Winter Walking

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Winter Walking

Postby keener » Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:13 pm

Here's a recording of Winter Walking that I did close to 5 years ago:



I used two tracks to record it so that I could get a "harmony" part on the second track (wish I knew how to do that on my Mac with videos instead of just audio). I don't think I've posted this here before, but if I have, please forgive the double-posting.

Chet's playing of this is one of my all-time favorite tunes, and I think it's one of the best tunes Jerry Reed ever wrote. I remember going to a Braves' game 40+ years ago (when Atlanta wanted to get rid of them, they were so bad), and they played Winter Walking over the stadium speakers. Those were the good old days when you could regularly hear Chet and Jerry on the radio and even in Braves' outings.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my recording of it. (I stumbled across it tonight as I was going through mp3's that are stored on my hard drive.)
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Re: Winter Walking

Postby Mattes1981 » Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:13 am

Hello keener,
sounds great. It has a little "vintage" tone and touch. Like you hear it through an old radio.
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Re: Winter Walking

Postby RonBloor » Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:37 am

Love it Bruce.. :D Chet and Jerry seemed to feed off each other and everything they did was pure gold.
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Re: Winter Walking

Postby keener » Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:54 am

Thanks fellas. Ron, you are sure right: Chet + Jerry = Magic
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Re: Winter Walking

Postby RandeDager » Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:04 am

Bruce, that was really nice. I went to a boarding high school back in mid 60's (where I eventually taught for 5 years) and I wasn't playing any Chet until my junior year, but I had a few of his records and managed to convince the dean to play these over the dorm's p.a. system. The most requested song by the guys was "Winter Walkin' " And this was at a time when the Beatles were taking over the charts!
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Re: Winter Walking

Postby keener » Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:25 am

Thanks Rande. In those days I was pretty much the only one in high school who was into Chet, and certainly the only one playing his style. Everyone else in school was into the Beatles, whom I loved, too, of course.
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Re: Winter Walking

Postby amdyck » Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:39 pm

Nice playing ! I have gone to extremes to finally come up with a good version of this tune. What I want to know is what guitar you used and what effects (reverb, chorus etc.) to duplicate the sound Chet got on his recording- I would be gratified to know. I'm seriously considering buying a "Chet Atkins G6120" this month or next; do you think I can achieve your sound with this instrument. Thanks, Alan
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Re: Winter Walking

Postby keener » Fri Nov 18, 2011 6:45 pm

The guitar I used is the same one used in the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbGEAnFDv5Q

It's a Gretsch CG that is 40+ years old. I can't remember the exact year that Dad got it, but it was when I was in my late teens. I know most of you guys are experts with various model numbers and so on, but I don't even know what model number it is. Never cared. Just cared about the sound (and the fact that it was Dad's).

Given that I did this about 5 years ago, I can't recall for sure which amp I used. It was either my Sunn Alpha 112r or a Music Man with two 10's that I gave to my grandson a couple of years ago. Probably the latter. I would guess that the tone settings were about 10 o'clock for bass (4 out of 10) and about 2 o'clock (7 or 8 out of 10) for treble, with a touch of reverb (probably 2 or 3 out of 10). Unfortunately a maid set all of my amp controls to zero a couple of years ago, as she thought she would please me by cleaning Everything. Arg!

By comparison, the video above probably used a bass setting of 6 or 7 and a treble setting slightly lower than that, because I read in one of Paul Yandell's FAQ's (on mister guitar) that those were the setting Chet used. On the guitar, the setting was both pickups (I always use both pickups).

Frankly I prefer slightly more treble (like used in Winter Walking) to the tone in the above video, but I have to be careful to not use too much ... at my age, my hearing is not what it was, as some frequencies are more dampened in my ears than they are in younger ears.

Hope that is some help.

Oh, BTW, I used Gretsch strings that were about 3 years old on Winter Walking (but had not been played much).
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Re: Winter Walking

Postby amdyck » Sat Nov 19, 2011 3:30 pm

Thanks for your info.

You didn't say much about what the Gretsch 6120 would do, but no problem. I tried one of these last week. It was the only one in our region "left" ( no other of its stores had any more in stock) and although it looked and felt and played "real nice", it had this damned fret buzz - annoying ! So, like everyone else, I didn't buy it. Now I have to wait and wait and "WAIT", till I find the "perfect" 6120. I guess that's life.

Alan
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Re: Winter Walking

Postby keener » Sat Nov 19, 2011 4:07 pm

Alan,

As to the playability of the CG, there were times when I played it for Many hours a day ... practically all day long. It is so easy to play that it was difficult to adjust to another guitar after playing it.

Dad had a couple of other Gretsch's before the CG: an orange Nashville model and a cherry red model that I think was called the Tenneseean (?) I thought their tone was about the same as the CG. And, in my late 20's or early 30's, I got a couple of Super Axes (a black one and an orange one) ... a friend who owned a music store got me about both for about 25% of the normal selling price (there was a special going on plus he gave them to me at his cost, and typical markup back then was about 100% ... I suppose it is less today). Though the Super Axes were made to have a more rock/jazz feel, you could still cough up the old Chet sound.

What I am saying, of course, is that you might very well be happy with other models ... I'd just park myself in a store and get with a little amp, and experiment with the settings. Note that Richard Hudson always nails Chet's tone, no matter what guitar he plays.

But, at the same time, I know how it is to set your mind on something. So, I wish you good luck. (A good luthier could probably fix the fret buzz on that 6120 ... I know you might not want to buy something and then have it fixed, but that might turn out being the way to go, depending on the availability of 6120's and your level of patience.)

Bruce
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