A: Tony Levin comes to mind right away, for his musicality, inventiveness, pocket, and creative voice and approach to his instrument. I think he’s my favorite bass player of all time. I’m going to go with “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel—how funky and sick is this bass line? I cannot help but dance every time it comes on! Can you hear Tony’s joy in the records he’s made? I think I can.
Obsession: Lately I’ve been obsessed with ’90s trance music, especially “For an Angel” by Paul van Dyk. If anyone has recs for me from this era, please send them to my email address.
Erick Bertin, Reader
A: As a singer-songwriter who plays bass and guitar to write songs, I’ll go with Thin Lizzy’s “Waiting for an Alibi” as my favorite bass line!
Obsession: As far as obsessions go, I’ve been trying forever to get my hands on a flame top/sunburst Explorer guitar and an Epiphone Nighthawk!
Jon Levy, Publisher
A: There are so many amazing bass lines—I can’t name just one because I change my mind every 15 seconds. Here are two faves: One defines the song, and one defines the player. Roger Waters’ instantly identifiable line on “Money” is the backbone for the Pink Floyd masterpiece. Paul McCartney’s “Penny Lane” exemplifies his genius with the Beatles and as a solo artist: bouncy-yet-moody, effortlessly navigating multiple key changes, and perfectly supporting the main melody.
Obsession: The Wrecking Crew. I recently watched Denny Tedesco’s documentary on the famed Los Angeles session players and was reminded of their collective, gobsmacking brilliance. I have been in a miles-deep rabbit hole ever since.
Luke Ottenhof, Associate Editor
A: Few basslines excite me as immediately as Adam Yauch’s opener in “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys. That perfectly gnarly tone, the slide up to the first tone, the syncopated strumming, the tension of the interval between the two notes; bass riffs like this have a unique power that 6-string electric parts can’t touch. That bass part will always compel me to hurl bricks or get into some other sort of mischief.
Obsession: The Toronto Blue Jays’ implosion from World Series competitors to last place in the abjectly awful AL East. I really think this team ought to be studied as an example of the damage visited upon a collective of human brains by being thatclose to winning it all and watching it slip away. At least there’s Kazuma Okamoto!
“The mere fact that you’re enveloped in the middle of an onslaught of decibels, in front of big stacks of amplifiers … it’s a whole different ball game altogether.”
Fingerstyle players, this one's for you. The Cort Modern Black's neck was built around the 1 3/4" nut width considered the gold standard for spacing and tension, with a reinforced walnut neck and asymmetric profile for hours of comfortable playing. One lucky winner takes it home.
Certain individuals’ inclinations to tinker led to many of the guitar designs that are still boutique-built and factory-manufactured today. One of those folks was country guitarist Chet Atkins, whose working relationship with Gretsch (and later Gibson) resulted in some wonderfully innovative guitars, many of which continue to be built.
While the Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins—debuted in 1954—was his first signature model and remains the most well-known, Chet’s influence on guitars extends much further. He pondered, he collaborated, and oftentimes, he just plain got to work. Chet’s workbench has been on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame. When a floating DeArmond pickup on an L-10 wasn’t enough, he added two P-90 pickups and controls to a 1947 Gibson L-7 archtop, and later heavily modified and electrified his Excel built by archtop artisan John D’Angelico. Les Paul was a dear friend, with whom he performed and recorded (if you haven’t heard the 1976 album Chester & Lester, now’s the time). During his Gretsch-endorsed years, he was at least partially responsible for offerings like the short-lived 6121 (a Round-Up/Duo-Jet-ish solidbody version of the 6120), and hit his signature-model stride with his designs for the thinner-bodied 6122 Country Gentleman and 6119 Tennessean. These latter two replaced the cows, cactus, humptops, and branded trimmings with subtler specs like neo-classical thumbnail inlays, inlaid f-holes, and a metal model-name/serial-number plate on the peghead. Chet was partial to a metal nut, loved Bigsbys, and replaced the tone control on his favorite 1959 Country Gentleman with a built-in phase shifter.
He continued his relationship with Gretsch until 1980, 13 years after the brand was sold to the Baldwin Piano Company. Aesthetically, the 1972 Gretsch 7680 Deluxe Chet featured in these photos is clearly the evolution of models like the 6120 and 6122 Country Gentleman. The body is 17" wide and 2.5" deep, with a single rounded cutaway, two bound f-holes, and Autumn Red finish. The 3-piece maple neck, with bound ebony fingerboard, has neo-classical thumbnail inlays, zero fret, and a triangular truss-rod cover on the back of the body for truss-rod adjustment at the neck heel (a Baldwin-era “innovation”). The two black-top Filter’Tron humbuckers have two volume controls, two tone controls, master volume control, and a 3-way pickup selector switch. Accounting for the Rocker Bar bridge and Gretsch-branded Bigsby tailpiece, one might assume that Chet transitioned to working with Gibson not only because they had moved to Nashville, but also because, like a lot of 1970s guitars, the ones Gretsch was making had quirks to them that may not have suited a gentleman like Chet.
We acquired this Deluxe Chet from our friend George Bradfute, a stalwart Nashville producer/multi-instrumentalist/luthier extraordinaire and one of the few people we know who collects and uses Baldwin-era, Atkins-designed, later-’70s Gretsch Super Axes. As an added bonus, the ones in his collection have electronics that actually still work! Chet tinkered and innovated, but the 9V battery in the Super Axe may have drawn the figurative line in the Gretsch sand.
Chet Atkins called Nashville home and spent as much time working on Music Row as he did on the road. While you may have heard of CMA Fest, during Chet’s era it was known as Fan Fair—a days long event that was indeed fan-focused and an annual opportunity to collect as many autographs as your country-music-loving heart desired. There are few glimmers of the 20th century Nashville I remember, but one longstanding annual event remains: the CAAS (Chet Atkins Appreciation Society) Convention every July at the Sheraton Music City Hotel and Convention Center.
The Chet Society boasts “over 1,000 worldwide members” on their website, and their 2026 four-day convention schedule included up to 12 hours of live music per day on two stages, as well as workshops like “Basic and Intermediate Thumbpicking” and “B-Bender Techniques.” Day three’s evening schedule included John Knowles and Tommy Emmanuel, both of whom were Chet’s friends and collaborators. The convention can feel like a mini NAMM show, featuring booths with vendors like Gretsch and, up until his recent passing, Kirk Sand, the builder who collaborated with Chet on thin-bodied nylon-string guitars. We mean this in the kindest possible way when we say the whole thing feels kinda culty. Over the years, many guitar players have experienced the overwhelming desire to learn Chet’s picking techniques, or at least take a stab at Merle Travis’ “Cannonball Run.” When we worked at a Nashville guitar shop on Broadway in the early 2000s, our colleague coined the term “peach-cutting” to privately announce that CAAS attendees were filling the store with Chet pickin’, since the festival coincided with the ripening of the South’s most delicious fruit.
These days, a large historic home on Music Row briefly owned by Chet has been dubbed “the Chester” on Airbnb; it sleeps 12 at a cost of about $3,500 for the four nights of the CAAS Convention next year. If you get a wild hair to see both the new and old Nashville, I highly recommend stepping back in time at the Chet convention. You can fly solo with your Chet Atkins model of choice, or bring 11 friends—each with an electric archtop—and stay on Music Row at the Chester!
Epiphone is proud to announce the launch of the limited-edition Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior in Radiant Red, developed in partnership with Green Day frontman, songwriter, and punk rock trailblazer Billie Joe Armstrong. Designed around the no-nonsense philosophy that has fueled Armstrong’s career for decades, the new model captures the raw energy, unmistakable tone, and rebellious spirit that have made both the artist and the Les Paul Junior legendary. The Epiphone Billie Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior Limited Edition is available worldwide in Radiant Red at authorized Epiphone dealers, Gibson Garage locations in Nashville and London, and online at www.epiphone.com.
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