"Hollow Body" tonality

[rauchman]

Greetings,

I know this is a very objective question, but if one got a VIP/Tele/Strat body vs a Hollow Body of the same wood, how would one expect a difference in tone?  Is there really much of a tonal difference to speak of, or is it more of a weight savings / other?

 

[amigarobbo]

:headbanging:

[YouTube]I6U6EV7jSyc[/youtube]

 

[swarfrat]

Aaron's Bubble Busting Video series. I wanted this one to be true. I still have ideas though
:sad1:

 

[Hendrix]

I got 2 warmoth "Hollow Body" tele and one VIP haven't build yet .

warmoth "Hollow Body" actually are  semi hollow with thicker  than many others semi hollow , so the difference on tonality with solid one is not so obviously as it got a "solid " thicker maple top.

more like PRS  Semi-Hollow vs a PRS  Solid Body Guitar

[youtube]p66_qTlfWOk[/youtube]

but there's some difference hard to describe by words, I think this video can show it more

[youtube]a176jIpZRsM[/youtube]

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

In demos the hollow ones seem brighter.  The hollow body has less weight, but equal or higher stiffness in the neck joint depending on the wood specimen used.  The neck joint is about 50% of electric guitar's tonality as far as wood goes - That's my opinion!

You framed the question saying "if they use the same wood".    I don't think we can assume its true, because it may be convenient for the manufacturer to use pieces of the heaviest wood in a chambered body application.    The story goes that Gibson started making chambered bodies because they wanted to use their stock of heavy mahogany.

 

[rauchman]

:headbanging:

[YouTube]I6U6EV7jSyc[/youtube]

Interesting.  For me, I heard a subtle difference between the 2.  The Chambered body had better definition, and sounded a little meaner.

 

[TBurst Std]

Just to set the record correct, a Warmoth "hollow body" is not either a hollow body or semi-hollow body. It is a heavily chambered body. (Think Rickenbacker)
A "hollow" or "semi-hollow" body uses separate sides affixed to a back and top (like an acoustic).

 

[stultzies9]

I've owned a couple of chambered bodies over the years. The first one was just a straight up chambered Strat body, all alder, three single coils, etc. It sounded like a very very nice Strat, with MAYBE a little bump in the lower mids, and with a wonderful amount of sustain. How much of that was the chambering, and how much of it was just THAT piece of lumber? Who knows? But I loved that guitar.

I currently own a chambered Velocity, Black Korina with a Spruce top, double humbucker, Wilkinson. It's pretty much my go-to guitar for everything up to full on metal. Again, it sounds like there's just a slight bump in the low mids to my ears. For the kind of stuff I like to play (blues-rock, Satch, Robben Ford type stuff) it's pretty much perfect.

As always, your mileage may vary.  :-D