A really neat guitar at Guitar Center

[Ray Bohlken]

I was surfing and found a really neat looking guitar at the Guitar Center used item web site. It was a Gibson Tennessean with a Bigsby installed and what looks like a Supertron pickup in the neck position and a regular Filtertron in the Bridge position. I would really like to play this one just to hear what it sounds like. It costs $1299, so I'll never know, but it would be cool to play.
Here is a link to the Guitar Center used item web site. Just enter Chet Atkins as the key word to search on and it will be one of the guitars to come up.
http://used.guitarcenter.com/usedgear/index.cfm

Ray

[Steve Moran]

Ray,
The Tennessean is a nice guitar. One thing I'd suggest watching out for is that it has 22 frets instead of the Country Gentleman's 21. What this does is move the edge of the fingerboard closer to the bridge which also moves the neck pickup closer to the bridge. Therefore if you're a thumbpicker and do a lot of anchoring with your palm (muting) at the bridge your thumbpick may wind up hitting the edge of the neck pickup - that's why I sold mine anyway. Guess my hand is above average size so perhaps an average size hand isn't affected with this. Anyway some thoughts to consider. Good luck!
Steve

[Ray Bohlken]

Steve, Thanks for the info. I wasn't intending to get that guitar. It was just a neat looking one and I wished I could hear how it, sounded. I have a stock Gibson Tennessean that I really like. My hands are probably much smaller than yours, so the neck is just perfect for me. In addition I like the smaller body, too. It is slender and the 16 inch body works great for me. If I was rolling in money, I'd probably spring for this one. As it is, the condo too small for one more guitar!
Take care,
Ray

[Steve Moran]

Ray,
Thanks for the reply. I still get sentimental thinking about that guitar - it was the first Chet guitar I ever got after dreaming about one for a decade or so!
Steve

[Norm]

If you look, you'll see that Chet (and a lot of hardcore thumbpick users) tend to wear their thumbpick kinda far back toward the joint of their thumb. I've wondered if that was to avoid pick-click although a lot of top Dobro players do the same thing.

Paul Yandell said putting Gretsch pickups on Gibson guitars don't necessarily make the Gibson sound like a Gretsch. The body styles are just too different what with the center block on the gibsons

[Ray Bohlken]

Norm, I hadn't noticed the way some folks had the thumb pick farther up the thumb. I've watched all these years and never "picked" up on that. (Sorry about the pun). I'll have to try it. I never was able to get my thumb volume equal to the finger volume - the fingers were always drowned out - even with muting the strings. Maybe moving it some will help. These days I play with a bare thumb and the volume matches.
I agree that Gretsch pickups won't make a Gibson sound like a Gretsch. I mostly wondered what the Tennessean in the link would sound like. Paul had that special Gibson Country Gent that was hollow (I think) and he had some non Gibson pickups on it - were they Ray Butts pickups? Anyway, even Paul didn't get a true Gretsch sound when he played that guitar...it was a marvelous sound, though. It still sounds like a Gibson somewhat to me. I sure enjoyed this song and the whole DVD.
Take care,
Ray
Link to Paul playing his custom Gibson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksgDnl8rN_s