Gibson Super 400 in Place of Gretsch CG for Chet Atkins style / sound

[tomvwash]

I don't have any experience with a Gretsch Country Gentleman and wondering if a Super 400 can get a similar tone or vibe with some delay or reverb. I did not realize these even existed until this morning, and isn't the Filterton pickup what makes a Gretsch a Gretsch? :

Gibson Chet Atkins Country Gentleman c. 1988 with HSC Used | Reverb

[Jim Soloway]

Chet got a lot of his early inspiration from Merle Travis and both Merle and his son and sometime partner Tom Bresh played Super 400's. (And if the Super 400 has humbuckers, there are Filtertrons in HB casing available from TV Jones)

[Skip Ellis]

Seems like, when Chet moved to Gibson, he still sounded like 'Chet'. I posted recently about a message I got from Eddie Pennington who's the go-to guy on anything 'Merle' about Merle's guitars - Gibson built him a Super 400 that was only carved on the outside as he wanted to cut down on feedback. Eddie said that he has a Heritage built the same way. Not sure what happened to those guitars - I think Bresh had one when he passed away - probably with family or museum now. The new Japanese Gretsch guitars are very well made, especially the 6122-1959 which was designed with the help of Paul Yandell, Chet's right hand man for 25 years. Sometimes they're called 'Nashville Classic' and they may be using the 'Country Gentleman' name again. I've been thinking of getting one as I play that style but they're a little 'weighty' (8+ lbs) The orange 6120 is also a good possibility for this style and has open 'F' holes where the 6122 has them painted on. I used to play Chet style on a Johnny Smith and it seemed a little cumbersome - Scotty Anderson does a great job playing it on a Tele and find the video of Jackie Phelps from Hee Haw doing it on a 335. I built a Tele with a Strat tremolo so I could do it. when it comes down to it, it's probably not so much the guitar as the player - you just have to train your thumb to have a mind of it's own.

[John A.]

Chet got a lot of his early inspiration from Merle Travis and both Merle and his son and sometime partner Tom Bresh played Super 400's. (And if the Super 400 has humbuckers, there are Filtertrons in HB casing available from TV Jones)

Scotty Moore also switched to a Super 400 (from an ES-295), and he still had that twangy rockabilly thing.

[Archie]

Tom if you’re looking for a Gibson Chet Atkins, I have a really nice one for sale.

1989

near mint

£2,700

probably about $3.5k landed to you.

If not my apologies

The Gibson Country Gent imo is more like a semi hollow L5. It has a strong acoustic tone surprisingly and if I would guess, is nothing like the thinner lighter gretch models.

The Epiphone Elite models they reissued in the 2010’s, was also a great example. Lighter than the Gibson but still with a somewhat darker tone than I would expect to get from a Gretsch.

Your assumption therefore would be correct, regarding the tone.

That being said, as a feed back resistant jazz guitar with a tremolo and a wide pallet of tones, it’s almost unrivalled.
The floating bridge helps separate it from the standard 335 tone but the centre block makes it sound more
modern.
a funny thing that has no rival.

[tomvwash]

Tom if you’re looking for a Gibson Chet Atkins, I have a really nice one for sale.

1989

near mint

£2,700

probably about $3.5k landed to you.

If not my apologies

The Gibson Country Gent imo is more like a semi hollow L5. It has a strong acoustic tone surprisingly and if I would guess, is nothing like the thinner lighter gretch models.

Thank you for the insight, Archie. No apology needed. Beautiful Gibson.

The Epiphone Elite models they reissued in the 2010’s, was also a great example. Lighter than the Gibson but still with a somewhat darker tone than I would expect to get from a Gretsch.

Your assumption therefore would be correct, regarding the tone.

That being said, as a feed back resistant jazz guitar with a tremolo and a wide pallet of tones, it’s almost unrivalled.
The floating bridge helps separate it from the standard 335 tone but the centre block makes it sound more
modern.
a funny thing that has no rival.

Thank you for the insight, Archie. No apology needed. Beautiful Gibson.