Friday, February 26, 2010

1982 Gibson Chet Atkins CE, part 1

"She's got a body to die for, but..."

This is my '82 Gibson Chet Atkins CE, Custom Shop Edition:


In 1981 the legendary Chet Atkins came to Gibson with a prototype for a solid-body nylon-string acoustic electric guitar, something he could play on stage at high volume without feedback and still get a nice acoustic tone. The resulting CE (classical electric) model was produced by Gibson for over 20 years and widely adopted by such notable players as Willie Nelson and Earl Klugh. It's become quite collectible since Chet's death in 2001.

I acquired this guitar about 20 years ago from my good friend and fingerstyle virtuoso Danny Heines, www.dannyheines.com. At the time it seemed to be a natural choice for my jazzy-bluesy fingerstyle repertoire in an amplified band setting. And with such stellar endorsements as Earl Klugh and Chet himself, this should be one fabulous guitar... right?

Well... not exactly! Although it looked and played great, I never could really warm up to the dull quacky plastic tone of the pickup (which is pretty much all you hear when amplified) and no amount of EQ could rescue it, at least to my ears - plus it was impossible to get the volume properly balanced from string-to-string. As a result, this guitar has mostly languished in its case - only occasionally taking it out, playing a little, and promising to someday figure out how to make it sound as good as it looked and played.

As the first project in my Ten Guitars odyssey, I decided to finally make good on that promise.


Most serious fingerpickers (myself included) would credit Chet Atkins as the biggest single influence in the art of contemporary fingerstyle guitar. I've learned a lot from Chet over the years while attempting to steal a few of his licks and techniques, I figure the least I could do in return would be to put some serious T.L.C. into one of his namesake signature guitars.

"Years from now, after I'm gone, someone will listen to what I've done and know I was here. They may not know or care who I was, but they'll hear my guitars speaking for me."
– Chet Atkins, CGP

6 comments:

  1. bobforfar@uwclub.netFebruary 17, 2011 at 8:26 AM

    Hi , i also have a 1982 chet ce. The original pick up was connected with a flat 7 conductor ribbon that was soldered to the circuit board (no 9211) pins (poking up through the ribbon). it did not last long because of the flexing when adjusting the bakerlite strip under the saddle for string height. i replaced this with a 1989 type gibson circuit board and piezo pick up, so they must have had problems with it. you did not say if the mod was any good, i would be interested to know. regards bob forfar.

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  2. Does your serial number begin with a "K"?

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  3. I was a Gibson dealer back then and was told (by my sales rep) that the first 100 were built in Kalamazoo and had "K" serial numbers. They also shipped with a hand signed letter from Chet himself. Does yours have the letter?

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  4. Was yours shipped with the hand-signed letter from Chet himself?

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  5. I have a chet ce serial A 050.
    Where could I find out the year etc.
    Any help greatly valued.
    garychudyk@gmail.com

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