Tommy has said that even at a young age he was fascinated by Atkins musical style sometimes referred to as Travis picking of playing bass with the thumb and melody parts with the first two or three fingers at the same time. This technique became the basis of Tommy's guitar style.While Tommy has never had formal music training, his playing ability has won him fans from all over the world.While Tommy has never had formal music training his playing ability has won him fans from all over the world. He is known to play percussion parts on the body of his guitar. As a solo performer he never plays to a set list and uses a minimum of effects. He usually completes recordings in one take.He frequently uses his left thumb to fret bass notes on the 5th and 6th strings as well as playing chords such as Am and E with just two fingers. He uses a thumb pick mostly a flat pick or just fingers.His main guitar is a smallbodied custom Maton EBG808 that is fitted with a pickup and an internal condenser microphone to which he has given the nickname Mouse due to its quieter volume unplugged but massive sound when plugged into an amp. Two of his three main stage guitars notably his signature TE1 Maton dreadnought are battered and worn on the necks and soundboards from his excessive playing and percussive techniques on them. He recently stated at a workshop during his annual festival Tommyfest UK (2008) that all three of his stage guitars have been broken and repaired numerous times over the years. FULL VIDEO HERE - http://www.transmeet.tv/default.aspx?id=831
