What’s your experience with semi hollow body guitars ?

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Dyllheaven88

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Ngd en route took a chance on a weird one , a semi hollow Flying V. I mostly play hard rock through metal . Found a lot of mixed opinions on semi hollow bodies for this application. Anyone play or own any ?
 
I have an es335 that just wants to rock.
Played many before I found this one by chance.
Most versatile guitar I’ve owned.
The attack is a bit rounder than anything solid but such a beautiful full tone ..
 
Had some of what I know as "chambered" body guitars. A Tyler Classic, and a Anderson T-style.

The first thing that struck me was how freakishly light they were. The Tyler had a tendency to neck dive and was very "scooped" sounding. It had a weird quack to it. Some people definitely like that. At least the guy I sold it to did. It didn't work for me. What randomly drew me to it was how it rung acoustically unplugged. Plugged in didn't care for the sound. The experience defied some of what I believed about how if a solid body guitar guitar felt and sounded resonant when you play it unplugged, it'll sound marvelous when you plug in.

I loved the Anderson and regret selling it to buy a solid body T-Icon Anderson.

I'd love try some more though. I'm sure there's one out there somewhere with my name on it.
 
Is it a Dean Mustaine? Only semi-hollow f-holed V I can remember, but I'm old and the memory ain't what it used to be!

I have 2 semi's, a Vox Bobcat and a PRS SE HB Standard - I love both of them and I push them into pretty high gain. Are they the BEST for high gain, no, not generally, but it depends on the song. I know if I play them first in a session they can flavor my ears into not liking solid bodies for the rest of the play session. I think everyone should have at least one.
 
So as was mentioned there will be less punchy attack in general and more unfair under the notes. Very viable for old school hard rock and metal, but probably not the best choice for modern metal.

I have a Gibson es339 (small body es335) and a ric 360/6. The es339 rocks no problem, but due to the pickups, the ric really doesn’t. I do run 11s on my semi hollows and hollow bodies, where as I run 10s on my solid body guitars. No idea if a semi hollow v would do better with 11s compared to 10s.
 
I have a Tele thinline crafted in Japan.
I has regular dimarzio transition pickups put in .
It sounds amazing !
 
I am a hard rock player and own many semi-hollow guitars:
  • Gibson Custom '64 ES-335 Reissue
  • Gibson USA ES-339
  • Gibson Custom Dave Grohl DG-335 (2nd run)
  • Suhr Alt T Semi-hollow w/ Thornbuckers and Gotoh trem
  • "Fender" (Warmoth) Thinline Telecaster (mahogany body + rosewood neck) w/ Lollar Regal wide-range pickups and Mann trem
Personally, I love them. They're different than my solidbodies and I wouldn't recommend them for ultra high-gain applications but they can go from super clean all the way to hard rock gain levels (think GnR, AiC, Foo Fighters, Black Crowes), and they sound great. I find it adds a bit more of an open tone to the guitar. A little "woodier" and "airier" than a solidbody. They're usually more resonant and there is something about the feel of the guitar shaking in your hands as you play that is very addictive to me. I feel very connected to the guitar and it changes my playing.

The internet will tell you that semi-hollows tend to be a little darker or fatter than a solidbody; I have found that it kind of depends. Sure, my 335 and DG have that bigger, rounder, darker sound; but, my Suhr Alt T is very bright and ES-339 is brighter than my Les Pauls, too. It could be something to do with the body size: obviously the 335 and DG have the large body whereas the Alt T and 339 have smaller bodies. But my Warmoth Thinline Tele has a small body and is also fairly dark and meaty, so who knows.

Either way, they're great and you should totally have one in your arsenal!
 
I hear they're not half bad.
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Dyllheaven88 said:
Ngd en route took a chance on a weird one , a semi hollow Flying V. I mostly play hard rock through metal . Found a lot of mixed opinions on semi hollow bodies for this application. Anyone play or own any ?
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I wouldn't worry about mixed opinions, this is true of absolutely everything tone or music related. Someone here the other week said metal on a Les Paul is lame - blasphemy!

Personally I think you can get good rock and metal sounds out of anything solid with a humbucker. Semi-hollows are usually solid where it counts so I'm sure you'll be fine. Report back when you can 🤟
 
Love them for Rock and Metal, but feedback will be harder to control. Look out for a model, that is not as wide as a usual ES type. This will help with feedback and the sustainblock of course is a must.
 
Well you need the right pickups....I was in GC at the checkout counter, another customer asked what an “F Spaced” pickup was? Guy at the register chimed in and said “oh that’s for guitars with F holes in them...” Learn something new everyday hahahaha

I’ve got a first run CS 339 that’s killer in the tone dept, skinny tall frets suck though and will eventually get a refret....had an Anderson hollow Strat that was nuts but had that quack mentioned above that I couldn’t get past....getting the parts together for a Tele Thinline mutt at the moment
 
I played doom and death on a mid 60's es355 custom stereo in the early 90's.....
 
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