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GuitarPlayer.com >> This Month >> Will Ray's Ebay Prizes
Will Ray's eBay Prizes
| July, 2007
As a country/roots player, I’m always on the lookout for interesting Tele-style guitars. I especially look for cheap, inexpensive models just to see how much quality they can pack into a budget ax. This 2000-ish Jay Turser guitar showed up on an eBay auction with an attractive Buy-It-Now price of $79. In the auction description, I learned the owner was a guitar tech living in Nashville, who had rewired it so that the tone control and 5-way switch would give you series, parallel, out-of-phase, and lots of in-between tones with just two pickups. He also stated he had adjusted the string action, nut action, neck, and intonation. Another plus was that the guitar weighed only five pounds. The only drawback was a Kay tremolo that I wasn’t crazy about, but I figured I might slap a Hipshot B-Bender in its place down the road. No biggie.
I quickly checked the Big Three—shipping costs, seller feedback, and payment terms—to see if it was a go. Any negative aspects for any one of those can sour a deal, so it’s important to check them all out—and fast enough so that you don’t miss a good deal. Shipping turned out to be $11.65, for a total of $90.65 delivered to my door. Ya gotta love it! I hit the Buy-It-Now button, and it was a done deal.
The Turser arrived two days later by priority mail in a well-packed box with no case. I unpacked it, and started twanging right away. This was one of the best setup guitars I have ever received from an eBay auction or purchase. The seller really knew his stuff as a guitar tech. I especially like the fact that the guitar is wired differently from standard-fare Telecasters. It’s obviously a budget guitar, but the pickups seem pretty decent, the neck is straight, the action is buttery, and it’s very lightweight. I’m impressed with what you can get off eBay for just $79!
I use the guitar now for noodling on my deck, or if I’m going to the beach, and I just need something cheap to bang on. The only trouble is it plays and sounds so good that I may need a backup for it. You know how it is. My wife does.
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