History

Tradition Guitars was founded in 1998 from the ideas of music industry veteran Jim Matthews.

Tradition Guitars began its humble beginnings in a horse barn in Indiana. Jim was a true veteran of the musical instrument market. He had spent more than 30 years of his life selling, marketing, and developing instruments. After years of witnessing the success as well as the failure of many well known guitar companies, Tradition Guitars was formed.

Jim’s idea was simple...
Offer the highest quality instrument for an affordable price to the independent dealer.

Tragedy struck in 2004 when Tradition lost its founder. But Jim's dream still lives on today. Jim Matthews’ family and partners took the reins and have vowed to make Tradition Guitars the company that Jim always knew it could be.

Today Tradition Guitars is recognized nationally and internationally for the quality and value they represent. Our guitars are represented in almost every state in the United States as well as 9 other countries. Tradition Guitars is proud to announce that they will be releasing over 20 new model colors and model variations in the second half of 2006.

Philosophy

At Tradition Guitars we continually strive to give the musician a high quality tool to create their art. It is our goal to provide high quality instruments at an affordable price. How do we do that? Tradition Guitars has gone back to the “old way” of building guitars.

Our company is made up of guitar and bass players. We take our ideas, build a prototype and present it to one of the many professional players using our guitars. We take the feedback and and make any changes necessary to refine the final model. We are always looking for ways to give a better value to the musician.

Have you picked up a Tradition lately?
You’ll be surprised at what we are capable of offering to any type of guitar player.

Myths

Over the last several years, we have seen and heard a lot of rumors and “facts” about our company that are not quite right. We feel that now is a good time to make sure everyone has the correct information about Tradition Guitars.

** The founder, Jim Matthews was not an Ex-Ibanez executive (or for any major guitar company).

He was a direct sales rep for Washburn and an independent rep for a dozen others guitar companies over the last 30 years.

** Tradition is not partnered with Seymour Duncan Pickups.

Jim Matthews had been a sales rep for both Seymour Duncan and EMG pickups in his career. Mr. Matthews himself designed most of the pickups used in Traditions today. Tradition is very appreciative to both of these great pickup manufacturers for all the knowledge they passed along to Mr. Matthews and the other owners of Tradition.

** Tradition Guitars are setup and shipped out of a horse barn.

OK, this was true. At the time, our warehouse was a converted horse barn in Indiana. Jim Matthews was an avid horseman and when he started Tradition, he realized he had a huge barn that could easily be turned into a warehouse thus allowing the company to save money versus renting an expensive warehouse. Now, we have moved into a warehouse in Indianapolis.

Heard any other good ones?

We at Tradition love hearing new things about ourselves. If you have a good one, please e-mail it to and share it with us.