Yes, the Country Gentleman Gretsch was once Chet Atkins signature axe. If you check the design out you will find that the f holes are actually painted on and not real f holes, this to help with feedback prevention when the amp is turned up to higher gain in order to get the fingerpicking out in the performance. At that point, just about any worthy plank would do the trick.

However, he eventually switched to the Gibson flattop series of compact acoustic-electric guitars, finally settling on the steel string model although he also featured the nylon string model for awhile as well.

Now that we have that out of the way, I don't think that the brand or model of guitar is all important here at all, having known cats who could recreate the Chet thing using all sorts of geetars from Teles to big jazzboxes and one young fellow who turned in dnamite performances using a Martin flattop with bridge pickup installed.

Chet's inimitable STYLE of playing is the forefront here, I suggest that you just start in working out with whatever guitar you already have and love. Strat on neck pickup has been known to turn in equally good performance with the Chet style, man.

The first purchase should be THUMB PICKS. Spend some time finding thub picks of the right size and length for you, then spend more time in the woodshed, getting to know and use those thumbicks as both thumb pick and also as sub for flat pick. Some of the Tommy Emmanuel tutorials are excellent for the aspiring CGP. First thing I recommend is mastery of the "dead thumb" style.


--Mac

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