Chet Atkins presented Tommy Emmanuel with the Certified Guitar Player award at the 15th Annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention in July 1999. It was a title Atkins had personally bestowed on only a handful of guitarists in his entire lifetime — Jerry Reed, John Knowles, Steve Wariner, Marcel Dadi. When Atkins died in 2001, his daughter retired the designation permanently. No more CGPs would be awarded.
Tommy Emmanuel was the last one Chet Atkins gave it to while he was alive.
The award stated: “In Recognition of His Contributions to the Art of Fingerpicking.”
Atkins also gave Emmanuel a guitar — a 1930 Martin O-17, a small mahogany-bodied acoustic from the Depression era. The guitar that the man who defined fingerpicking guitar gave to the man he considered its greatest living practitioner. Emmanuel doesn’t tour with it because it’s too fragile and too precious. He records with it. The guitar is priceless, in both the literal and figurative senses.
Atkins had described Emmanuel earlier as “without a doubt, one of the greatest guitar players on the planet.” At a parking lot before one of Emmanuel’s performances, pickers who had been jamming ceased playing and moved — trance-like, in a crowd — to a venue designed for 500 that ended up packed with 1,500. To hear a man play acoustic guitar.
He plays 300 concert dates a year. He never plays to a setlist. He completes studio recordings in one take. He cannot read music. He received his first guitar at age four. He was a working professional musician by age six.
He uses a minimum of effects onstage. What he uses is technique.
Background: Muswellbrook, Two Station Wagons, and the Radio Moment That Changed Everything
William Thomas Emmanuel was born May 31, 1955, in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia — a coal-mining town in the Hunter Valley, roughly two and a half hours north of Sydney. One of six children, he received his first guitar in 1959, at age four, and was taught by his mother to accompany her lap steel guitar playing.
The transformative moment came in 1961. At the age of six, he heard Chet Atkins playing on the radio. He vividly remembers that moment and said it greatly inspired him as a musician. What he heard — a guitarist playing bass lines, chords, melodies, and harmonies simultaneously using the thumb and fingers of the right hand — immediately became his lifelong musical compass.
His father Hugh, recognising the musical talent of both Tommy and his brother Phil, made a decision that defined Tommy’s childhood. He quit his coal-mining job and organized a family band. He sold the family home, bought two station wagons, and took them on the road throughout the Australian provinces. Known variously as the Emmanuel Quartet, the Midget Surfaries, and the Trailblazers, the family band toured Australia with the children rarely attending school. When Hugh died of a heart attack in 1966, Australian country music star Buddy Williams took the Emmanuel brothers on the road with his touring show.
While Emmanuel has never had formal music training and cannot read or transcribe music, his natural musical ability, intrinsic sense of rhythm, and charisma gained him fans from all over the world. This is the complete musical education: years of performance, beginning at age six, across every kind of audience Australia could provide. No theory classes, no notation, no structured curriculum — just the accumulated experience of playing every night for years.
His early career included session work and band performances across Australia before his music reached American listeners in 1993 with The Journey — his first collaboration on record with Chet Atkins, who played his Del Vecchio resonator on “Villa Anita.” The partnership resumed in 1997 with The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World, which proved to be Atkins’s final album. Two years later, Atkins presented Emmanuel with the CGP award.
He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in June 2010. He was inducted into the Australian Country Music Roll of Renown in 2011. MusicRadar listed him as the best acoustic guitarist in the world in 2019. He plays approximately 300 concert dates per year globally.
Tone note: He cannot read music. He completes studio recordings in one take. He never plays to a setlist. These three facts together describe the specific kind of musical intelligence that formal training can’t produce — the ability to hear, create, and execute music in real time, without preparation, from a foundation of pure accumulated experience. He’s been playing every night since he was six years old. That’s the education.
The Rig: Tommy Emmanuel’s Guitars, Amps & Gear
Guitars: From a Coal Town to the Maton Factory
Early Instruments — The Road to Maton
Emmanuel’s progression through instruments reflects the practical realities of a touring family band in rural Australia in the 1960s and 1970s — instruments were what was available and affordable, not what was ideal.
- Unnamed guitar at age four — His mother’s instrument, used to learn basic chord accompaniment for her lap steel playing; the entry point
- Maton Electric solid body (MS500) — His first significant electric guitar, in his own words: “My first good guitar was a Maton Electric solid body guitar, the MS500. I played that guitar up until I got a Telecaster.” The Maton MS500 is an Australian-made solid-body electric from the 1960s — a domestic alternative to American guitars in an era when imports were expensive
- Fender Telecaster — The electric guitar he moved to after the Maton MS500. He doesn’t describe a specific vintage example, but the transition from Australian solid-body to the Telecaster was a significant step toward the American guitar vocabulary he was absorbing from Chet Atkins’s recordings
Maton EBG808TE — The Primary Signature Acoustic
Tommy Emmanuel’s primary touring guitar for decades is the Maton EBG808TE — a signature acoustic-electric model produced in collaboration with Maton, Australia’s premier guitar manufacturer. The EBG808TE uses the 808 body shape based on some of the American builder Martin models, with its set neck made from Queensland maple.
The guitar’s specific construction and materials:
- Top: Sitka spruce — the standard choice for acoustic guitar tops; bright attack, broad dynamic range, improves with age as the wood dries and the grain settles
- Back and sides: Queensland maple — a native Australian hardwood from the tropical north of Queensland; provides excellent midrange response and a different tonal character from the mahogany or rosewood typically used in American acoustics
- Neck: Queensland maple, set construction
- Fingerboard: Streaky ebony with pearl dot inlays
- 12th fret inlay: Custom “CGP” pearl block — acknowledging the Chet Atkins certification on the instrument itself
- Rosette: Herringbone face inlay
- Nut and saddle: Bone
- Pickguard: Tortoiseshell
- Pickup: Maton AP5 Pro — an in-house developed piezo pickup providing “a natural, warm, amplified tone”; the AP5 Pro pickup was invented in-house at Maton to provide a natural, warm, amplified tone for Maton’s guitars
The CGP inlay on the 12th fret is not decorative vanity — it’s the specific acknowledgment that Chet Atkins’s designation is part of this guitar’s identity and the musical tradition it represents.
The Queensland maple’s specific acoustic character differs from American hardwoods: a brighter, slightly more forward midrange response compared to rosewood’s warmth or mahogany’s fundamental richness. This suits Emmanuel’s technique, which requires clear articulation of simultaneously played bass, chord, and melody voices — Queensland maple’s clarity allows each of these voices to be individually audible rather than blending into a warm but undifferentiated mass.
The custom bracing patterns that Maton uses on Emmanuel’s guitars are specifically designed for his playing approach: solo acoustic performance in large venues requires more projection and clarity than typical ensemble-context acoustic guitar construction. Many of his models include custom bracing patterns that allow for enhanced projection and clarity — essential qualities for someone who performs solo acoustic shows in large venues.
Tone note: The CGP inlay on the 12th fret. It’s not decoration — it’s acknowledgment. Chet Atkins certified Tommy Emmanuel as a guitar player in 1999, and the guitar Emmanuel uses to play every concert has that certification inlaid in pearl on its 12th fret. The guitar carries the credential of the tradition it represents.
Maton TE1 Tommy Emmanuel Signature
In addition to the EBG808TE, Emmanuel uses the Maton TE1 Tommy Emmanuel Signature — a related model with somewhat different appointments but the same fundamental commitment to the Maton Australian hardwood construction and the AP5 Pro pickup system. Both guitars appear in his live setup, with the TE1 providing an additional tonal option for different songs and performance contexts.
1930 Martin O-17 — The Gift from Chet Atkins
The most historically significant guitar in Emmanuel’s collection is the 1930 Martin O-17, a small-bodied American-made guitar given to him by the late Chet Atkins. The O-17 is a small-bodied (O size, smaller than the standard Orchestra Model) acoustic made entirely of mahogany — top, back, sides, and neck. Martin’s Depression-era O series were made to a simpler, more affordable specification than their larger models, resulting in a guitar with a specific intimate, warm, wood-forward character.
The provenance chain: Atkins gave Emmanuel this guitar. Atkins was himself the master of fingerpicking technique that Emmanuel had studied since age six. The guitar represents the most direct possible transmission of the tradition — from the master’s hands to the student’s, literally.
Emmanuel does not tour with this instrument, as its age and heritage make it priceless and fragile. Pre-war Martin guitars are among the most valuable in the world. He records with it. The 1930 O-17’s specific recording character — the compressed, warm, mahogany-forward tone of a pre-war small-body Martin — appears on studio recordings where the Maton’s projection and clarity aren’t the primary requirement.
1963 Gibson J-45
In a video on YouTube, Tommy Emmanuel is seen playing a 1963 Gibson J-45, showcasing his mastery of the instrument. The J-45 — Gibson’s standard slope-shouldered dreadnought acoustic, sometimes called “the workhorse” — is a distinctly different character from the Maton’s brightness: warm, slightly compressed, with the rounded top end of the mahogany back and sides. For specific repertoire or recording contexts, the J-45’s character suited different musical requirements than the Maton.
Jean Larrivée C-10 (Custom)
In the late 1990s, Jean Larrivée built a custom C-10 model guitar for Tommy. The guitar was reportedly used in the studio by Tommy over the years and he has expressed how much he admires the guitar. Larrivée is a Canadian luthier with a distinguished reputation for classical-influenced acoustic guitar construction. The C-10 custom represents another studio option with a different construction philosophy from the Maton.
Beard Deco Phonic Model 37 Resonator
In a video by Beard Guitars, Tommy Emmanuel is seen playing his new Beard Deco Phonic Model 37 roundneck resonator guitar, showcasing its sound and features. The resonator guitar — the same type (though different brand) as those used by Son House and Mississippi Fred McDowell — adds a specific metallic, loud acoustic character to his tonal range. Emmanuel’s resonator work demonstrates his connection to the slide and country blues traditions alongside the Chet Atkins fingerpicking foundation.
Maton Electric Solid Body MS500 and Fender Telecaster
His foundational electric guitars — the Australian Maton MS500 and the subsequent Fender Telecaster — are his pre-acoustic career instruments, used in his band performance years before he developed his solo acoustic career fully.
Complete Guitar List
- Maton Electric MS500 (solid body) — First significant guitar; Australian-made; “I played that guitar up until I got a Telecaster”
- Fender Telecaster — Electric guitar after the Maton MS500; specific vintage not documented
- Maton EBG808TE Tommy Emmanuel Signature — Primary touring acoustic-electric; Queensland maple back and sides; Sitka spruce top; CGP 12th-fret pearl inlay; AP5 Pro pickup; custom bracing; bone nut/saddle
- Maton TE1 Tommy Emmanuel Signature — Additional signature model; different appointments; same fundamental Maton approach
- 1930 Martin O-17 (gift from Chet Atkins) — Recording guitar; too fragile to tour; all-mahogany construction; Depression-era small-body; priceless provenance
- 1963 Gibson J-45 — Documented in performance video; slope-shouldered dreadnought
- Jean Larrivée custom C-10 — Studio use; late 1990s commission; Larrivée-specific construction philosophy
- Beard Deco Phonic Model 37 roundneck resonator — Resonator guitar work; documented in Beard Guitars video
Amps: The AER Compact TE Signature
AER Compact TE — The Signature Acoustic Amplifier
Tommy Emmanuel’s primary amplification for live performance is the AER Compact TE — his signature model acoustic amplifier produced in collaboration with German acoustic amp specialist AER. Tommy Emmanuel uses the AER Compact TE, his signature model acoustic guitar amplifier.
AER amplifiers are the professional choice for acoustic guitar amplification — their specific design philosophy prioritises faithful reproduction of the acoustic instrument’s natural character rather than adding tonal colour. For an acoustic guitarist whose entire sound is produced by the instrument and the technique, this neutrality is essential: the amplifier should make the guitar louder, not change what it sounds like.
The Compact TE’s specific character: designed to handle the wide dynamic range of Emmanuel’s playing — from the quietest fingerpicked melody to the aggressive percussive slaps on the guitar body — without compression or colouration. At 60 watts, it provides sufficient stage volume for most venues while remaining physically manageable for touring.
The AP5 Pro pickup in the Maton feeds directly into the AER, producing the amplified acoustic sound that audiences hear at live performances. The specific combination of the Maton’s in-house pickup and the AER’s transparent reproduction is the complete live signal chain.
Pedals & Signal Chain: Minimum Effects, Maximum Technique
Emmanuel’s onstage effects philosophy is explicitly minimal. As a solo performer, he never plays to a setlist and uses a minimum of effects onstage. This is not simply a preference — it is a philosophical commitment to the primacy of technique over equipment.
Boss TU-3 Tuner
The most essential pedal on any professional’s board. Tommy talks about his use of a Boss Tuner pedal at around 12:00 in this video, which the accompanying article confirms is a TU-3. The TU-3 is the chromatic tuner pedal used for confirming tuning between songs — the most practical piece of equipment in the signal chain and the one that has saved more live performances than any effect pedal ever made.
Boss SD-1 Super OverDrive — Occasional Electric Use
In a photo shared on his official Facebook page, Tommy Emmanuel is seen with the Boss SD-1 Super OverDrive pedal, highlighting his use of this overdrive effects pedal in his setup. The SD-1 suggests occasional electric guitar use — the overdrive is inappropriate for acoustic amplification, confirming that Emmanuel maintains an electric guitar capability alongside his primary acoustic work.
Signal Chain Philosophy
For solo acoustic performance: Maton EBG808TE → AER Compact TE. The signal chain has two elements. No reverb unit (the acoustic guitar’s natural room reverb, and the AER’s minimal built-in reverb if needed). No delay. No modulation. No compressor between guitar and amp. The technique produces the dynamics and expression that other guitarists achieve through effects.
The specific simplicity is the statement: a guitarist who plays 300 concerts a year in major venues worldwide carries essentially no effects. Because the technique doesn’t require them.
Strings, Picks & Setup
Strings: He relies on medium gauge Elixir Nanoweb strings which offer durability and a bright tone that complements both fingerpicking and strumming techniques beautifully. Elixir’s Nanoweb coating extends string life while maintaining tonal brightness — important for a guitarist playing 300 dates annually who needs consistent string character across extended touring periods.
Low action setup: His preference for low action — meaning how close the strings are to the fretboard — allows swift movements across different frets effortlessly. Low action facilitates the rapid position changes that his playing requires, particularly in the fast runs and cascading passages that are his technical signature. The trade-off (lower action produces less acoustic volume and potentially more fret buzz) is acceptable given the pickup-and-amp amplification he uses for live performance.
Dawg picks: In this Rig Rundown, Tommy tells us about what kind of picks he uses. He explains how he began using Dawg picks. Dawg picks are designed by mandolinist David Grisman — a relatively stiff, medium-gauge flatpick designed for crisp, clear acoustic note definition. The choice reflects his hybrid approach: while his primary technique is fingerpicking with a thumbpick, he also uses flatpicks for specific passages, and the Dawg pick’s character suits the acoustic context.
Thumbpick and hybrid approach: He commonly uses a thumbpick, a flat pick (plectrum), his fingers, or a combination of these in his playing, a style known as hybrid picking. The thumbpick drives the alternating bass pattern that is the foundation of Travis picking (the Chet Atkins-derived technique); the bare fingers handle melody and chord work simultaneously. This is the same fundamental approach as Chet Atkins, Glen Campbell, James Burton, and the Nashville fingerpicking tradition — Emmanuel executes it at a level that Atkins himself recognised as the finest among living practitioners.
Left-hand technique: Emmanuel often curls his left thumb around the neck of the guitar onto the fretboard to play some notes, rather than using only his fingers to play — contrary to how classical guitarists play, but not unusual for jazz and country guitarists. He frequently plays common three-finger chord shapes with just two fingers. The thumb-over-neck approach allows him to fret bass notes with the thumb while freeing the other fingers for chord and melody work — extending the harmonic range available without requiring position shifts.
Tone note: He plays three-finger chord shapes with two fingers. He curls his thumb over the neck to fret bass notes. He uses these unconventional fretting approaches because they give him more harmonic range from fewer hand positions. Every departure from standard technique is a solution to a specific musical problem: how to play more simultaneous voices from a single guitar with two hands.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy: Playing Three Guitars at Once
Tommy Emmanuel’s playing style is the most complete implementation of the Chet Atkins Travis-picking tradition in living practice. The fundamental technique — playing bass lines, chord rhythm, and melody simultaneously using thumb and fingers of the right hand — produces the “three guitars at once” quality that listeners perceive even when they can’t analytically describe what’s happening.
Travis Picking — The Foundation
Travis picking (named for Merle Travis, who developed it and from whom Chet Atkins learned it) involves the right-hand thumb alternating between bass strings on the beat while the fingers pick melody notes on treble strings on the off-beat. The result: a continuous alternating bass providing rhythmic foundation, with melody notes filling the rhythmic spaces between bass notes, and chord tones placed where the arrangement requires. Three independent voices, from one pair of hands.
Emmanuel absorbed this technique from Chet Atkins’s recordings beginning at age six, and has spent six decades developing it beyond what Atkins himself taught — extending the range, the speed, the complexity of what can be simultaneously played. His own words: “I was fascinated by Chet Atkins’s musical style of playing bass lines, chords, melodies, and harmonies simultaneously using the thumb and fingers of the right hand, achieving a dynamic range of sound from the instrument.”
The “dynamic range” is not a casual addition — it’s essential. Travis picking at Atkins’s level produces quiet, nuanced melodic passages alongside aggressive rhythmic statements, and the range between these extremes — fully acoustic, with no compression or limiting in the signal chain — is one of the most challenging aspects of the technique to maintain. Emmanuel’s playing preserves this dynamic range as a fundamental part of the musical expression.
The Percussive Body Slap
Emmanuel uses the body of the acoustic guitar as a percussion instrument — slapping the top, tapping the body, creating rhythmic effects that extend the guitar’s role from melodic-harmonic instrument to full rhythm section. In solo performance, this percussion provides the beat that a drummer would normally supply, allowing him to play complete musical arrangements without other musicians.
This body percussion is not incidental decoration — it’s structurally integrated into the arrangements. The slaps occur on specific beats and subdivisions that would otherwise be missing from a solo guitar performance, creating the rhythmic completeness that makes his solo shows feel like full band performances.
The Tremolo Simulation
One of his most unusual technical achievements: he often uses a technique that imitated an electric guitar’s tremolo system on acoustic guitar — by pressing the palm of his right hand against the sound board of the guitar near the neck joint, while maintaining forward pressure with his left hand on the top of the headstock. The guitar neck slightly bends away from the body and consequently affects the pitch of the strings to achieve the desired sound.
This is a tremolo effect produced through the physical manipulation of the guitar’s neck flex — bending the neck slightly relative to the body changes the string tension slightly, which changes the pitch. Done rhythmically, this produces the wavering, tremolo quality associated with electric guitar effects, achieved entirely through physical technique on an acoustic instrument with no electronics involved.
Tone note: He produces a tremolo effect on acoustic guitar by physically bending the neck. No pedal. No electronic circuit. The tremolo is the physics of string tension and neck flex, controlled by hand pressure. This is either a remarkable extension of acoustic technique into territory that electronics normally occupies, or it’s a guitarist who simply cannot stop looking for more things to do with a guitar than anyone thought possible.
The Genre Range
While Travis-picking fingerstyle is the technical foundation, Emmanuel’s genre range in performance is extraordinary. He plays authentic jazz voicings, country, blues, folk, rock, flamenco-influenced passages, and what he calls “imitation time” — segments where he accurately reproduces other guitarists’ styles in real time. His shows include mimicry of Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Hank Marvin, Django Reinhardt, and anyone else the moment demands.
The genre flexibility is not superficial: he plays each style from within its own vocabulary, with the specific techniques and nuances of each genre accurately represented. This breadth comes from his early touring years when he had to play every kind of music for every kind of Australian audience — diversity wasn’t an artistic choice but a professional requirement. The requirement produced mastery.
No Setlist, One Take
As a solo performer, he never plays to a setlist and uses a minimum of effects onstage. He usually completes studio recordings in one take. These two facts describe the same underlying musical capability: complete command of an enormous repertoire, available for instantaneous deployment without preparation. The concert is improvised in its sequencing; the studio recording is improvised in its execution. The music is always prepared — it’s been prepared for sixty years.
How to Sound Like Tommy Emmanuel: The Solo Acoustic Technique
Emmanuel’s tone is acoustically and technically the most demanding to replicate in this series — because the tone is almost entirely the technique, and the technique requires decades of dedicated practice to develop at performance level. The equipment is the simplest of any guitarist in this series. The playing is among the most complex.
The Guitar
Maton acoustic-electric for the authentic approach; any quality acoustic-electric for the practical approach. The Queensland maple’s specific character is not easily replicated by other tonewoods, but any spruce-top acoustic with good projection and clear articulation will serve the technique.
- Maton EBG808TE or TE1 — The authentic choice; Australian manufacture; AP5 Pro pickup; CGP inlay
- Any quality spruce-top acoustic-electric with undersaddle piezo pickup — The fundamental requirement for the live amplified approach
- Taylor 814ce, Martin OMCPA4, Gibson J-45 (acoustic-electric versions) — Mainstream alternatives with the clarity and projection the technique requires
The Amp
AER Compact TE or equivalent acoustic amplifier. The key requirement: transparent reproduction of the acoustic instrument’s natural character, with enough power for the venue.
| Control | Setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Input gain | Match the guitar’s piezo output (no clipping) | The AP5 Pro or equivalent piezo has specific output level; match without overdriving |
| EQ | Flat or slight bass cut | Acoustic amplifiers ideally reproduce without colouration; cut bass if the piezo sounds boomy |
| Reverb | Very light or none | Natural room reverb is appropriate; artificial reverb can mask the acoustic transients that define fingerstyle clarity |
| Volume | As high as venue requires without feedback | The AER’s design manages feedback well; use stage monitoring carefully |
Budget vs Authentic
Budget:
- Guitar: Yamaha FGX800C or similar spruce-top acoustic-electric (under $400)
- Strings: Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze medium gauge
- Amp: Fishman Loudbox Mini or AER Compact 60
- Pick: Thumbpick (National or ProPik) for Travis picking foundation
Authentic:
- Guitar: Maton EBG808TE Tommy Emmanuel Signature
- Strings: Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze medium
- Amp: AER Compact TE signature model
- Picks: Dawg picks (flatpick) + thumbpick for hybrid approach
The Essential Technique — Travis Picking
The Travis picking foundation: the right-hand thumb alternates between the low E and A strings (or D, depending on key) on beats 1-2-3-4, creating the bass line. The index and middle fingers are free to pick melody notes on the G, B, and high E strings in the rhythmic spaces between the thumb strokes.
Begin with a G major chord. Thumb picks the low E string on beat 1; index finger picks the B string on the “and” of beat 1; thumb picks the A string on beat 2; middle finger picks the high E string on the “and” of beat 2. Repeat. This is the basic Travis pattern — alternating bass with treble melody filling the off-beats. Now add a melody line to the treble strings while maintaining the alternating bass. That’s Travis picking.
At Emmanuel’s level, the bass pattern becomes automatic (removed from conscious control by decades of practice) and the melody and harmony over it are fully improvised in real time. That state of automation takes years to develop. Start with simple melodies over simple bass patterns, increase complexity gradually, and accept that this technique is measured in years of practice rather than weeks.
The body percussion: practice tapping the guitar body with the heel of the picking hand on beat 2 and beat 4 while maintaining the Travis picking pattern. This simultaneous bass-melody-percussion combination is Emmanuel’s specific extension of the Travis picking tradition. It requires independent coordination of all elements simultaneously.
Influence & Legacy: The Living Standard
Tommy Emmanuel’s influence is the influence of someone who has made a specific tradition — the Travis-picking fingerstyle acoustic guitar — more visible and more aspirational for contemporary guitarists than any other living practitioner. His 300-date annual schedule, his YouTube presence, his instructional work, and his extraordinary live performances have introduced fingerstyle acoustic guitar to audiences who would never have encountered Chet Atkins’s recordings.
The specific documented influences and relationships:
- Chet Atkins — The foundational influence; bestowed the CGP; gave Emmanuel the 1930 Martin O-17; described him as “without a doubt, one of the greatest guitar players on the planet”; collaborated on two albums including Atkins’s final recording
- Jerry Reed, John Knowles, Steve Wariner — Fellow CGPs; the community of the tradition’s highest practitioners
- Joe Bonamassa — Specifically mentioned in Albert Lee’s section; received Lee’s Telecaster at age 12 at a 1989 gig with Albert Lee in Danny Gatton’s company; also encountered Emmanuel as an influence in the fingerstyle tradition
- Contemporary fingerstyle guitarists — His YouTube instructional content and live performances have directly influenced a generation of players who grew up watching him
MusicRadar’s 2019 designation as the world’s best acoustic guitarist — voted by readers, not by a panel — confirms the scale of his reach: not just among professionals but among the broader guitar-playing public.
His annual 300 concert schedule — maintained across decades — represents a specific commitment to live performance that is unusual among contemporary musicians. He plays, and has played, more live shows annually than almost any guitarist in this series. The direct, unmediated transmission of his playing to live audiences has built a following that no amount of studio recording or social media presence could replicate.
The CGP itself — now retired, no more to be awarded — represents the tradition that defined him. Tommy Emmanuel, John Knowles, and Steve Wariner share the distinction of being Certified Guitar Players, anointed by Chet Atkins himself. The retired designation is appropriate: the tradition doesn’t need new credentialing. It needs practitioners. Emmanuel is the most visible of those practitioners, performing three hundred times a year, never to a setlist, in one take.
Tone note: Parking lot pickers stopped jamming and moved — trance-like — to hear a man play acoustic guitar. Not electric guitar through a wall of amplifiers. Not a band with a rhythm section and vocal harmonies. An acoustic guitar. One man. The power of the technique is sufficient to stop other musicians from playing and listen. That’s the measure of what sixty years of practice produces.
In July 1999 at the 15th Annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention in Nashville, Chet Atkins presented Tommy Emmanuel with the Certified Guitar Player award. The certificate said: “In Recognition of His Contributions to the Art of Fingerpicking.” Atkins had given the same designation to Jerry Reed, John Knowles, Steve Wariner, and Marcel Dadi across his career. When Atkins died in 2001, his daughter retired the title. No more CGPs would be awarded.
Atkins also gave Emmanuel a guitar — a 1930 Martin O-17, mahogany, small-bodied, Depression-era, fragile with age. Emmanuel records with it. He doesn’t tour with it.
He tours with the Maton EBG808TE — the Australian-made acoustic with the CGP pearl inlay at the 12th fret. He plays 300 concerts a year. He never plays to a setlist. He completes studio recordings in one take. He cannot read music. He produces a tremolo effect on acoustic guitar by physically bending the neck.
He heard Chet Atkins on the radio at age six in Muswellbrook, New South Wales. His father sold the family house, bought two station wagons, and took the family on the road. Tommy Emmanuel has been playing every night since he was six years old.
He still doesn’t know what he’ll play tonight. He’ll play it perfectly in one take.
If Tommy Emmanuel’s Travis-picking acoustic mastery — the simultaneous bass, chord, melody, and percussion from a single guitar — has you exploring the fingerpicking tradition he inherited and extended, check out our complete guide to Chet Atkins’ guitars and gear — the man who gave Emmanuel the CGP title and the 1930 Martin O-17, and whose fingerpicking style is the direct foundation of everything Emmanuel plays.
And for the session guitarist who connected Emmanuel to the Nashville fingerpicking tradition and who has described Emmanuel as one of the players he most admires, don’t miss our breakdown of Albert Lee’s complete gear guide — whose country fingerstyle vocabulary shares the Chet Atkins lineage with Emmanuel from the opposite side of the Atlantic.
FAQ: Tommy Emmanuel Guitars & Gear
- What guitar does Tommy Emmanuel play?
- His primary touring guitar is the Maton EBG808TE Tommy Emmanuel Signature — an Australian-made acoustic-electric with a Sitka spruce top, Queensland maple back and sides, ebony fingerboard with a custom “CGP” pearl block inlay at the 12th fret, and Maton’s in-house AP5 Pro pickup. He also plays the Maton TE1 signature model. For recording, he uses a 1930 Martin O-17 — a small-bodied all-mahogany acoustic given to him by Chet Atkins. Pre-war Martins are fragile and valuable; he does not tour with it. He has also been documented playing a 1963 Gibson J-45, a Jean Larrivée custom C-10, and a Beard Deco Phonic resonator.
- What is CGP and why does Tommy Emmanuel have it?
- CGP stands for “Certified Guitar Player” — a designation that Chet Atkins bestowed personally on a handful of guitarists he considered the finest practitioners of fingerpicking guitar: Jerry Reed, John Knowles, Steve Wariner, Marcel Dadi, Tommy Emmanuel, and (posthumously) Paul Yandell. Atkins presented Emmanuel with the award at the 15th Annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention in July 1999 “In Recognition of His Contributions to the Art of Fingerpicking.” When Atkins died in 2001, his daughter retired the title permanently — no more CGPs would be awarded. Emmanuel’s is the last CGP Atkins personally presented.
- What amplifier does Tommy Emmanuel use?
- The AER Compact TE — his signature model acoustic amplifier produced by German specialist AER. Acoustic amplifiers like the AER are designed for transparent reproduction of the instrument’s natural character rather than adding tonal colour, which suits Emmanuel’s philosophy of minimal processing between guitar and audience. The AP5 Pro pickup in his Maton guitars feeds directly into the AER for his live signal chain.
- What picks does Tommy Emmanuel use?
- Dawg picks (designed by mandolinist David Grisman) for flatpick work, plus a thumbpick for the Travis-picking foundation. He uses a combination of thumbpick, flatpick, and bare fingers depending on the musical context — a hybrid picking approach consistent with the Chet Atkins tradition. The Dawg pick’s stiff, clear acoustic character suits the precise note articulation that fingerstyle requires.
- What is Tommy Emmanuel’s guitar technique?
- Travis picking (also called fingerstyle or Chet Atkins style) is the foundation — the right-hand thumb alternates between bass strings while the fingers pick melody and chord tones simultaneously, producing the simultaneous bass, rhythm, and melody that sounds like multiple guitarists. Emmanuel extends this with body percussion (slapping the guitar body for rhythmic effects), a tremolo simulation technique (physically bending the guitar neck to change string pitch), his left thumb curled over the neck to fret bass notes, and three-finger chord shapes executed with two fingers. He never plays to a setlist, completes studio recordings in one take, and cannot read music.
- What is the 1930 Martin O-17 that Chet Atkins gave Tommy Emmanuel?
- A small-bodied acoustic guitar from 1930, made entirely of mahogany (top, back, sides, neck) — Martin’s Depression-era O series guitar produced for an economically constrained market. Chet Atkins gave it to Emmanuel, likely during their late-1990s collaborations on Atkins’s final album. Emmanuel records with it but does not tour with it due to its age and fragility. Pre-war Martin guitars are among the most valuable vintage acoustic instruments; the provenance — from the master of fingerpicking to his designated successor — adds further significance beyond its monetary value.
- How do I get Tommy Emmanuel’s guitar tone?
- A quality spruce-top acoustic-electric guitar (Maton EBG808TE for authenticity) with undersaddle piezo pickup, through a transparent acoustic amplifier (AER Compact TE or similar) at performance volume. Medium gauge Elixir Nanoweb strings. Thumbpick for bass strings, bare fingers for melody. Very light or no additional effects. The tone is primarily the technique — specifically Travis picking (alternating bass thumb with melody fingers simultaneously), developed to the level where all voices are independently controlled. This requires years of dedicated practice. Start with simple three-note exercises: bass note on beat 1, treble note on the “and” of beat 1, bass note on beat 2, treble note on the “and” of beat 2. Add melody when the bass-treble independence is automatic.
