Two accidental NGD's - Inspired in the UK, Made in the Far East

GTC

I've got too many guitars and have recently been in selling mode. However, following the sale of my Wee Lowden after a brief love affair with it - and thinking that was the end of short-scale parlours as far as I was concerned, these two came along.

I saw the new PRS parlour mentioned in this forum and, out of curiosity, did an internet search - and instead came up with a new Terry Pack PJRS parlour which I really liked the look of. Pity it was right-handed though - but a bit more searching came up with a similar lefty. After a couple of enquiries, I gave in to fate and went for it.

It is a lovely guitar - all-solid woods (spruce/rosewood), ebony fingerboard, 45mm nut and quality components. Apparently they are built to Terry's spec and made in Vietnam. Superb build quality, playability and balanced tone with a surprising volume. The dark burgundy faux crocodile case is something else too!

I noticed in the PayPal transaction details that Terry's account contained a link to the Turner Guitars website. I'd never heard of them before. About a week later, I saw a 2015 Turner 85CE jumbo lefty on eBay for just a few hundred and, again tempted by fate, after a few enquiries I went for it. Apparently Terry Pack was involved with Turner in the early days and sold the company around 2010 I believe - hence the earlier link.

The guitar is in near mint condition, again with all-solid woods (spruce/rosewood), rosewood bound ebony fingerboard, 45mm nut,  quality components and Fishman electrics. This one was made in China. Once set up to my liking, the performance, build quality and tone at least rivals that of much more expensive "name" jumbos and dreadnaughts I've played. It has the same sort of faux crocodile case - this time in a creamy grey.

If this is a typical example of a Turner guitar then I cannot understand why they sell for so little. It is probably down to brand awareness and marketing. 

Photos of both guitars are below.

sunshinewelly

very nice indeed

Winny_Pooh

Cute parlour

artiebear

Used to see Terry at various shows etc., very knowledgeable and interesting guy. Congratulations on two very lovely guitars !

GTC

artiebear said:

Used to see Terry at various shows etc., very knowledgeable and interesting guy. Congratulations on two very lovely guitars !

Thanks - I spoke with Terry a few times when buying the parlour from his Blackpool shop - as you say, very knowledgeable, practical and helpful

GTC

There's a lovely looking right-handed all-solid spruce/koa Turner 95 jumbo up for auction on eBay at the time of writing - ending Sun 5th July.

Someone could get a bargain here.

GTC

GTC said:

There's a lovely looking right-handed all-solid spruce/koa Turner 95 jumbo up for auction on eBay at the time of writing - ending Sun 5th July.

Someone could get a bargain here.

It went for £335 - someone did indeed get a bargain !!

malcolmkindness

There are some very fine guitars made in Vietnam.

ronnyb

I started a thread about Turner acoustics back in 2017. I think i paid £200 s/h for mine about 5 years ago complete with hard case. I can't understand why they weren't more popular and go for so little money, the quality is excellent. I play mine everyday and prefer it to a couple of Gibsons i've got. It's a Turner 65. 

GTC

ronnyb said:

I started a thread about Turner acoustics back in 2017. I think i paid £200 s/h for mine about 5 years ago complete with hard case. I can't understand why they weren't more popular and go for so little money, the quality is excellent. I play mine everyday and prefer it to a couple of Gibsons i've got. It's a Turner 65. 

Having played mine, I can't understand it either. If there hadn't been the coincidental connection with Terry Pack then I probably wouldn't have looked twice at mine - and that would have been a loss. It isn't at all out of place in the company of high end "name" guitars.

Marketing and pricing strategy perhaps?