Originally Posted by Neapolitan

Royal Tenenbaum,

I don't know if you've noticed but Xan did a few mods with his Chet Atkins Tennessean guitar, it's mod with Radio Shack-type vol/tone knobs replacing the stock Gibson speed knobs and a B7 Bigsby Vibrato replacing a stop-tailpiece. What I thought interesting that Gibson do was not only taking the Gretsch model's name "Tennessean" but also have the fret inlays close to the edge like the half-moon inlays that Gretsch used on the Gretsch 6119 Tennessean. Chet Atkins (the person, not the guitar) complained that Gretsch (the people at the company) would ask for his input and he suggest that the block should run the length of the guitar from the neck joint to the end of the guitar, but they never complied with him. Finally with Gibson Chet got what he wanted. Gibson equipped the Tennessean with a 490T and 492R humbuckers specially made. Originally the Gretsch 6119 Tennessean had HiLo 'Trons for pick-ups, they were basically single coil p-ups I think Chet preferred them to the DeArmonds p-ups, he often complain the magnet pull DA pups was too strong on the strings and that would kill sustain, to fix that problem he had to halve the magnets in half, I don't know if he used a saw them in half or a hammer whack them in half.

I can't recall too many pictures with Chet Atkins (the person) holding a Gretsch 6119 Tennessean. I think George Harrison is more recognizable for playing the Gretsch 6119 Tennessean. He used it in "Help!" and brought it out again when he recording Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Clubs Band album.


George Harrison pictured with his Gretsch 6119 Tennessean.