The weirdness of Jay Turser guitars

You'd think with Jay Turser being part of U.S. Music Corporation that they'd have more of a presence in the guitar market.

Above is a Jay Turser Mosman, which is a copy of a Mosrite The Ventures Model guitar.

I received an email recently asking if I could go try out one of these, because after all, I have not one but three Guitar Center stores within driving distance along with a Sam Ash store. Someone has got to have one, right?

Wrong.

Guitar Center does carry the Jay Turser brand, but none of them had the Mosman in stock. Sam Ash doesn't carry Jay Turser, so they don't have it.

This doesn't mean I can't get the guitar, but it does mean I can't try it before buying it.

Let this sink in for a moment:

I live in Tampa Bay Florida, which is an area that has thousands of guitars all over the place in every imaginable price range. There are only two places in America that get more guitars than Florida does, that being Texas and California.

Jay Turser is owned by U.S. Music Corporation, a big-ass company with known distribution lines that's at least supposed to get product into stores in a timely fashion.

Guitar Center is the #1 guitar store in the world as we know it.

It is the holiday shopping season...

...and there are no Jay Turser Mosman models anywhere in Tampa Bay. At all.

Again, if I wanted one, I could order it, but nowhere around here is one available to try. And that's just weird.

What's even weirder is that the Mosman is one of only two Jay Turser models Guitar Center carries. The other is the JT-Res resonator acoustic.

Why is this weirder? Because Jay Turser has a whole bunch of models.

Does this mean the Jay Turser brand is doomed and will be phased out? I don't know.

What I do know is that it's not exactly easy to get your hands on any new Jay Turser guitar these days, so if you like the Mosman, I'd suggest getting one now. Not many companies make a Mosrite Ventures clone, and the Mosman is the best deal going for a Mosrite style shape right now.

Published 2015 Nov 23