guitar bodies and music styles

[artCROSS]

As far as electrics go, how much does a guitar's body influence the style it can play? I am looking at some archtop guitars to replace my les paul (cheap, mind you. it's a knock off made by a company called essex, but still sounds decent w/ soapbox pickups), and love the way it sounds at the store, but I can't really audition it w/ my whole band. We used to play punk, but now leaning more towards bands like modest mouse or built to spill. I mainly play rhythm and lead on the same guitar...any thought or suggestions on this topic would be great. I know nothing about guitars...

 

[AlChuck]

The basic rule of thumb --

if the music is not too loud (jazz, etc.) archtops work well.

At higher volumes archtops become very unruly because it is very easy to get them to feed back and rather tricky to control this. (Sometimes you can control this a bit easier if you put foam inside the f-holes...) So most rock players end up using solidbodies. (Exceptions -- Ted Nugent... very few others...)

There are thinner archtop-type guitars like the Gibson ES-335 that have less of a resonant chamber and are kind of in-between big-bodied archtops and solidbodies. You'll see these more often in rock bands than you will big-bodied archtops.

Another issue is sustain. Solidbodies tend to have more clean sustain than archtops, which is often very desirable in rock music.

Another issue is whammy bars. A whammy bar on an archtop might stress the thin wood of the top in an unhappy way. It's not an issue on a solidbody.

 

[hixmix]

I am looking at some archtop guitars to replace my les paul (cheap, mind you. it's a knock off made by a company called essex, but still sounds decent w/ soapbox pickups)

Check out the Ibanez and Samick archtops.

 

[artCROSS]

Thanks for that imformative reply! stuff makes sense, just would've never thought of it. I guess since we are a rock band, it's probably not the best choice, they're just so beautiful. I'll look into that Gibson though.

 

[hixmix]

I guess since we are a rock band, it's probably not the best choice, they're just so beautiful.

What? Too beautiful for rock?

 

[artCROSS]

hehe, lemme rephrase:

Because of the feedback issue, it's probably not the best idea to get a hollowbody since i'm in a rock band. However, they are just so beautiful, i keep secondguessing myself