Tradition CAB10T Tele

3 piece alder body with east indian rosewood on maple (per Rusty at Tradition Guitars). Model year was '98 or '99, made in China. Standard tele pickup configuration with the lipstick at the neck and single coil at the bridge. Three way selector. Classic style 3 piece saddles. String-through design which is excelent for a guitar intended for this price point. Finish is some type of tobacco burst- very well done. This is solid wood without a laminated top- The grain can be seen nicely through the finish. Tuners are unbranded and solid- this guitar holds a tuning well. Neck is not the baseball bat of some teles- but that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I'll give it a 10 because it's trying to be a tele, and it does that job well.

Was looking for a tele styled guitar/partscaster to round out my arsenal- and this fits the bill perfectly. Was expecting to swap out the pickups when I got it- and actually picked up a set of hot Duncans on e-bay, but I'm holding off for now. This guitar actually sounds pretty damn good through my setup (palomino v8, 70s Peavey Deuce, 70s Peavey Mace, solid state fender amp, digitech reverb, mid 80s ProCo Rat). Yes there is the hum you expect from single coils, but it's not worse than my actual 90s fender stratocaster or my 77 Guild s60. This guitar is great for blues and clasic rock. I agree with an earlier review that stated the need for a capacitor change- The volume knob is not very effective at this point. I bought this used on Craigslist for $50, so I'm not complaining. I took a stroll over to my local guitar center to A/B it against the real thing. In my opinion, this guitar sounds and plays better than MIM fenders. I can't claim it sounded better than the MIA tele, but it actually plays just as well, and we'll see after the pickup swap. The MIA tele was going for $1,250 + tax. I'll give it a 9, but for value it should get a 10.

Nice fit of the neck at the body - no gap whatsoever. Intonation was spot-on. I really don't think it was played by the person I bought it from, tho it does show signs of abuse (small cigarette burn in the pick guard, dent/chip from being dropped). Action is good, though I may try to drop it a hair as I like it to be like buttahh... No buzz anywhere on the neck. Frets are smooth and even. As mentioned, the cap on the volume switch needs a change, but that's it. The fit/finish are superior to the MIM tele, but maybe not quite MIA. Since you can pick this guitar up for probably less than half the cost of a MIM, it deserves high marks here.

Would use for live gigs after the cap gets changed. This guitar feels solid and stays in tune. Strap buttons are decent. Can see a cross-section of the finish in the spot where the previous owner dinged the guitar down to the wood. The finish is thick and will last. Hell, this guitar is already 10 or 11 years old, shows signs of neglect, and plays/looks just great. Would I gig anywhere without a backup? Already made that mistake years ago with an SG and learned my lesson...

E-mailed customer support at Tradition and they got right back to me within a day or two. I even sent them pics of the guitar so they could ID the model ( no serial numbers on this guitar) and they followed up with info. I own three Martin guitars and their responses to my querries have been much more terse. I believe I like this company.

Been playing for 32 years. Owned many different guitars over the years but as of now I have an 82 Ibanez AR50 (GREAT GUITAR), a 90 Ibanez RG540s, a 96 MIA Fender Stratocaster, a 1977 Guild S60D, a 1936 Martin 017, a 1983 Sigma SDR28-H and a Sigma D-10 (japanese craftsmanship at it's finest), a 1967 Hagstrom HBII, and several other Japanese oddities from the 60s/70s. I'm a huge fan of japanese guitars, and for that matter, guitars from regions where quality is high or emerging but production costs are low. I have no doubt whatsoever that China is right now going through what Japan went through in the late 70's/early 80's- In other words they are producing guitars of extraordinary value for the dollar. This is a high quality tele copy and I would consider it an excellent value if I'd paid three or four times as much.

Year: 2001 (used)
Place: China
22 frets.
standard Fender Tele features.
I got a gig bag, a cable, and 2 extra sets of strings, included with the price.

I play classic rock (Pink Floyd, Eagles, some U2); in my band I sing and play rhythm only.
For the price, I'd say the sound is excellent and exactly what I had in mind when I bought a Tele-like axe. The sound is twangy and quite rich. I don't plan on putting new pickups for now, though I may later, depending on how our band's sound evolves.

I bought it used and the set-up was already perfect for me.
There are some micro finish flaws at the interface between some frets and the neck, but for the price the finish is very good, and you really have to look at it closely to see these anyway.

This guitar is one solid piece of hardware. It holds up very well to live playing; it definitely feels like it's built to last and I don't doubt that I'll be playing it for many, many years to come. I really don't expect the finish to come off unless I start playing it 8 hours a day for next 10 years, and I doubt I'll be able to do that, since I'm not a professional musician. The strap buttons are very solid. I do depend on this axe for gigs; obviously, since I'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy, our band always has a backup electric guitar available, but bear in mind we have 3 guitarists in all (our set up is the same as Pearl Jam's). I don't think it's a brilliant idea to play any gig without a backup anyway, even if your primary axe is the most reliable & dependable in the world.

I've never had to deal with them and given this axe's dependability, I expect I probably never will.

I've played off and on for close to 30 years. I've been playing regularly in a band since last September; I played a borrowed Japan-made Fender Strat until January, then I bought the CAB-10. I own a Yamaha 6-string acoustic and I also play an Ovation. If this guitar were stolen, I would do all I can to find it and bash the *?@?* thief who took it away from me over the head with it, and I'm sure he'd come off the loser. If I could find it at the same price, I'd definitely buy it again. I love its action, sound, looks. The one negative point is the weight; for short gigs (up to 1 hour) it's fine, but for long sessions (anything over about 2.5 hours) I start to feel it...of course, I'm an old phart (43), so my back ain't what it used to be. And besides, when you get an imitation Tele you know it's going to be heavy. Conversely, my favorite feature is its solidity.
I compared it with Strat-likes but I fell in love with its sound and I absolutely couldn't find a better value in the store... and they're loaded with great axes.

May be a 2001 model?I bought it used.Typical tele features.Black alder body.maple neck & fretboard. I was suprised it is string thru body! I think they are made in china with american wood? dont make a whole lotta sense unless labor is cheap & shipping is free !

I play heavy stuff and blues.I wanted a twangy type guitar and it suites that purpose.Its sounds real good straight to my marshall tube combo,but when using my processors with my solid state, stereo amp setup it looses alot of "authenticity" and twang but can actually get a good heavy sound!This guitar sounds alot better then expected but I will be changing the neck pu to a texas special.

This is used guitar-some of the frets were not finished well on the sides of the neck/no big deal. There is a dead spot on the neck, 5th & 6th frets b & high e strings,havent been able to adjust my way out of it yet.It is still playable just annoying because if you finger it just right it is not noticable.Other than that it is very comfortable and the neck is straight with good low action.tuners are good on this one.

I would trust this guitar under any condition. The finish is good.Its stay in tune exceptionally well with 009's

N/A they say limited lifetime on guitar & tuners ? on the website

Been playing 36 years,I own many guitars and amps.My main guitars are a gibson L6-s and a fender prodigy strat. I run the tradition tele thru a digitech and korg processor a volume pedal,distortion pedal,digital delay,and a a/b switch to either 2 peavey tnt bass amps for stereo or to a marshall 50 watt tube combo. Sounds good!
This guitar is as good or better then the mexican teles I played,no comparison to the squire.I would buy it again.It is a comfortable guitar that looks plays and sounds nice.

1999 Model. Made in China. 22 Fret Maple fingerboard on maple neck. 3 Piece Alder Body. 1 Volume, 1 Tone, 3 position switch. Standard Tele stuff. Passive single coil pickups, hum cancelling in middle position. Translucent Tobacco Sunburst on Body (Beautiful too I might add), Neck and fingerboard are either bare, or very lightly oiled. Standard 3-barrel type Tele bridge, thru the body loader. Sealed Tuners. 25 1/2 inch scale. Neck is very thin and flat. Maybe too much for die hard Tele players, but works for me. I'll give it a 6 because that's the nature of the beast. I'd do the same fo Any Tele type guitar.

I play mostly classic rock and a touch of country. The guitar does both well with my upgrades. Acoustically, this guitar has good Tele spank. Unfortunately, the pickups are better microphones than pickups. Tones are OK for a cheap guitar in this respect, but nothing special. If you replace the pickups, (I did, with used Andersons), the guitar comes alive. I'll give it a 4 with the original pickups, and a 9 with the new ones, Tele City !

Set up was great. Action good and low. Nut cut well. Neck was straight as an arrow. The finish is better than I've ever seen on a cheap guitar. Good and deep gloss. Neck joint was good and tight. Frets finished just fine. I basically bought this guitar because it was a good piece of wood for cheap, planning to upgrade it. When I got it, the volume control was basically an on/off switch. No adjustment whatsoever. I opened it up and found the problem. They attempted to do a good thing. There was a cap across the volume pot designed to keep the highs up and give you a more consistent sound all of the way through the adjustment. Only problem was, they used a .047 uf. Way too high. I replaced it with .001 and now it works much better. Also shielded it while I was there. I recommend this on any single coil guitar. Made a huge improvement on the noise level. I'll add a few points since they even attempted the volune cap thing, but the fact that they goobed it up takes em right back off. I'll give it a 8 all things considered, but mechanically, it's at least a 9.

Seems to be built well. Hardware and wood is solid. I've beat on it pretty hard for hours at rehearsal. Holds it's tuning well. Switch seems a bit flimsy, but works fine. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt at this point.

I've been playing for 20 plus years. I gig a few times a year, and jam with friends once a week or so. I own a Strat Plus w/Fralin's, Ibanez 1025 Blazer, and a few other project guitars. I got exactly what I was hoping for. A guitar with great potential for cheap. The thing to keep in mind with these is that they are basically good pieces of wood, with good setups. They make a great second axe if your a semi serious musician on a limited budget, willing to invest a little time, new pickups, and TLC into them. I wish it had great pickups and was shielded right out of the box, but hey, it's a cheap guitar. I really didn't expect it. This guitar now plays and sounds better than many real Tele's I've tried. For the purpose for which I purchased it, it has been great. I'll go a 10. I would definitely do it again. Right out of the box with no changes it's great with respect to wood and build quality. Much better than squires or many mexi's IMO. The pickups however leave much to be desired. I'll give it a 7 considering price/value. It's a better than average body and neck for the bucks you pay, but just average as far as the elctronics go. In the same breath let me say that I now have a beautiful SMOKIN' Tele that twangs with the best of them and I've only got about 200 bucks in it. If it suits your needs like mine, I highly recommend them.