Gibson Chet Atkins Celebrity SST Black, 1991 / *No Longer Available*

The Gibson Chet Atkins Celebrity SST was built from 1991 to 1993 as a version of the CEC – the Chet Atkins Cutaway Electric Classical solidbody nylon string guitar.

Chet Atkins had largely shifted to playing nylon string or classical guitars for their expressive capabilities, and brought Gibson the idea for a model that could function at full stage volumes. The result was a somewhat like the Les Paul concept – a chambered Mahogany body with a solid Spruce or Cedar cap, a faux soundhole, and a six-element piezo bridge pickup with a preamp, and controls mounted on the upper bass side near the neck. The neck itself was Mahogany with an Ebony fingerboard, or Rosewood on the CE model. It does do what Chet intended – it can be played at high volumes with no feedback.

This had some commercial success, and was produced from 1981 to 1995, prompting Gibson to create a steel string version – the SST. SST may stand for “Solid Spruce Top”. The key differences are the standard steel-string pin bridge, solid peghead, and an under-saddle, single element pickup. A simple preamp based on an LF353 op-amp was installed, powered by a single standard 9v battery.

From 1991 to 1993, a limited series of 200 Gibson Chet Atkins Celebrity SST models were built. As seen here, these featured a gloss black finish, 5-pointed Mother of Pearl star inlays for position markers with two more on the bridge wings and one on the headstock. The fingerboard is Ebony, while the neck and body are Mahogany with the Solid Spruce cap. The top also carries a distinctive pickguard that to me looks rather Country-Western!

This Gibson Chet Atkins Celebrity SST dates to October 22 of 1991 and was built in Nashville. It’s in overall good condition with natural lacquer checking; it plays well, and has a decent representation of a steel string acoustic guitar, but with no feedback regardless of stage volumes.

The original brown Gibson hard shell case is included. The case is in good shape though the combination latch is broken.

Gibson discontinued all these models by 2006. By that time, the Godin guitar company had modified the design for its Multiac series, with a bolt-on neck, chambered body, and a mixture of pickup types and circuitry including hex pickups with 13-pin connectors allowing the guitar to drive a polyphonic synthesizer.