Hollowbodies?

C

CanopuS

Amateur music since 1847
Right, firstly, I am a pianist, so please forgive my complete lack of knowledge and ignorance, cmon - you're guitarists, you should be used to people trying to play your instrument without any knowledge! :D

I've been playing guitar for a couple of years now, just really picking up my brothers electrics (Fender, Shergold) and my acoustic, but I'd like to shell out for something of my own. I basically play jazz, with a couple of groups, and have been using the solidbody electrics up to now, but when I did recording over the summer the tone we got really dissapointed me, it had none of the wonderful jazzy tone I would have wanted. Now of course, it is probably ignorant to think that getting a hollowbody would make that much difference, but I was wondering if anyone thinks a decent hollowbody below around £300 (say $400) would have a different tone to your standard electric. The two names I see banded about here are the Ibanez Artcore and Epiphone Dot. Does anyone have any opinions, or can just tell me straight that I'm not going to be able to get what I want? Thanks for your time
 
Check out the Samick stuff. I recently picked up a Artist SAT-650 (335 copy) and I was VERY impressed with this guitar. Much better built than the Epiphones.
 
you can pick up a nice samick for cheap. another thing to look at is the ibanez artcore series... i have to inspect every guitar that comes into the store in which i work, and those have been the most consistant in quality, inside and out. binding, inlays, action; i barely have to touch the things before they go out onto the sales floor.
 
Although I value Track Rat's opinion I have to say that I've been very happy with my Epiphone Sheridan II (1985ish). It's a semi-hollow body with dual humbuckers and in my opinion the workmanship is excellent and it plays like a dream. It sounds great as a jazz guitar and will also rock when over-driven.

Just my 2 cents.

rpe
 

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rpe said:
Although I value Track Rat's opinion I have to say that I've been very happy with my Epiphone Sheridan II (1985ish). It's a semi-hollow body with dual humbuckers and in my opinion the workmanship is excellent and it plays like a dream. It sounds great as a jazz guitar and will also rock when over-driven.

Just my 2 cents.

rpe
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That would be a second vote for Samick, because Samick manufactures Epiphone guitars. :)
 
I have both Samick & Epiphone hollow bodies. I have a Samick HJ650 Artist Series, which is a big bodied guitar- along the lines of a Gibson L-5. I like it a lot. It's a versatile guitar with two humbuckers, nice binding and some flowery inlay on the peghead. My only complaint is that the little knobbie on the pickup selecter switch was broken off by the top of the case (duh!) but no biggie.

My Epiphone is a wine-red Howard Roberts model. It has a single floating mini-humbucker and an enormous oval soundhole. It also has nice binding and flowery inlay on the headstock. The body outline is basically an ES-175 but the soundholes and pickups are completely different. I gig with this guitar all the time because when I run it through an amp it sounds nice and jazzy for solo jazz guitar. But I also sing and play pop/folk tunes at these gigs and, in front of a mic, the guitar has a natural acoustic flat toppy sound. Combining these sounds is a lot of fun too. I'm actually considering installing some kind of acoustic transducer in it and blending those signals.

Having said all that- this is my second Howard Roberts. The first had some serious issues. The frets were uneven and buzzing. The high E string would get caught under the frets. The music store would do nothing for me. I finally wrote a letter to the president of Epiphone. Really! Within a couple of days, I got a phone call from the VP who gave me a return authorization #. I shipped it back to Epiphone and, in about a week, I got the one that I still use. That was 1998. This guitar has seen some serious action, including what was supposed to be an electric gig that turned out to be an acoustic one in New York City during the blackout of 2003!
 
For the money I don't think you can go wrong with the Artcore. Another to check out is a Silvertone SLA330, not a bad guitar for around $300. I know someone is going to punch me in the ribs for recomending it but I've got one and like both the feel and sound.
 
CanopuS said:
I was wondering if anyone thinks a decent hollowbody below around £300 (say $400) would have a different tone to your standard electric.
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Absolutely. A hollow-body, even a thin one, will add some warmth not usually present in a solid-body. I've bought quite a few guitars in the past 30 years... and sold most of them. But the one I've never been able to part with is a Guild Starfire IV thin-body semi-acoustic (paid $180 used about 25 years ago). I've used it a lot live and as a session studio guitarist where I'm required to play many styles of music, from hard rock to jazz to country. With good amplification and the right choice of strings (lighter for rock, heavier for jazz), that one guitar can do it all. I like solid-bodies, too, but I find their use much more limited.

By the way, a fuller-body electric can sound even sweeter for jazz, of course. I had a Gibson ES-175 for some years, and I adored that guitar for softer work of any type. Such a sweet, round tone. I eventually sold it partly because I had a lot of feedback problems when using it live and wanted to try something else. I still regret that sale.

Good luck,
J.
 
Hiya Kit,

We do an Ibanez one (forget the model right now) for about £349 usually ... it's a really good guitar for jazz but there's plenty of room for a bit of gain to be applied for the kinds of music you young people like!! :D:D:D

If you want me to look up the exact model, let me know. If you want me to see if I can get you one at the right price ... well that would be spam, so you'd better email me. :cool:

Nik
 
Thanks for all the help people! I'm sorry to be brief, I can't stay to post a long reply, but I shall do so later. Incidently, if anyone has recorded or has a clip of their guitar sound, feel free to post it :D

Thanks for everything up to now :)
 
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