Tommy Emmanuel guitar
 

Clearly a fantastic player and a very heavy strummer...but as most of us talk about body styles and sizes, it seems that a player like this should be using a guitar much for "able" to handle that type of playing style.

It's looks to me that his guitar (though I'm sure he has many) is not a jumbo or dread but is much small than that.

Does anyone know what he's normally playing?

If he's playing something smaller in size, he sure is getting great sound out of it...whether picking or strumming.

Tommy emmanuel plays a maton ebg808.

He nicknames it "mouse" for it's quiet sound in nature.

it's his amplified set up that makes his guitar sound so good.........

I know someone who has played the guitar, and even they admit it's not really that great unplugged.

but plugged in, tommy does some amazing things.

I've actually tried one of these models before, given the asking price I thought it was utter rubbish, this led me to think perhaps the company was just firing out sig guitars for the masses cashing in on the name associated, but this is no the first time I've seen comments saying the actual model he uses is pretty grim sounding too.

I think if I could play like Mr E. I'd have the absolute best guitar I could find myself, but, it's been a long time he's stuck with that guitar now.

I played one for the first time this summer and was truly unimpressed. But he is very loyal to the company, which is Austrailian. Points for that. I didn't play it plugged in.

I was in Nashville a few days ago. While there, I needed to get some repair work done on a guitar. I asked my engineer who to take it to and he took me to Glaser Repair. I had no idea if it was a good shop, just trusted him. Standing at the counter, waiting on someone to help me, who walks in from the repair room five feet away, with two guitars in hand? Tommy! I guess that verified the choice of the shop. I shook his hand for some DNA. Should've got a picture. He was very congenial in our 30-second chat. I didn't want to bug him much.

Tommy Emmanuel's Guitar - the Maton 808 EBG blends well with his AER acoustic amp. I have one but don't really like it unplugged. You would appreciate the sound if it is plugged to the AER amp.

This Maton EBG808 is easy to play even at higher frets and some people like it because it's low action produces the "boom-chick" sound very well.

The top is solid Sitka Spruce AAA grade and back and sides are solid Australian Blackwood I believe.

Good for fingerpicking styles.

I read in an interview that Tommy couldn't care less what his guitar sounds like acoustically, it's all about the tone he can get plugged in. He's all about filling large concert halls with sound, and it seems his guitars enable him to do that very well.

I've played a few Matons acoustically, and they sounded poor, particularly for the price. I'm not interested in playing amplified, so these guitars are definitely not for me.

I wonder if the Matons are braced more heavily, to help with feedback when amplified, or something like that? It would certainly explain why reviews of the acoustic tone aren't great, but everyone says they sound great plugged in.

It's my understanding the back and sides are Queensland Maple, a wood indigenous to Australia.

As others have noted Tommy mainly uses his Maton guitar(s), live at least. In the studio and sometimes live he uses other guitars like his Larrivee, Travis, Kalamazoo and custom David Taylor (DT Guitars) OM etc. David has some pictures on his facebook page of when Tommy picked up the guitar. I've had a chance to personally play that guitar and was with David the night Tommy picked it up, it's a fantastic guitar. As a proud DT owner I can't say enough good things about Davids work. Tommy used it almost exclusively on his upcoming Christmas album. David Taylor, www.dtguitars.com (It's a little out of date but check out his facebook page)

Kindly,
Danny

i quickly strummed it at his workshop in new jersey about a
year ago and it was nothing special. but he did explain his
set-up during the workshop and it kind of showed why it
sounded so good. he is only concerned with live sound for
performance and it works.:)

I have heard Tommy say that the biggest reason he uses that "Mouse" Maton is because of the pickup system. I am rarely pleased with what a piezo pickup sounds like on a steel string guitar, but the system in Tommy's "Mouse" Maton sounds surprisingly good. He demonstrated this to us in detail at a workshop I attended. And Tommy likes fairly high stage sound levels and that system with the soundhole plug does not feed back.

However, he has used the "Mouse" on a lot of his recordings without the use of the pickup, so that suggests that Tommy's skill can pull some darn good sounds out of that guitar. As Danny notes, though, I can see where Tommy would be interested in finding some guitars that sound better acoustically, and the David Taylor guitars may well fill that niche. Tommy also commented to me, personally, that he felt that Collings was making the best guitars today, but that comment was made about 4 years ago, I would imagine well before he would have discovered the DT Guitars.

I was fascinated to read Bill's comment, post #7. What a great encounter.

Regards, Glenn

I got a chance to play his Maton during a workshop down here in Orlando. It was a quiet guitar. The main thing I remember was the action was set sooooo low that it was buzz city. He must have a light touch. I know it would take me some time to get used to it.

This guitar is made to play on stage and through an amp. It obviousy sounds great in that set up.