The Delta Snake Review: Musical Gear Review and Music Article Archive: Review: 2013 Gibson Chet Atkins Tennessean

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Review: 2013 Gibson Chet Atkins Tennessean

The Gibson Chet Atkins Tennessean comes from the Gretsch mid-50s era guitars. The stars of those years were the 6120 Chet Atkins with twin DeArmond pickups and the White Falcon. The former has since become legendary as a guitar originally designed for country, but used by such rockers as Eddie Cochran, Pete Townsend (on the “Won't Get Fooled Again”), and Brian Setzer (who now uses a custom-made model).

A later version of this one was occasionally played by George Harrison, but he was more associated with the Country Gentleman. That guitar branched out into the 6120, 6121, Country Gentleman, and the 6119 Tennessean.

I won't go into the specifics of the various types, but a brief description of the 6119 would be relevant. In 1958, it was changed to a thinner guitar, with F-holes, a Bigsby, one pickup, and an orange finish (like the 6120). This model continued to evolve, but again, I'll keep it short since I'm really reviewing the Gibson.

However, being a former Country Gentleman owner (and still sometimes grieving over its loss), I do recommend the Gretsch Pages website, from which I took some of the technical specs in order to make the picture of the original Tennessean correct. In modern times, Gretsch users sometimes confuse the types of models released, particularly during the years approaching the pre-Fender era. Go to that site to get the full history of the early 6120.

Over time, Chet left Gretsch in disgust over its deteriorating quality and went over to Gibson. His most innovative work was in creating the solid-holeless acoustic using piezo pickups to eliminate feedback.

However, Gibson did create the Tennessean model and it's interesting to note the differences. The most obvious is that the guitar has 490 series humbuckers instead of DeArmonds. That alone might turn off a Gretsch purist, but add to that a laminated maple body, and it seems to verge into heresy.

The original was a sort of semi-solid (Gretsch wouldn't put in a full ES-335 style middle block like Chet wanted, but there was a small one and extensive machine routing). This guitar does have the full wood block, but no zero fret (a feature he ALWAYS pushed for), and in theory is closer to the conception of what a Chet Atkins was supposed to be. Also, it has a very cool retro-shaped pickguard, and oddly enough, a banjo-style armrest.

The guitar knob configuration is a little different. Not that having two volume, master tone, and volume knobs are odd, but one is located up near the cutaway, and the other three are in the standard location. Takes some getting used to, but it does make sense after spending a little time with it.

Chet never considered himself a “country” guitarist, but one who played it all. This model and design, which I found to be somewhat similar to an ES-335 in sound, would have fit the bill better than many modern Gretsches. It also has a nice elegance to the design, clean yet elegant.

There is one major flaw in this guitar. One thing that gave Chet his distinctive warm, yet bell-like clean tone was the single coil DeArmonds. It would have been closer to the original concept to have used a P-94, a very clean and creamy single coil pickup based on the P-90.

One key reason is that Chet generally fingerpicked his music, and the 490's often start booming or get really muddy in the bass register when the guitar is fingerpicked. It's really a better flatpicking guitar, with a superb ES-like jazzy/rock tone.

Which is fine, but it's not Chet. For someone like me, who has quit using even fingerpicks (just the fingers now), the guitar can be a muddy-sounding disaster when I start three-finger playing. I tried a thumbpick and fingers combination but then I got a severe volume and tone imbalance.

It improved a bit when I dropped the bass section of the pickups a bit and raised the treble on the amp. Most of the difficulties were in a clean tone anyway. If you're going warmer in sound, it's not so much of a problem.

The laminated maple body isn't bad, nor is the lack of a tremolo bar. My old Gentleman didn't have one either (but then, I bought it used). In fact, the harder maple does offset the heavier 490 humbucker sound a bit and sharpen the tone. Although at this price range, why Gibson couldn't include a solid spruce top (the usual companion to a maple body) is

mysterious.

Like any good Atkins, it has a fast neck. In fact, compared to some guitars, it's downright skinny. The purpose would be to chord quickly (a must for a jazzy fingerpicker), but rockers and jazzers will find it fine for any style. Just avoid dropping the guitar on its pretty neck.

On the whole, it's a fine guitar. In fact, I liked it better than the ES-335 in some ways, as it has a more defined midrange. Also, the banjo-style armrest is actually a very good idea, corny as it may seem to purists. There is a lot less after-playing buffing and removal of sweat off the guitar finish thanks to that little detail.

Also, like a banjo, that guard keeps your arm from coming down on the front surface of the instrument while playing. A lot of players don't realize how much sound vibration they damp when they lean on the archtop surface of their guitars while playing.

On my old '35 Kalamazoo archtop (which is not overbuilt, so it's very light and vibrant), the volume and tone degrades up to 20% when I get lazy and start resting my arm on the front surface of the guitar. It's a small detail that influences tone, and Chet was all about tone.

So, what can you say about a guitar that started off as something totally different, and ended up similar to another company's standard line of semi-solids?

One thing, you won't sound like an old Chet Atkins records playing this guitar. It's a different animal unless you change out the pickups. His classic sound was the clear, smooth single coil sound, with notes picked out with his fingernails (he didn't use fingerpicks, but I figure you all already know that).

By the same token, Chet never typecasted himself to the extent that his fans did. So, this guitar was made in his honor and now remains his namesake. It doesn't exactly sound like an old Gretsch, but then, what modern foreign-made Gretsch does?

If you buy this guitar, play your own music and sound like yourself. If it can do that, then that, my friends, is the type of guitar that Chet would have wanted this to be.

Al Handa

2013

Note: This review first appeared on the ePinions.com site in 2013. This and other reviews were short takes that accompanied the link to a business that sold the guitar. As a rule, the guitar had to be at least examined and played by the reviewer (and ideally owned). In my case, a severe case of GAS made it possible to have at least owned the reviewed instrument for a short while. I'm reprinting these as having another source on a guitar never hurts, even if the reviews aren't definitive. Other than minor corrections, these short takes are unchanged from the original text. I figure that it might be helpful to keep the older perspective.

Also by Al Handa:

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