TraditionGuitars.com
Jerry Reid Series
MTL 600 Series

Jerry Reid Pro Series (T-style solid body) $999 suggested retail MTL 600 (Jazz box) $999 suggested retail

Tradition Guitars is still a fairly new company out on the market so many may not have heard of them before. Well, take heed, Tradition Guitars is here and they are great.

I stumbled upon Tradition at the Nashville NAMM show. There was a glimpse of one good looking T-style guitar that I caught out of the corner of my eye and headed straight over there. I began talking with Eric Matthews and the nice folks at the booth and setup a chance to review these guitars.

Not really knowing about Tradition Guitars I was a little skeptical when they first arrived. As we opened them we were impressed with the looks of the guitars. The flame maple top finish in tobacco sunburst is very nice. Now came the playing test.

Playing the Jerry Reid signature model (Jerry plays lead guitar for Mel Tillis & endorses the Tradition JR Pro/Artist series) brought many a pleasant surprise. First was the neck. It has a flatter radius than the usual T-style guitars, which was a nice change for a more comfortable play. The width at the nut is also larger coming in at 1 ¾". The body is mahogany with a 3/8" flamed maple cap (quilted maple also available); this combination of woods gives a nice tonal color, especially when combined with the pickups.

Speaking of pickups, Tradition Guitars has done a great job creating their own custom wound pickups. Now I know that most companies will skimp on the pick up to make a cheaper guitar, or make claims that may not be so truthful, but Tradition has done exactly what they say here. These pickups sound great. The jazz box (MTL600) we had sounded full and warm, and the Reid had such a huge range that it will take an entire paragraph to go over that. Lest I digress, the folks at Tradition actually flew over to Korea to the factory and started designing the pickups with the manufacturer. They stayed there while multiple sets of picks were designed, made, tested, redesigned, made and retested until the best pickup possible was created. Tradition is even going to offer these pickups as a stand-alone product.

Now for the paragraph on the Reid model pickup switching. This guitar offers 11, yes 11, pickup combinations without using the tone controls. It offers a standard 5-way switch, one switch, and a push-pull pot. Here are the options:

Position 1 - Bridge pickup by itself
Position 2 - Middle pickup can be used full or tapped with the bridge pickup for 2 different sounds
Position 3 - Middle pickup can be used full or tapped for 2 different sounds
Position 4 - Neck picked can be used full or tapped with the middle pickup being used full or tapped for 4 different sounds
Position 5 - Neck pickup can be used full or tapped for 2 different sounds

The Jerry Reid model offers an enormous tonal range; from vintage T-style tones, humbuckers, vintage S-style tones and nice fat S-style tones. The neck pickup is a tapped humbucker, the middle pickup is a tapped, stacked humbucker and the bridge pickup is a T-style bridge pickup. This guitar pulls out pretty much every thing needed for a gig. This is the guitar for those "Guns For Hire" players out there wishing they only had to lug one axe. The only tone not available is the traditional T-style pickup setting of neck and bridge, but most guitar shops can remedy that (if you need more switching).

The MTL600 archtop guitar has a flamed maple sides and back, 3" body depth, and a fast action multi-radius neck. The gold hardware looks as sharp as it plays. This box offers great acoustic tone and an even better electric sound. The MTL600 produces a nice acoustic tone, though it lacks a little in the bass. When plugged in there is no lack of tone at all. Once again Tradition has made a great pickup to compliment a great guitar, and best of all it is a good price.

If you're open minded when it comes to brand names, go and check out Tradition guitars. Heck, even if you're not open minded go check out these guitars.

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Jerry Reid Model Overall rating: 5 on a scale from 1 to 5

MTL 600 Overall rating: 4.5 on a scale from 1 to 5

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