Chet Atkins

• Thumbpick technique is fundamental — Atkins wore a thumbpick on his right thumb for the bass strings. Without the thumbpick, the bass note attack is too soft and the technique loses its drive
• Merle Travis influence: the thumb alternates between bass strings (beats 1 and 3) while the fingers pluck melody notes on the upper strings (beats 2 and 4)
• The bass line and melody are separate parts played simultaneously — practise each hand independently before combining them
• Gretsch Filtertron pickups have a particular bright, snappy character — hollow-body guitars with Filtertron-style pickups are the closest approximation for budget players
• Clean amp at all times — Atkins' tone is pristine. Any overdrive changes the character of the attack fundamentally
• Wide chord voicings with the melody on top — chord melody playing requires positioning chord shapes so the melody note is the highest string played
• Study "Mr. Sandman," "Vincent," and "Yakety Axe" for the range of styles — these represent the breadth of Atkins' vocabulary
• Tremolo picking on fast runs: some Atkins passages use rapid picking (not tremolo effect) on single strings for a mandolin-like quality
• Minimal vibrato — unlike blues players, Atkins uses very little vibrato. Notes ring cleanly without pitch ornamentation in most contexts

Chet Atkins is the father of the Nashville sound — his thumbpick fingerpicking style, clean Gretsch archtop tone and ability to play bass lines, chords and melody simultaneously on one guitar defined country guitar for fifty years.