PRODUCT REVIEW
Jerry reid
Signature Pro
TraDiTioN
By PAT SMITH
The venerable Fender Telecaster has spawned a zillion clones,
some good and some bad. The Tele has been adopted by players
in a variety of styles, but arguably it has been best known for its
use in country music. I have loved Teles for a long time, and I own
five of them. I was inspired to play Teles by some of my favorite
pickers, guys like Roy Buchanan, Ed Bickert, Albert Collins, Jimmy
Bryant, Danny Gatton and Jerry Reed. Many guitarists joke that
a Tele is a “real man’s” guitar because it is generally somewhat
harder to play than say, a Gibson, and its tone is quite naked and
doesn’t cover for sloppy technique. Interestingly, you could say it
was one of the first guitars to be modified as Fender introduced
a semi-hollow and versions with different pickup combinations. So
now here comes Tradition Guitars with their take on the Tele, and it
has some interesting features.
I first saw one of these in a local store and was a bit bamboozled
that there was a Jerry Reed model guitar coming out after the
great man had passed away. But we do live in a time of dead-guy
endorsements, so I just tried the guitar and I thought it was pretty
impressive. Flash-forward to my getting this guitar for a review, and I
come to find out it isn’t Jerry Reed, but Jerry Reid. My first thought
was, “Hmmm, what’s all this then?” What I found out is that Mr. Reid
played for Mel Tillis, George Jones and bought his first Tradition
guitar in a music store. He loved it, and so he hooked up with the
