[Stratrat]

From my "Incoming!" thread in the Guitar Gear sub-forum, some of you knew I had this baby on the way - it's a 2006 Jay Turser Paisley Telecaster. It arrived a couple hours ago and I finally put it down long enough to snap a few photos.

First impressions:
- It's light! I don't know what the body is made of, but it's way lighter than my MIM Tele (which is ash.)

- Fretwork is as good or better than my MIM. At this price point I expected that there may be a little fret sprout or rough frets, but they're silky-smooth and set into the neck nicely - no protruding edges, and no fret-outs on string bends anywhere on the neck. The neck has a gloss poly finish, and even though I prefer satin finish on the back of the neck, it plays well - not sticky.

- It has a 3-saddle "ashtray" bridge with steel saddles, string-through body. Intonation is almost perfect on 4 of the strings, just a tad off on the other 2 (G and B). If anything, the action is almost too low - I'm going to play it for a while and then decide if I want to raise it a bit or not. I was very surprised at how good the setup was on this guitar right out of the box.

- The bridge pickup is slightly brighter than my MIM, and much twangier. The neck pickup is a bit muddier, but not unacceptable by any means. Both pups take well to being played clean or with higher gain.

- Pots, switches and jack all feel solid - just as good as the MIM and better than my Squier Affinity Tele. The tone pot could stand to be more responsive through its range, but both pots are smooth with no crackling during adjustment. Tuners are smooth and seem to hold tune well. Strap buttons are solidly mounted and have felt washers between them and the body of the guitar. String ferrules on the back of the body are straight and evenly spaced. Neck pocket is very tight.

- Finish on the body and neck is flawless. The paisley finish is only on the front - the sides and back are translucent red. The body is either one-piece, or matched so perfectly that you can't see the seams. The pickguard is a translucent black/smoke color.

- The e-Bay seller (Taz's Guitars and Music) was prompt and reliable. He shipped the guitar double-boxed and well-packed.

All in all, I'm very impressed. To be totally honest, I didn't expect such a nicely-crafted guitar for the price ($199). I figured there would be at least a few small "issues" to deal with, but for now it looks like the only thing I may have to do is raise the action a bit. Can't complain about that!