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Why do I gravitate towards hollow bodied guitars for jazz (and other music genres for that matter)? Teles are great guitars for jazz (just listen to Bill Frisell, anything the late Ted Greene played, or Tim Lerch - all formidable jazz players), and I really like my Fender Britt Daniel Telcaster Thinline. Teles are the Swiss army knife of the guitar world IMO. But, I like the way hollow bodies look. I also like their sound - a little rounder, and less punchy sounding than solid, or even semi-hollow bodied guitars IMO.
Also, and maybe its because of my acoustic guitar roots (I started out, playing acoustic guitar), I find the typically larger bodies of hollow bodied guitars to be more comfortable for me - like my dreadnought, and my 00 sized acoustic guitars, hollow bodied guitars have this nice, big surface I can rest my arm on to anchor it (I don't swing my arm up and down like some players do, when I pick or strum) while I play. With most solid bodies, due to their smaller body size, I either have to sling the guitar REALLY high to to rest my arm on them (and I sling a guitar up pretty high as it is in general), or hunch over the guitar (I typically do not like to play that way) while sitting or standing to get the same ergonomic effect. I don't have to do that with hollow bodied (or semi-hollow bodied) guitars.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention - in a non-jazz context, I've always been a bit of a heretic when it comes to hollow body and semi-hollow bodied guitars. If you know how to control the feedback (and I do, from 30 years of playing semi-hollow bodied guitars at stage volume, and over a decade of playing hollow bodied guitars loud), you can get this wonderfully throaty sound from a hollow bodied guitar at mega gain/distortion levels, that I love!
Last edited by EllenGtrGrl; 10-16-2021 at 03:55 PM.
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10-14-2021 06:59 AM
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Though otherwise quite different from a GJS, my Seventy-Seven Hawk Jazz has a similar attachment. The support for the fingerboard extension (which appears to be part of the neck, not a separate piece glued to it) sits directly on the top for most of its length.
Originally Posted by Cunamara
My 77 is 16" x 3", laminated spruce top, 24.55" scale, and has a set in pickup, so it's difficult to compare to a GJS, but it sustains quite lot.
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Pick up a tele, then pick up an ES 175. The choice is yours !!!
I'm lucky enough to own both, but I always want to play the 175 for some reason.
I guess I dig the short scale & the resonance.
But truth be told, I spend 90% of my guitar time on flat top acoustics.
Electric isn't important to me for practice.
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Originally Posted by Longways to Go
I play the tele at night when I'm watching tv, I can hear what they're saying over it unplugged electric and I can still get my scales in.
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I know where you're coming from. When I get home from work, the last thing I often feel like doing after a long day at work, is spend time (not that it takes that long), plugging in cables, and powering up my my Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb. I usually just reach for my Yamaha LS6M, or Epiphone Inspired by Gibson J-45. Originally Posted by Longways to Go
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Homburgs (hats) - a properly positioned hat brim can usefully direct aural information to the performer. I use a fedora in cooler weather, and a good Panama straw as a warm-weather personal monitor. As for waistcoats - pockets, my good man, pockets! Originally Posted by Litterick
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Similarly, in country music, cowboy boots help with pedal switches on a crowded pedal board.
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Functional reasons shouldn't be discarded. What first crossed my mind was the possibility of hiding a wireless system inside the hat, but currently my thoughts are revolving more around the possibility of a less intrusive alternative to in-ear monitoring (i.e. off-hat monitoring).
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Historically probably many reasons; I'd say a major one is just tradition.
Sound/tone should seem like big factors and that may be true for Gibson vs. Fender.
I think that has as much to do with pickups as guitar body/style.
I personally like the feel of a bigger bodied guitar, maybe I just am used to it, but usually have found it easier to handle and hold/control than smaller, thinner ones.
It's taken me a while to get used to a 335 body.Last edited by arielcee; 10-14-2021 at 03:34 PM.
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Some arch-tops are built for jazz, some are not...
I have a `47 Gibson L7 that just loves complex chords and fast single note runs, a guitar built for the purpose of playing jazz standards. (Works fine for old style country and western too).
Plug in the McCarty floating pick up, and it makes all other electric guitars sound like toys!
None of my other guitars (Teles, Strats, Gibson 330 and 335) get close when it comes to making the glorious sound of jazz guitar.
And I have an old 17" Levin arch-top, made in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1940.
When I play this guitar it tells me to play big simple chords on the first five frets. It tells me about how it overpowered accordions and fiddles to become king of the open air dances back in the forties and fifties....a true accordion killer but no jazzer!
Two superficially similar looking instruments that are miles apart in how they function.
I feel that a really good arch-top will channel you towards playing the musical elements that make up jazz. Extended harmonies ring out clearly, single note and chord melodies sound good.
Play F#m7-5 to B7-9 to Em around frets 7,8 and 9 on a dreadnought Martin and it doesn't sound as clear as on good arch-top. IMHO.
Just a few thoughts on an interesting subject.
And yes, I love old guitars full of history!
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for the reason heavy rockers like distortion and fuzz and some older men like younger women
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Have been playing archtops from day one, starting w an ES-175, then a succession of L-5's and Super 400's. I took a 335 in on a trade once but couldn't get used to a thinline, I need to have that big body under my arm, so Teles and Strats are out.
All you folks that play thinliies and solids, great, more archie's pour moi!
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It's a floor wax AND a dessert topping! Originally Posted by wintermoon
Have been playing archtops from day one, starting w an ES-175, then a succession of L-5's and Super 400's. I took a 335 in on a trade once but couldn't get used to a thinline, I need to have that big body under my arm, so Teles and Strats are out.
All you folks that play thinliies and solids, great, more archie's pour moi!
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I am interested in how the internal hollow-body construction influences the price of the instrument?
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but none of my guitars have ambitions or children Originally Posted by BFrench
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Interesting thread. If "the nature of the tonal response" refers to both sound and feel, then maybe agree.
My preference is for set-pickup, laminated top archtops with wooden bridge. And P90s or Franz p/us. With some - not all - such guitars I've tried, there's this surprising kind of synergy: Compared to teles for example, the archtop lacks sustain, and the dense push so easy to hear with Les Pauls. Somehow, that lowered sustain combines with air, and a woody kind of edge from fretboard and wooden bridge to create a very full, fat sound. Coming from solid bodies, I didn't get the archtop thing at first, as it's so different. Then suddenly it made perfect sense. Different kind of sustain, different presence in the room.
It's a more delicate, fragile sound than my other favorite guitar, teles. And feels very different too, alive in my hands. That's what keeps me coming back to archtops.Last edited by mad dog; 10-17-2021 at 07:48 AM.
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Great post! Originally Posted by mad dog
I train on Tele, the so-called light touch.
The strings react differently to hollow body.
It is really impressive how the guitar inspires the imagination.
Best
Kris
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I’m not much of a piano player, but there is an undeniable difference between playing a piano and a keyboard. I’ve played really really good keyboards. Wow! Better than most pianos —but still different.
That’s the best analogy between hollow body and solid guitars I can come up with. I have three very nice solid body guitars. Sometimes I prefer the sounds I get from them. Yet, somehow, it’s my 3” deep full hollow I pick up day after day.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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I have two new Gretsch hollow-bodies: one with a single cutaway, one with a double cutaway. I think the air inside the instrument has a large influence on the attack, the envelope, the sustain, and the quality of sound. Neither of these is loud acoustically, and both have 24.6" scale: very comfortable, yet roomy enough for the high positions. For me the, Filtertron pickups were a revelation, to finally not sound like an over-compressed, mid-rangy PAF style. There's some sting, chime and interesting growl to those pups, and my playing has changed , I hope for the better. So far, great reactions from bandmates and audiences alike. Not much feedback trouble, but I play through Bose stuff, so that's never been much of an issue. In any event, I still look like a jazzer, except with the white one with gold hardware and Bigsby, but that's for big stages with performers who are not principally jazzers.
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I like my Epiphone Emperor regent for its great looks, superb neck, and articulate tone. My 2004 ES-175 excels in playability, ergonomic comfort, and tonal flexibility - I can craft exactly the tone I need in a particular sonic context on the fly using one, the other, or both Classic '57 pickups without fuss or bother.
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I like a Tele or Mustang-style solid body guitar. I can hold it at any angle. If I turn the pickups way down and play percussively, I can get an acoustic-like "pop" through my amp that sounds archtop-enough for me.
In my youth I had a few nice archtops, but I always felt like I was holding a refrigerator.
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Personally, I have never got the resonance of sound from a solid body guitar that a hollow body gives.
They have different resonances. A different sound.
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It is the sound, pure and simple. Whether playing acoustically or plugged in, the rich, darker, and mellow sounds of old wood just speaks to me. My earliest family memories of guitars were big, non cutaway archtops. I have played a variety of guitars over my lifetime, but archtops have always felt and sounded like what I think a guitar should be.
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With 40 years as a Luthier , I've settled on the simple truth : "The more air in the body , the more air in the sound"
Last edited by Greywolf; 01-16-2023 at 10:49 AM.
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