HollowBody Guitars

[Kasey]

I think they're a pretty flawed concept, as only three of the strings are flatwound, and flatwounds are really dead.

i know this might sound weird as hell, but i cannot stand most strings, especially when they are new because they are so damn bright. that sound might be something i'd like. i guess with strings you can get mixed up in terms and their connotations, but i prefer a 'dark' sounding string, which i suppose may or may not just be considered a 'dull' or 'dead' sounding string to someone else. did that make sense?

 

[Kasey]

oh yea, what about my question about the harmonics?

 

[Hi_Flyer]

I dunno about harmonics... but I'm kinda confused, you want a nylon-string calssical guitar sound, but with distortion?!?! that sounds kinda weird. What kind of music are you playing?

The best thing you could do is go to a guitar shop and play some of the hollow-bodies in order to see what they sound like, tone-wise. Its hard to describe on a BBS if you don't have a frame of reference. Hollow bodies can be all over the map as far as tone: jazz, rockabilly, punk, rock... You usally don't see metal guys playing them because they will feedback with ALOT of distortion, but I've found feedback (even when playing through an amp with alot of gain) to be much more manageable than you would think.

There are other variables, like the pickups for example... I have a Gretsch with Filtertrons, which are very twangy compared to pickups on a hollowbody jazz-box, and they are relatively low output too.

 

[daav]

i know this might sound weird as hell, but i cannot stand most strings, especially when they are new because they are so damn bright. that sound might be something i'd like. i guess with strings you can get mixed up in terms and their connotations, but i prefer a 'dark' sounding string, which i suppose may or may not just be considered a 'dull' or 'dead' sounding string to someone else. did that make sense?

bongolation is right of course, he is just giving his opinion on the sound. It is good to note that you don't get any difference in the G, B, and high E. I did like the tone from them, at least for while.
They are just a style that you might like, and for <$20 to try it out (assuming it doesn't totally screw your intonation and require a whole new setup) you can do so fairly easily. Some things would not be well suited for them, others would give you a very mellow, muted sound, and the bottom three satrings definately don't ring as brightly at all.

Daav

 

[ggunn]

(Answering the question ]of whether a semi-hollowbody guitar is hollow but thin)

Exactly.

I believe you are mistaken. The term "semi-hollowbody" refers to what an earlier poster said about the centerline of the guitar not being hollow but having hollow chambers above and below it. Thinner hollowbody guitars are usually called "thinline" guitars. See http://www.provide.net/~cfh/gibson4.html

 

[HapiCmpur]

I believe you are mistaken. The term "semi-hollowbody" refers to what an earlier poster said about the centerline of the guitar not being hollow but having hollow chambers above and below it. Thinner hollowbody guitars are usually called "thinline" guitars.

Whoops! Good catch, ggun. There are indeed many thin electrics that are hollowbody, not semi-hollow. You caught me typing with my fingers disengaged from my brain.