Hollow body guitar without an F hole

[WindsurfMaui]

I'm making a list of future builds and I am wondering if we can order a hollow body Strat or VIP without an F hole. I'm thinking of B.B. King's Lucille which was I believe a Gibson ES-335 but without the F hole. Or do we have to order a  cambered body?

Does anyone have a hollow body or chambered body Strat or VIP? how is it different than a solid body other than weight? I was think of matching up a hollow body Strat or VIP and a 24 3/4 conversion neck.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

They've been done.
F-hole isn't required on Hollow's, save perhaps except for the Mooncaster, but I digress for clarification.

 

[Cagey]

I've got a hollow carved-top Tele with no spider holes. It's a wonderful thing. Freakishly light for a Tele. Doesn't sound like a Tele by any stretch of the imagination, though. Doesn't have Tele pickups, a Tele neck, or a Tele bridge, which are the major contributors to the sound, so I don't know what, if anything, being hollow does for it other than lighten it up.

 

[TBurst Std]

First I think we need to define hollowbody.
A hollowbody (which Lucille is not) is built with sides then a top and bottom glued to them (think ES 330 or Casino)

A Semi hollow is of the same construction but has a sold center block running through it ( this is what Lucille is as well as Harrison’s CG. Think ES335 with or without F holes)

Next is chambered.  This is what the W does.  Solid block of wood with milled chambers.  (Some of these chambers may be small and random or throughout a side).

Each construction yields possibly different tonal aspects AND in my opinion, when complemented with different bridge attachment methods. 

Before I bore you, let me know if you want to know more. 

If you order a build from the W, a F hole isn’t going to matter much until you get to a SPL that may render you unconscious

 

[Cagey]

Warmoth used to do "hollow" (as opposed to chambered), but it was really just very large chambers. Kinda like the Mooncaster. That's what my Tele is.

 

[musicispeace]

I have one chambered strat body. Honestly I can't say I detect a difference other than being slightly lighter. Chambering does not make it 335 ish according to the Warmoth guys when I have asked about this over the phone before. I'm not sure if F holes would make a difference.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

What about the Mooncaster?
I presume it's a center block, but it's also a "holes access" in the sense that there is no rear cavity cover like a rear route.
Am I correct in this presumption?

 

[Cagey]

No, they're decorative. I've had/have solid/chambered bodies and have never been able to tell a difference amplified. Acoustically, there's a very subtle difference, but I mean subtle like if you didn't know there was a difference, you'd never hear it. And who knows? I might not have, either.

When I built my Velocity I put a set of Fishman Fluence pickups in it, and wired a push/pull switch for one of the tone options they have. Also subtle, but I could hear it. Then one of my buddies was over playing it and wondered what the switch was for because he couldn't hear it. We argued back and forth on the thing for half an hour before I finally just grabbed a screwdriver and opened it up to see if I'd done something wrong. Turns out I'd never wired the switch.

Feel stupid much?

The power of suggestion. It's a thing.

 

[Cagey]

What about the Mooncaster? I presume it's a center block, but it's also a "holes access" in the sense that there is no rear cavity cover like a rear route.
Am I correct in this presumption?

It's hollow, but has a center block that's actually a part of the original hunk of wood, like my Tele. They just gut a solid piece to make it semi-hollow. And they do have rear cavities.

 

[TBurst Std]

What about the Mooncaster?
I presume it's a center block, but it's also a "holes access" in the sense that there is no rear cavity cover like a rear route.
Am I correct in this presumption?

Mooncaster is technically chambered. It is a piece of wood milled out then a top attached.  A much different construction than bent sides, with a top and bottom glued on.

 

[aarontunes]

TBurst Std is correct. What Warmoth calls "hollow body" is not a true hollow body in the most traditional sense. Not in the Gretsch sense, and not it the Gibson sense.

Warmoth uses the term "hollow" (arguably incorrectly) in the Warmoth sense.

We use it to distinguish between our chambered construction (a set of many small and unconnected holes, for weight relief), and our "hollow" construction (where one or both sides are single, completely hollow space). We must do this because certain bodies (VIP, Tele, e.g.) are available both chambered and "hollow" construction.


Getting back to the OP question: any Warmoth body configurable with one f-hole or two f-holes can be also be ordered with no f-holes.

 

[Ivandrov]

There's a picture of a Tele with a cutout on the website to show the Warmoth hollow construction.

http://www.warmoth.com/images/Guitar/Bodies/CarvedTopTele/CarvedTopTeleHollowBuilderImage.jpg