Tradition Guitars Tradition Guitars was founded in 1998 by a man named Jim Matthews a 30 year veteran of the musical instrument market. Jim's idea was to "Offer the highest quality instrument for an affordable price to the independent dealer." In 2004 Jim Matthews passed away and his friends and partners kept the company alive striving to produce and create top notch quality guitars at a competitive price. Click for Full Size |  | Strat | Tele | They have quite a few models and colors available, click to see the full lineup, and the prices range from an incredible $279 for an S/S/S basswood bodied beauty all the way to a hollow body that I played at NAMM that pretty much nailed the Gibson ES-335 except for the cost, a fraction of the original at $1,249. An interesting anecdote about Tradition Guitars is that they are set up and shipped out of a horse barn in Indiana. The company is made up of bass and guitar players, and new creations are tested by professionals, and perfected before any producen takes place. Tradition's mission is geared to the production of excellent playing and sounding guitars, along with a very important attribute to any small or big time artist - affordability. A list of artists who play Tradition Guitars can be found here. I regret that I didn't get to plug these fine instruments directly into and good amp to test their true tone. I would have liked to have plugged a few of them into the clean channel of a Fender Hot Rod series amp as that is my tone "test" for any guitar. They had me playing through a POD which of course I am not a big fan of therefore I can't make a clear statement on the tone quality. I do know however that Tradition makes their own pickups and they have new pickup designs on the way. Although I was assured over the phone that the professionals who play Tradition guitars prefer to keep the Tradition pickups rather than swapping them out for fancier and pricier alternatives. If you can imagine I played LOTS of different guitars from many different price ranges, companies, vintages and styles. I played 61' Les Pauls, a $100k Martin, various Warrior guitars, a really hot custom Suhr as well as top of the line Strats, Jacksons and Charvels. I played way too many guitars to remember or even name and they all sounded great. One guitar company stood out from the rest and one guitar company had a line of guitars that were all instantly comfortable in my hands. A line of guitars that felt like my guitar or like I had already played them for years. Tradition guitars were by far my favorite playing electric guitars at the entire show. Tradition takes pride in saying that they build guitars the "old way" though I thought a lot of the features and overall product fit nicely into the modern market. One of these features, the all new Trem King, really caught my eye. When Rusty Bickford a musician who started his career in 1998 met Sheldon Lavineway inventor of the Trem King he knew it was a perfect fit for Tradition, a company that he had been handling the manufacturing responsibilities for since 2002. The S/S/S Strat style guitar that I played was not only setup beautifully, the neck and frets were just perfect. Everything about it was just so familiar, I really felt like it was my guitar and the Trem King was like the missing link for what I always wanted from a tremolo system. The Trem King allowed it to feel like a Strat with a Gibson bridge and with the ability to bend the strings up and down! Trem King The Trem King is a fixed bridge tremolo system that dive bombs and screams! The design is quite ingenious, having a fixed bridge promotes incredible tuning stability as well as string balance and tone. The Trem King is offered in two models, the TK-1 and TK-2 and three finishes (chrome, black and gold). Imagine if you will, a tremelo bridge system that incoporates a split tone block, when dived one section moves and when pulled, another section moves. At rest, the two halves rest togther in a fixed position - always zeroing out. The saddles never move, the bridge never moves, and when you bend a string without actuating the trem, nothing else moves either - finally a trem that operates like a fixed bridge when bending strings, pure precision. Oh but wait! There is more! How about being able to drop tune on the fly without retuning the other strings? Or even breaking a string and keep right on playing in tune? To see the Trem King in action watch the video. I was impressed with it, though nothing quite compares to trying the Trem King for yourself - sweet! But the strings have to go over the saddles right? Thats right, and thats why Trem King has a supply agreement with Graph Tech to supply their inserts for smooth an reliable slip transfer on the saddles when the tremelo is actuated. Having a fixed bridge that is deck mounted means more sustain as well - with more string energy transferred to the guitar, instead of wasted as it is in the current popular designs. With very few moving parts, wear is at a minimum and the amount of force to use it, is likewise minimal. The Trem King is also available directly from Trem King for less than the traditional pricing on current units that provide for dives and pulls. Full details on retro-fitting exisiting units on guitars isn't complete yet, but the questions are in the pipe. There is some mention on the website in this regard though. Primarily, the TK-1 is a drop in replacement for Strat style trems with aminimum of work. Tell your local dealer to contact Trem King and stock a few! Click to Enlarge | | Top View | Bottom View | As some of you might know I am quite the anti-whammy person and I love the advantages of a fixed bridge guitar and that's why the Trem King on the Tradition guitars appealed to me so much. The price and the playability plus thisl design and features of these two companies merging into one fine product is why I chose them out of everything I saw at the NAMM show. I wanted to find something new and exciting at the NAMM show and I was quite satisfied with what I found. Summary I am personally attracted to playability in a guitar over anything else, I think with the right amp, EQ and playing any guitar can be made to sound good. Not every every guitar plays well though and guitars with a modern double locking tremolo system are just problematic and a nightmare for tuning and string changing. I have no doubt in my mind that I chose the right product for review at the NAMM show this year, for the price I don't think you'll find a better complete package than a Tradition guitar equipped with the Trem King tremolo system - ask you local dealer to make an inquiry and get one in stock today! | 
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Tradition Guitars w/Trem King Tremelo
