Jay Turser JT-220 Overhaul | Part One

Part Two ▶

Time and time again I am presented with instruments that have been allowed to fall into ruin and decay due to sheer neglect. Now, while I do not relish such encounters, I deeply respect the owner's desire to get his or her instrument back in playing condition. Such was the case with this gloss black Jay Turser JT-220 solidbody; which in many ways reminded me of a typical Les Paul Standard. I did look for the serial number, but it was not to be found anywhere. Now, according to sources on the Web, the earliest Jay Turser Les Paul copies were made in Korea and did not have serial numbers. If so, could this guitar be one of them?

In any case, the JT-220 was covered in layers of crud, dirt and grime, totally unplayable; and made no sound when plugged in. I knew I'd have to remove all the hardware, service and clean whatever was saveable; and replace what was too far gone to be reused. For starters, the nut was completely worn out, so it was definitely going to be replaced. Then there was the question of the truss rod, which was so encrusted in crud that doubted if the adjustment nut would turn at all.

Meanwhile, the rosewood fretboard, frets and fretboard binding were a right royal mess; I tell you. I'd have to do a thorough fretboard recondition, fret polish and light binding scraping for sure. Next were the twin humbuckers, which were still working; and had chromed plastic covers. Most of the chrome had peeled off, exposing the underlying crème plastic. It wasn't a pretty sight, and I knew I'd be foregoing the covers after servicing the pickups.

The last aspect to be evaluated was the electronics. The three-way toggle switch, mini pots and output jack were badly corroded. Besides this, plain unshielded wire had been used for all connections. The remedy, then, would be to replace all the electronics (save the pickups) and do a complete rewire with shielded cable wherever possible. In the next post, we'll see what was done to get this Jay Turser JT-220 back in shape.