Tradition SG

My first electric. Got it for around $200 new in Fall '02 in Jacksonville, AL. Except for the bolt-on neck, this was exactly what I wanted at the time.
The salesman said Traditions are built by the same people as Epiphone. Beware that statement...
Bolt-on neck: doesn't belong on an SG. Finish was gloss black all over, except the fretboard of course. Tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece. Solid! Non-locking chrome keystone shape tuners. Hardware quality is quite good for the price. Probably 24 3/4" scale; I think I measured it once. Standard SG wiring: 2 humbuckers of unknown make (read: crap); 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way switch, all passive. As versatile as I need a guitar to be! Neck is most likely maple; I've rarely heard of a bolt-on with any other wood, especially a budget model.
I have to mention the "construction" details I've found out: Once I got another electric, I started taking this one apart, thinking I might mod it to better stats some time. I sanded the neck so that the gloss is gone (it's basically satin now). I started sanding the body and finally got all the way through the finish at a place on the back, and there was a red surface under it. I showed my dad when he got home and he said it looked like a resin-type material, it was too lightweight to be solid wood. With the controls out, there is some wood that escaped the finishing process. So what I gather is that Tradition maybe made the top(?) out of wood and sculpted the final shape from fiberglass. Booooo. Also, the body is much thicker than any Gibson or Epiphone SG I've seen.

How good can it sound with all that mess I just said?
Granted, I was super amateur at the time, so my "self" tone wasn't there (still isn't!), and I only had an Ibanez Tone Blaster 15, ugghhh. And shitty-ass cables to top it off!
Livelier pickups would probably do a world of good. Some day...
There's not a bit of shielding, so there's sum hum even with the buckers. I still want to know why I can pick up radio stations when I'm not playing.
Still, with separate volumes and tones, dial-in factor is high.

Action was always pretty nice. Exemplary, almost!

Solid enough for me. I never had it adjusted, but then I wouldn't have known if it needed any. Actually, I would recommend this as a first-time guitar.

Absolutely no clue.

At one time, it looked fabulous. Aesthetics were basically the only deciding factor then; I was big into the Gibson Custom look, so it was obviously the best (price considering)
If you're an experienced player and know what's what, don't even bother. But you know that, because it says Tradition on the headstock.

Modeled after a 61 SG. Looks pretty much the same except the body's cut a little different and the fret markers are like that of a Custom. Typical SG setup; two humbuckers; two volume; two tone; Tune-O-Matic bridge, etc. Tuners seemed pretty nice. Bolt on neck. I got a Tradition gig bag with it.

I had only played single coils before this, so the humbuckers were a nice change. Sound is subdued but thick, a little on the dark side. Good distortion. Seems like you can a lot of different sounds out of it.

My first few guitars were kind of low end so the SG absolutely blew me away. It plays great, and it looks like it cost hundreds more. A couple of the fretmarkers were a little sloppy, but that doesn't really bother me. Action could stand to be raised a bit, the low E kind of buzzes

I get paranoid about the guitar because it's so light, but I know that it's durable. One of the tuning keys got knocked off, but that was my fault. I put on some makeshift strap locks because the bottons suck.

N/A

I rarely play any of my other guitars anymore, I love this one so much. It looks great, plays great, sounds great. If I had to complain about something it would be the bolt on neck, I hate the way they look. Some people might find fault in the fret inlays, but its not that apparent. Other than that it't great.