Fingerstyle Guitar Album

[Steve Sanders]

Well, it's been a while since I posted a bunch of silly questions.. so here we go! One of my favorite albums is "Fingerstyle Guitar". I was wondering what amp did Chet use on that album? Was it the proverbial Standel or the Echosonic. I think I remember reading somewhere he cut that album in record time in Studio B, like 12 hours or something like that. So, if he used the Standel, what about the echo? It couldn't be his modified reel recorders because they were big ol' units and in his basement. Also, if 99.9% (+/-) of Chet's recordings were made using the Standel, did he leave it in Studio B or leave it at home. Folks say it was just too durn heavy to tote around anyway. Did he have another Standel? And what about laying down the tracks in the studio and then taking the tape home where he "did his thing" and added or cleaned up his part. In an old copy of Guitar Player Magazine he said he would use his Princeton Reverb to "over-dub" at home. Wouldn't this be a sound / tone conflict with the original cut with the Standel? Uh-oh, sumbudy's knockin'. It might be the guys from the "Nervous Hospital"!!!!! Steve

[Norm]

Finger Style came out in 1956 and used the maple topped prototype filter tron pickups. Made in one day, two sessions, I believe.

It is really uncertain just when he got the Standel. It was made in 1954 but Jimmy Day used it for a couple of years before Chet got it. There are photos of Chet with the Standel at RCA studios (usually with his '59) so schlepping it around wasn't all that big a deal. He just didn't like trusting it to airlines.
By the time he recorded Finger Style guitar I think he had one of the Ampex "Self Synch" recorders at home. This is the machine that allowed him to keep the center track to himself and tinker it at home. Once at home adding echo was a routine thing for him to do. The Chet Atkins At Home cover has it all laid out.

"...According to steelers, Jimmy was still using the amp in 1956 when Ray Price recorded Crazy Arms with Jimmy Day on steel. From 1954 to 1956 the Gannaway Company made some color movies, now available on DVD, that had a very Grand Ole Opry feel to them. There are scenes in the movies showing Jimmy still using the amp. You had to look closely, but it’s there. Chet could be seen using a Standel on some of the clips also ..." (excerpted)

It was probably during this time when he actually acquired the Standel but it is hard to know exactly what amp he used in his final mix for that F/S album. We do know he used the split pickup to good effect so most likely three strings would have gone direct and the other three to an amp. That was what made that album so hot. No one else was doing that. This wasn't "stereo". This was just clever thinking...crafty engineering.

He used the Echo-Sonic mainly for live shows because the splice on it was sometimes pretty loud but he probably could make a pretty quiet splice since he had to make his own tapes. Most of the guys used Fender Pro amps in those days and it was a Fender Pro that Chet used as part payment to Jimmy Day for the Standel. He used a Fender Deluxe (not a reverb) with his D'Angelico. The Princeton Reverb didn’t come out until 1964 and by that time his Standel pretty much ruled the roost for him as a recording amp.

At the time of the recording it is unclear just what he used for amplification. He did use some simple echo which could have been Echo Sonic or reel to reel. He may have borrowed the Standel before he arranged to take it from Day.

We'll never know for sure but those were his options

[Richard Hudson]

Since he was using the split pickup guitar, it's possible that he may have gone direct out of both sides. That would actually be my guess, because I think it would be easier for him to hear himself what he was doing. But, as you say, we may never know for sure. However he did it, that is one of the greatest guitar albums ever.

[Vidar Lund]

Steve, I´ll attempt to answer the last part of your question - before the Norm chimes in with the rest of the answers!

At the end of the 1950´s multitrack recording became possible when multichannels tape recorders became availaible. You will know that with more tracks than one instruments can be recorded separately without interference from other instruments, in theory at least. There will always be a "bleed" between instruments playing in the studio at the same time - but that is just the right thing to do!

The first stereo tape recorders were developed in Germany during the early 1940´s, and the first stereo tape recordings were done as early as 1942, during the heat of WW2. In fact, the first stereo broadcast transmissions were live classical performances done from Berlin during even heater conditions in 1944 while the bombs were falling on the city. Some of these were recorded on tapes retrieved in the early 1990´s and released on record later, on CD in later years. I´ve listened to some of these recordings, and they are sensationally good, really unbelievably perfect from impeccable master tapes without any need for digital wizardry. It´s a totally eery experience, the sound of German flak, probably 70 mm ack-acks during a Mosquito attack with 1800 kgs "cookies", can be heard in the background. The musicians were literally playing for their lives. What did the audience feel?

RCA did stereo recordings from 1954 with classical music, and later with popular music. Ampex (and other) two and later three channel tape recorders made it possible to produce stereo recordings, often with singer/solo artist in one channel and the musicians in the other one using only two microphones or groups of mikes, one for each section of performers. With three channels and three microphones it became possible to place the singer/soloist in the middle, giving a more natural distribution of sound. This could also be achieved with two-channels machines by coupling one stereo or two mono microphpones to each of the side channels, thus putting the singer/solo musician in the middle with the band grouped around. The signal from "the one in the middle" thus being recording on both tracks and being placed just there. I did that in the 60´s with my two-channel Tandberg 74B Stereo recorder.

So when Chet recorded his albums, typically Finger Style Guitar and In Hollywood, both having been discussed back and forth on this very forum, he took the master tape with him home and re-recorded his solo track to make it even better. I own both versions of the In Hollywood album, and I´m unable to decide which is the better one. And remember, both albums were recording during one day´s work! Thus works a top professional artist.

[Vidar Lund]

Well, Norm and Richard were really quick on the trigger! True fingerstyle pickers.

[Norm]

both albums were recording during one day´s work! Thus works a top professional artist..."

You hire the best sidemen available for the session. Some of them in Nashville never left the studio. Knocking out backup tapes (which is what it amounted to since Chet usually redid his parts) was a piece of cake.

The "Dennis Faron Orchestra" used on the Hollywood album was just that... the best available for the session that day. I imagine Chet had an arranger write the parts out for the orchestra to follow.

Those guys could read and just didn't make mistakes. You make mistakes and your phone doesn't ring.

[Vidar Lund]

Quoting from the pamphlet accompanying the modern "In Hollywood" XRCD2 issue from JVC: "Estrellita, Little Old Lady, Let it be Me, Meet Mister Callahan, Armen´s Theme. Recorded on October 23, 1958 (2 pm to 5:30 pm"). And, "Theme from "Picnic", The Three Bells, The Terry Theme from "Limelight", Greensleeves, Theme from a Dream, Jitterbug Waltz". Recorded on October 23, 1958 (8:00 pm to 12 Midnight)". A good afternoon´s work.