Chambered or semi hollow

[dhbraman]

Trying to decide between a chambered Jazzmaster or a Mooncaster. What's more likely to be more resonant and fuller sounding?

 

[Cagey]

A Taylor 414CE or a Martin D28. But, for electric guitars, it's going to depend more on the pickups, neck, and bridge. Body is pretty far down the list of things that affect character.

Given the two choices you present, I'd buy into a chambered Jazzmaster, if for no other reason than the comfort level. The Mooncaster's draw is more about appearance.

 

[fdesalvo]

I've never noticed a diff b/t the various solid bodies and chambered bodies I've purchased from W - probably a testament to the quality of wood they select.  I've also found that the majority of what I interpret as resonance and "good tone" originates in the wood of the neck.  Thicker = more resonant.

 

[Cagey]

  Thicker = more resonant.

I think maybe thicker is less resonant. Resonance is a sympathetic vibration, and tends to consume energy. A thicker neck is going to have more inertia and thus be more stable, so it'll react less to the string vibrations. Their influence is too small. You end up with a "richer" tonal character, which many (if not most) attribute to resonance, but is actually due to the reduced absorption of higher-order harmonics in the string(s), leaving those vibrations for the pickups to sense. It's also why electric guitar bodies have so little influence on the overall tone. Too much inertia in the body. The strings are beating against a brick wall.

Acoustics are the exact opposite. You want the neck/body to resonate, otherwise you won't hear the thing. So, they use thin/light/stiff woods to encourage that.

 

[fdesalvo]

  Thicker = more resonant.

I think maybe thicker is less resonant. Resonance is a sympathetic vibration, and tends to consume energy. A thicker neck is going to have more inertia and thus be more stable, so it'll react less to the string vibrations. Their influence is too small. You end up with a "richer" tonal character, which many (if not most) attribute to resonance, but is actually due to the reduced absorption of higher-order harmonics in the string(s), leaving those vibrations for the pickups to sense. It's also why electric guitar bodies have so little influence on the overall tone. Too much inertia in the body. The strings are beating against a brick wall.

Acoustics are the exact opposite. You want the neck/body to resonate, otherwise you won't hear the thing. So, they use thin/light/stiff woods to encourage that.

Maybe what I've noticed in thicker necks is less "truss rod" tone and more woodiness.  All of my Wizards and Standard Thin necks had much less depth of tone that the 59s and Wolfgangs.  They were more metallic/plinky sounding despite their great setups.

 

[Cagey]

Or, maybe I'm fulla horsefeathers  :laughing7:

I've not put any instrumentation on anything to prove my theories, so they're mostly just hypothesis.

Problem is, it's difficult to conduct controlled experiments, at least casually. I know what I want to test and how to test it, but test beds aren't cheap and the variables are many.

 

[musicispeace]

I have one chambered strat and a couple of solid ones. I can't discern a difference. Just slightly in weight. Had an Ibanez 335 copy years ago and can't really recall it being more resonate than the solid body I also had at the time. Maybe at a room volume at home a bit. That said I tried out one of the old Japanese 70's Les Paul copies a couple years ago at a shop and that thing rang like a bell, no explanation I can come up with. I know we weighed it at a tinge over 8 pounds so it was light for a Les Paul.