The Delta Snake Review: Musical Gear Review and Music Article Archive: chet Atkins

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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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Podcast Episode 3 now live on YouTube, Spotify and Apple.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alhanda/episodes/On-The-Road-With-Al--Ivy-Episode-3-e2k5k0q

Topics:

The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Three Musketeers by Dumas, and the Robin Hood myth.

Some thoughts on Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck, On The Road by Kerouac Scroll Version, and The Road by Jack London.

Music:

My Dog Dreams And Becomes A Mermaid Techno Mix, Sunday's Moon and Nigel Raga by Handa-McGraw International.

Taylor's Blues by Mark McGraw

Review: Epiphone Chet Atkins CE Nylon String

The Epiphone Chet Atkins CE was an attempt by Chet to create a low-cost version of the very successful Gibson versions of both a solid steel and nylon string guitar using only piezo pickups in the bridge. I say it was an attempt by him, as it was a stated goal of his to do so and he pushed Epiphone to create such a guitar.

The early nylon string versions had some teething pains, with a high rate of failure in the piezo system created for this guitar. This was exacerbated by a shortage of replacement pickups from Korea, with a backlog often lasting months.

My guitar piezo system failed during the setup process by my local guitar tech, and it took about four weeks to get replacements, and as luck would have it, it was a bad batch. A complaint to Epiphone did speed up things and the guitar was in my hands two weeks later, along with a free T-Shirt.

Like any piezo pickup, the acoustic sound of the guitar was virtually irrelevant, which was good, as the heavy mohogany body produced almost no sound. It was very much an electric animal. When it worked, the results were excellent. The sound coming out of the amp (or headphones) was remarkably natural sounding, and one could play at any volume without feedback and it was tough to distort the sound (at clean setting).

The guitar itself was thin, albeit pretty hefty, and in particular, it was neck heavy like an old SG. The neck was very playable, though, and one could lower the action to an extent unheard of with a regular classical. The overall look of the guitar from the front was that of a traditional classical, with an unfortunately very fake-looking hole offset by some very pretty and effective tuners.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn't one-dimensional. With a little adjustment of the tone knob or use of effects, the guitar was capable of a wide variety of tones. In particular, I liked using it with a lot of reverb, and a bit of chorus.

Also, due to the fast neck, nylon-string jazz and world music style playing was especially easy and given the popularity of such guitars now, the CE could have sold much better now than it did in it's heyday in the 90's. Artists like Willie Nelson loved the Gibson version back then and bought several, so the basic design wasn't the problem.

The price wasn't either. The Epi version was in the 350.00-400.00 range, and mine was priced even lower. I guess one could find a lot of reasons why this or that guitar doesn't catch on. In my case, it was simply too neck heavy, the piezo system was cantankerous and sometimes got noisy, and most of all, it basically had no acoustic sound. You always needed an amp unless the house was dead quiet.

Nylon string guitars aren't played acoustically for just riffing around like one would do with a Les Paul for example. Players who choose classical guitars want to hear that translucent bell-like tone that only this type of instrument can produce.

So, in the end, The CE left my guitar collection, and an electric-acoustic took its place. However, to this day, in an age where nylon string guitars are being played almost as fast as jazz boxes, I sometimes wonder if I gave up on the thing a bit too soon. It's a guitar that can still be found here and there, and the used price is often quite good. I've seen it as low as 225.00 on Craiglist. By now, I figure the ones that had the pickup problems are gone, and the ones being sold work just fine.

At its price point, and capabilities, and given current music trends, one would have to say that Chet was on to something. It was just ten years too early.

- Al Handa

2006

Note: This review first appeared on the ePinions.com site in 2006. 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.

The Quitturz by Al Handa