Tommy Emmanuel's guitar and strings: the CGP fingerstyle rig, sourced
Documented gear for Tommy Emmanuel: his Martin Flexible Core signature strings, Maton EBG808TE signature guitars, his Chet Atkins-awarded CGP title, and 2024 Grammy win. With citations.
Solo · reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
Tommy Emmanuel, the Australian CGP fingerstyle guitarist, plays Martin's Authentic Acoustic Flexible Core phosphor bronze strings (MA540FX, .012-.054), a signature set built with a softer core wire for easier string bends. His main stage guitars are two Maton EBG808TE models and a Maton TE1, both signature builds bearing his 'C.G.P.' inlay. Chet Atkins awarded him the Certified Guitar Player title in July 1999, one of a handful of guitarists ever to receive it.
Who Tommy Emmanuel is
Tommy Emmanuel AM is an Australian fingerstyle guitarist born William Thomas Emmanuel on May 31, 1955, in Muswellbrook, New South Wales. He got his first guitar at four, was working as a professional musician in his family's band by six, and has never had formal training or learned to read music. Chet Atkins's radio broadcasts hooked him as a child, and the two later became close, recording the duo album The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World in 1997, one of Atkins's last studio releases before his death in 2001.
Emmanuel spent the late 1970s as an in-demand Sydney session player and lead guitarist in the Southern Star Band backing vocalist Doug Parkinson, then toured with the reformed rock band Dragon in 1986 to 1988 and again in 1995, before committing full-time to the solo instrumental career he'd started in 1979. He and his brother Phil performed at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, in front of a reported 2.85 billion television viewers. In 2019, MusicRadar named him the best acoustic guitarist in the world, and in 2024 he won his first Grammy. He picked up American citizenship around 2019 while continuing to tour globally, and the University of Newcastle awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2025.
What he plays
The rig, sourced
- Strings
- Martin Authentic Acoustic Flexible Core MA540FX, 92/8 phosphor bronze, .012-.054. His own quote: strings that 'tune up' consistently and feel right under a fingerstyle attack.
- Guitars
- Two Maton EBG808TE signature models plus a Maton TE1, each carrying a 'C.G.P.' pearl inlay at the 12th fret. Maton has built his signature guitars for most of his career.
- Technique
- Self-taught, Travis-picking-derived fingerstyle, thumbpick and fingers combined (hybrid picking), plus a percussive body-tapping style that stands in for a full band.
- Recognition
- Certified Guitar Player (CGP) title from Chet Atkins, 1999. Grammy winner, 2024, Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella.
Why this fits his sound
Emmanuel's whole style depends on a guitar carrying more information than a single melody line: bass, rhythm, harmony, and percussion, all from one instrument and one player. That workload puts real strain on the top three plain strings, which take the brunt of his bends and percussive attack. Martin's Flexible Core construction answers that directly. A lighter core wire under a heavier wrap softens the feel and makes bending easier without a big tension drop, which matters when the same set has to survive a full solo show night after night, not just a few songs.
The guitars follow the same logic. Maton's 808 body gives Emmanuel a big enough box for the low end his thumb needs to carry a walking bass line, while the AP5 Pro pickup system is built to translate his percussive hits on the guitar's body, not just the strings, cleanly through a PA. Neither choice is about raw volume or projection in the traditional sense. It's about one guitar doing the job of several instruments at once without losing definition between parts.
The 2024 Grammy: 'Folsom Prison Blues'
Emmanuel's 2024 Grammy didn't come from a solo record. He joined the guitar trio The String Revolution, Markus Illko, Janet Robin, and Rober Luis, on a rearrangement of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," produced by Johnny and June Carter Cash's son John Carter Cash and recorded at the family's own Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The track won Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella at the 2024 ceremony.
It was Emmanuel's third Grammy nomination, and his first win. His first two nominations, a 1998 Best Country Instrumental nod for "Smokey Mountain Lullaby" recorded with Chet Atkins, and a 2006 nomination for "Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag," both lost to Alison Krauss and Union Station. Third time landed it.
Strings
Emmanuel's actual touring string is Martin's Authentic Acoustic Flexible Core, model MA540FX, the same .012-.054 gauge and 92/8 phosphor bronze alloy as Martin's standard MA540, built around a thinner core wire for easier bending. Martin's own gauge selector labels this exact variant "Light, Tommy's Choice."
MA540FX Authentic Acoustic Flexible Core (.012-.054)
Why this one: Emmanuel's own touring set. Martin's gauge selector names this exact Light variant 'Tommy's Choice,' built with a thinner Flexible Core wire for easier bending under his fingerstyle attack.
If you want the standard (non-Flexible-Core) version of the same gauge and alloy, our Martin MA540 review covers that sibling directly. See our guide to string change frequency for why a touring fingerstylist's replacement cadence looks nothing like a bedroom player's.