Gibson Chet Atkins

I have a flame Chet Atkins circa 1990 I bought new. I wanted an es295, went down to buy it, and then picked this Chet up, and changed my mind. It had great vibe like the es295, better sustain, and was fatter sounding and much more flexible in terms of the kind of stuff you can get away doing on it. All this is what you'd expect given the symmetry of the instrument.

At first, I wanted it to be brighter, so I put a brighter pickup in it. Didn't work. My advice, leave well enough along. Chet knew what he was doing.

Soon, The bridge moved during a passionate moment at a small bar. Tried to fix it with tape. Bad idea. Tried to get off the tape slime with acetone. Worse idea. Smeared the finish. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Then I learned an old trick - fine grit sandpaper glued to the bottom of the bridge. It's been stable ever since.

The string winders built in to the tuners are cool as hell, and handy. The neck pickup is a "special" version according to Gibson. Took a while to find out what was special about it. Turns out its darker tone was "developed for Chet's finger picking style". It is pretty dark, but man its got body.

Crank it up on the treble pickup and its got monster tone. Wicked. Nothing you'd expect from such a refined machine. The Bixby works great - watery sound that only a Bixby can do. Soon I wanted more sustain so I got a 335 with trem. No dice. A 335 with trem sounds thin compared to this and does not have a lot more sustain. Once again, Chet knew what he was doing.

I've played this axe in hundreds of gigs. Its very reliable. The frets are now worn, and it needs a new nut. The clean tone through my Dr. Z is to die for. Big fat soft but chimey and dripping with texture. The long scale gives it definition and control, and tone. The Chet style volume control under the neck pickup needs getting used to… If you are a big strummer you are going to move that knob when you are playing. If you are a picker, its perfect because the volume control is easy to get at fast. It sits there by itself, ready to be turned.

The way I read it from the Gretsch book, Chet quit Gretsch partly over the issues embodied in this guitar. Fred would never allow a sustain block. (The Gibson has a 1/2 block). So, Chet took a lifetime of learning and not a little bit of spite and designed the Gibson Chet Atkins. In the studio its my Go-to guitar when I just can't find a sound with character. Live, it looks cool and does what you want it to do. This would be my desert island guitar.