Very nice B.B. King sound, to acoustic electric sound, to mild crunch, with nice sustain only on the Blues Jr. style amp. Capable of very nice tone at low to moderate volumes, for personal enjoyment or small venues. Not a bone crusher, so I have to control myself more. Sounds good as a purely acoustic guitar, too.

The action was a little high, so I lowered it. I had to move the bridge a little from it getting jarred in shipment, then the intonation was good. It has a little more bow than I want, which I will adjust at string change. Everything was flawless in finish. The wires inside were loose and rattling, so I carefully dropped two big drops of shoe goo through the lower F hole and secured the bundle.

It is built very solid, but is still a delicate full hollow body with very nice hardware, nice satin oil finish that won't wear off. So it can be depended on up to a point, but I would bring backup.

Jay Turser warranty is lifetime, I think. Any work, I can do.

I've been playing over 32 years and have a variety of guitars and amps. When I saw this guitar I desired it strongly for its looks, and knew the all mahogany with floating humbucker would be tone heaven for blues. It is, but at lower volumes, and I like to get loud. It is a little neck heavy, but light. This is my 5th JT guitar, nice workmanship, but not as versatile as the others. It is a niche guitar, low volume jazz, blues, and folk type stuff. Other guitars in this niche of similar design/quality can cost up to 10x as much.