Scored for $200 after a $45 partial refund, on eBay, this guitar was consigned to Will Ray's closet for five years before
he gave it a simple-but-crucial makeover.
This month's guitar is a JT-SM model. It has a beautiful amber color, three gold P-90 pickups, and an intriguing switching system for the pickups that gives you seven different combinations. It measures 3 1/2" inches deep, features a flame-maple top, and has all-gold hardware. I ended up winning the auction for $245.
of the pickups.
When I received the guitar, I was kinda disappointed with the sound. The dog-ear pickups were too far away from the strings to have any punch, and they were slanted towards the bridge and neck at weird angles. The action was also very high and the instrument had heavy-gauge strings.
I managed to change the strings to a lighter gauge, and I lowered the action but was then confronted with bad neck buzzing that no amount of truss rod adjusting could correct. I received a partial refund of $45 from the seller because of the fret buzzing problem. I kinda wrote the guitar off as a dud, and so I stuck it in a corner and forgot all about it.
These P-90s were removed by the guitar's previous owner and reinstalled improperly, leading them to slant at awkward angles until they were refitted and shimmed.
Fast forward five years. I looked at it one day and wanted to see if I could get it fixed up. The first thing I did was address the weird angle of the pickups. It turns out that the previous owner had taken the pickups out and put them back in backwards, creating opposite slanting of the pickups. I put them in the correct way and solved that problem. The next problem was the wide distance from the three pickups to the strings. I decided to shim the pickups.
I already had some black-plastic dog-ear P-90 spacers, so I used a thin one under the neck pickup. The bridge pickup, however, needed a shim that was in between the shim sizes I had, so I opted for some thin black foam rubber that could be cut easily and inserted underneath the pickup housing. Now I could somewhat adjust the height of the pickup with the two pickup mounting screws.
The amber finish as well as the trio of dog-ear P-90s caught our columnist's eye online. Note the two upper-bout toggles that are part of this JT-SM's 7-way pickup switching.
Bottom Feeder question for pickup manufacturers: Why can't someone make a fully adjustable dog-ear P-90 pickup?
The next problem—the buzzing strings—turned out to be the easiest to solve. The bad buzzing seemed to have mysteriously disappeared over the years sitting in storage. Sometimes that happens—I don't know why. I still have a slight neck buzz from a high fret, but it isn't bad.
So how do I like my JT-SM now? I really dig it! I took a guitar that was a total disaster and brought it back to life again. Listen to my MP3 online and you'll hear all the different pickup combinations.
Bottom Feeder Tip # 681: A guitar wants to be loved and used. Like shelter dogs, they will always be grateful when you rescue them.
This Turser JT-1423 is the spitting image of the Silvertone original with the same model number,
plus a few improved appointments.
The seller had a “Buy It Now" price of “$199.99 or Best Offer," with $30 for shipping, and after doing a little research I saw that these guitars were selling everywhere for between $200 and $240. So the BIN price wasn't really saving me much money. But the “or Best Offer" part interested me—if the price was right.
So I made a lowball offer of $150 and explained in a note to the seller that I lived only one state away, so the seller would probably save some money on shipping. To my delight, he accepted my offer and I PayPal'd him the $180.
One selling point was the pickups, which resemble vintage DeArmond Dynasonics that are frequently
seen on older Gretsch guitars.
Bottom Feeder Tip #382: Sometimes, when making an offer on a guitar, it may be to your advantage to tell the seller your state and zip code if you live relatively nearby. That way the seller will know a few bucks can be saved on shipping.
I received the guitar a few days later. It looked mighty fine and played easy right out of the box. I replaced the strings with my favorite gauge, and then adjusted the neck. But when I played it hard using hybrid picking, the 1st and 2nd strings kept popping out of their grooves on the wooden bridge, so I broke out my set of nut files and carefully carved the grooves just a little deeper.
The tuning pegs and headstock on this nuevo-retro model outshine the original, which would have featured plastic tuner buttons and a rougher finish.
It plays fine now. Listen to my sound sample and hear how the pickups sound very lively and single-coil-like. The middle position puts both pickups into hum-cancelling mode, which comes in handy in noisy situations. I'm not crazy about using the chicken-head rotary switch to change pickup positions. It's kind of cumbersome, but it is a nice nod to the original Jupiters. My only beef is with the lack of sustain due to the wooden bridge. A Tune-o-matic may be in my future.
So is it a keeper? Yeah, for now. I've taken a liking to the pickups. They sound unique and look cool. And it's like owning a poor man's Gretsch.
Bottom Feeder Tip #381: Do your pricing research before you bid. Ha!
When the guitar arrived, it was difficult to play. The action was high and it had heavy-gauge strings, plus the neck had excessive bow. In addition, the strings buzzed all over the place. I changed strings to my gauge, adjusted the neck, and lowered the action, but it still buzzed with the open strings. Then I took a good look at the metal nut. I didn’t realize it had two adjustment screws, so I raised the nut just a pinch and all the buzzing went away. Whew!
Photo 2 — With its Phantom Coil pickups and contour-in-body design, this model has its own sound—which may need a little goosing up—and look.
When I gave it a spin through an amp, the guitar sounded very Strat-like, but with the addition of a 2-way phase switch. The Phantom Coil pickup design keeps the guitar very quiet, but it sounds a little sterile. The guitar seemed to lack a sonic personality you’d get from a Strat or Tele, so it took me a while to find the right amp and pedal settings. I use modeling amps, and the settings that worked best were a blackface Fender with some help from a compressor and a Tube Screamer.
Photo 3 — The headstock on the Branson is reverse-Firebird style, with the pegs at the bottom. Some contend this affects tuning, and it certainly alters the feel when bending low and high strings.
In all my research, this is what I found on the Branson: They only made a limited number for one year, around 2002. The model was available in natural (like mine), transparent red, or transparent black finish. It’s similar to the Fender Lead II guitars from 1979 to 1982. The pickups use some kind of phantom-coil noise cancellation. And that’s all I found. There’s very little information out there on these guitars, so if you know something more, give me a shout.
So it’s a keeper—at least for now. I probably paid more than I should have, but I love the look and it’s fun to play. And isn’t that enough? Listen to my sound sample and be the judge.