TECH TALK

TECH TALK

CHET ATKINS: FINGER PICKIN� GOOD! t>Y Billy Cioffi

Some of you more urban folks are probably thinking, �What in the hell is this guy doing in CREEM?� Well, speaking as a guitar player, if a publicist calls you up one day and asks you if you�d like to interview Chet Atkins you don�t ask questions. You just ask what time.

Modern American Popular music is indelibly connected to Chet Atkins. Fifty years ago the Country Gentleman began his career as a radio station guitarist. He continues to the present day as perhaps the most respected guitarist living today. Everybody likes Chet Atkins. One doesn�t play or love guitar and not revere his music.

�I don�t think much about it,� he insists. �Back when I was producing a lot of hits I was just trying to keep my job by making a hit and selling some records. I�ll be remembered a while after I�m gone. People will play my records a few days and say �yeah he did this� and then they forget about you and that�s the way it is. So I don�t really think about any legacy or anything like that.�

The Atkins style is unique. Steve Sholes (credited as the man who discovered Chet in the forties) described him like this: �Chet plays finger-style guitar. He doesn�t pick, he just touches the strings, pushes down on them and lets the fingers up—except for his thumb, and that�s generally for the bass strings.�

�Yes, I started a lot of stuff out of ignorance,� he admits. �I don�t deserve a lot of credit for that either. When.you�re from back in the sticks and don�t know any better you come up with different things because you don�t know any better and you�re not influenced by the outside world.�

Is that like the old saying �I don�t read enough music to hurt my playing?�

�Well, I read music. My dad was a music teacher but I wasn�t influenced by what other people were doing and when I did hear it I didn�t like what they were doing. So I just kind of did my own thing and it turned out that way. I suppose that�s what gives you status in the world; if you come up with something that�s simple and different. That�s the secret and I guess I did. I didn�t know any better at the time. I just like to play guitar with my fingers better than with a straight pick. I loved the sound of it. At the time 99 percent of the people played with a pick. I played more of a tenor banjo style.�

�I�ve always been interested in all kinds of music. I had a lot of different influences as a kid from classical, gospel and country, so I had a lot to draw from when I made records. I could inject a lot of these ideas into the production of the record. Also, I had a lot of good friends that were musicians. Most of the great records we did were head arrangements, spontaneous things. We�d all gather around the piano and contribute

ideas. So I had a good rapport with the musicians and they wanted to help me out. That�s the way you make hit records is to get everyone in there to pitch in and help.�

A classic example of pitching in was Atkins�s work on the Everly Brothers first string of hits. Atkins is thought to have been the producer.

�I just played on them. Archie Bleyer, a great producer, was the producer. Not much is written about him anymore. He started Cadence Records. He produced more number one hit records than anyone I�ve known.�

Atkins tells a great story that shows to illustrate his �big ears�—a record term from the early days that describes someone who knows the hit sound.

�Well, Don Everly and I.. .right before they got their deal, they had been digging Bo Diddley a lot. You know Bo, he just used to play two chords. I love him and I love his records. I put that on another hit record called �Gotta Travel On� and it sort of got Monument Records in business. When they got their deal, Don said, �Will you play with us and help us and help me play that Bo Diddley stuff?� I said yeah, so we used it on �Bye Bye Love� and they used that change—l-flat vii-VII—and the Beatles picked up on it. That became one of the most important changes in rock music— Don started that. The late Boudleaux Bryant used it a lot, too. He and his wife Felice wrote a lot of the Everlys� hits, as well.�

After nearly a quarter of a century at RCA Recoras, where he had risen to head of the Nashville headquarters and had been staff producer, as well as a recording artist in his own right, Atkins decided that it was time to go back to the business of playing guitar full-time. He signed with CBS and released a series of albums that featured the master player trading licks with some of the pop world�s finest guitarists. Among the players who lent their talents were Dire Straits� Mark Knopfler, Steve Lukather and George Benson. An who were called came to trade licks with their guitar guru. Late last year many of the same players along with the Everly Brothers came together in Nashville for a Cinemax-HBO cable T.V. tribute to Atkins.

What does Chet think of all this new excitement about his playing? I hesitate to use the word �rediscovery� because, frankly, I don�t think he has ever been out of popularity.

"I�m just trying to reach a younger audience because they buy my records. So my past two records (Street Dreams and Stay Tuned) as well as the in-progress new one have become more contemporary in terms

of rhythm content. It was terrific to work with Mark Knopfler and Larry Carlton.�

Does that mean we will see the man for whom the Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar was designed for plucking on a synthguitar soon?

�I've picked one up a couple of times but I�d rather have a keyboard do the parts. I�m a little bit of a purist—I think guitar should sound like a guitar pretty much. Years ago they had an instrument that could make a guitar sound like a Hammond organ. I figure if you�re gonna do that, play the keyboard. I realize that you can take the fundamental sound of the instrument and enhance it. I go with the flow and use the current techniques and the equipment available. I�m still trying to learn how to play the guitar!�

Epilogue: When Chet Atkins answered the door to his room at the Hollywood Roosevelt and invited me in, I couldn�t help but notice the straight backed chair in the middle of the suite and the acoustic guitar laying in an open case on his already made bed. It was just nine o�clock in the morning and the 62-year-old Chet Atkins was practicing. I guess that says it all.

NEW GEAR

Yamaha RBX 200 and RBX 200f The new RBX 200 and the RBX 200f electric basses offer Yamaha quality at low prices. The RBX 200 is a 33-7/8 inch scale instrument. It features a low mass bridge for a warm, detailed sound and a split singlecoil pick-up for depth and power. The maple neck, with a 22-fret rosewood fingerboard, enhances the RBX 20�s crisp sound. The light, balanced body is contoured to provide easy access to the upper register. The RBX 200f is a fretless version of the RBX200. The active controls on each bass include a master volume and a front rear pick-up balancer. There are also two bands of equalization with 12 db of boost or cut at 35 Hz and 15 dB of boost or cut at 3.kHZ. Contact: Yamaha Music Corporation P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600.

Seymour Duncan Underground Series Seymour Duncan introduces the newest Underground Series pick-up—the FullShred Humbucker. The pick-up is already used by many top axemen like Whitesnake�s Vivian Campbell and Adrian Vandenberg. The tone is fat and chunky. The pick-up has full tone range and is extremely responsive in the rhythm mode. Alinci V magnets give Full Shred pick-ups medium output with rich harmonics. Two rows of adjustable Allen screw pole pieces allow you to fine tune overall brightness and help the highs cut through in full band situations.

The neck and bridge models are specially calibrated for their positions. Both have four conductor cable for wiring to split coils electrically; in phase or out of phase, series or parallel, with or without humbucking ef-

feet. Like all Seymour Duncan pick-ups, these are wax potted to eliminate microphonic feedback. Write to: Seymour Duncan, 601 Pine Ave., Santa Barbara, CA 93117.

Carvin Ultra V Guitar The Carvin Ultra V is made of eastern hardrock maple and has neck-through-body construction which aids in sustains, and makes playing easier further up the neck, since the awkward �heel� is eliminated. The fingerboard is made of fine ebony with silver frets for better intonation and smoother neck travel. The pick-ups are made by Carvin with Alinco V magnets, one M22 neck position and one M22SD by the bridge. Standard electronics include a three position pick-up selector, one volume and tone. Standard colors are black, white, red and clear maple.

The Ultra V carries many possible options including Khaler Pro tremolo Floyd Rose plus custom electronics and others. Carvin guitars are sold direct by mail order. Write: Carvin Corporation, 1155 Industrial Ave., Escondido, CA 92025.

DigiTech DSP-128

The DSP-128 is a MIDI controllable, multieffect digital processor offering reverberation effects, chorusing, flanging, delays. Most importantly the DSP can utilize up to three of these effects at the same time—an excellent feature for the musician trying to stretch his dollars.

The DSP-128 comes with 17 main effect algorithms that define the effects and the possible effect combinations. Operating parameters of these main algorithms may be changed by the user and stored in any one of the 128 memory positions.

The DSP-128 represents a new generation of digital signal processors offering complete programmability, considerable computing power for smooth sounding effects, and MIDI compatibility for exceptional control. For more info, contact: DigiTech, 5639 South Riley Lane, Salt Lake City, Utah 84107, (801) 262-4966.

Oberheim The Matrix-1000

Oberheim announces the newest addition to their popular Matrix Series—the Matrix1000, a six-voice synthesizer with 1000 sounds onboard. There are 800 preprogrammed sounds in ROM and 200 additional sounds in RAM (user loadable), that are programmable via MIDI fom any Matrix 6 or 6R or any Matrix 6 compatible librarian or editor.

The Matrix-1000 features �Group Mode� which allows a musician hook-up to six matrix-1000s together for a true 36-voice instrument.

This is an extremely user-friendly mode. Simply select a patch from the 195 keyboard sounds, 118 string sounds, 130 woodwind and brass sounds, 239 synthesizer sounds, 119 bass sounds, 74 lead sounds or 125 effects and percussion sounds. This one rack will add a lot of depth to a MIDI systemwithout taking up a lot of space. Contact: Oberheim-ECC, 2015 Davie Ave., City of Commerce, CA 90040-1704.