Mahogany dual humbucker Tele - chambered vs solid body?

[Schneidas]

Hi guys,

I'm about to order my next Warmoth project: a dual humbucking Tele with a Mahogany body and an all-Indian RW 24-3/4" conversion neck.

Now the question: to go 1-piece solid or 1-piece chambered?

I've read all sorts of experiences - from chambering has "no effect on tone", to "it mellows the attack" to "the sustain is less on a chambered guitar body over its solid body counterpart" "my chambered Mahogany Strat is the brightest Strat I've ever heard and due to this was almost unplayable".
So now I'm more confused than ever.
Warmoth state it increases sustain and notes get chunkier... which sounds great!

I'm primarily interested in distortion sounds - Gary Moore and Slash style so for this type of tone - would you go with a chambered Mahogany Tele or solid one?
Any first hand experience from you guys is more than welcome!

Thanks in advance!
Chris

 

[Great Ape]

I have no idea what the physics of solid vs chambered may be, but my personal experience has been that the difference is negligible. Neck and pickups seem to have the most effect on tone and sustain, far as I can tell. Good luck with your build!

 

[Cagey]

I've never really noticed any difference in character between solid and chambered bodies. It's more of a weight savings thing. But, I do happen to have a hollow Mahogany carved top Tele with an Aframosia neck. Acoustically, it's unusually loud, but it has a decent hunk of a brass bridge on it that's mounted flat to the top. Amplified, it sounds much like you'd expect it to with a humbucker at the bridge position and a 'noiseless' single coil at the neck.

Thing is, all you can ever do when wondering about this question is postulate. As far as I know, nobody's ever built a guitar up with a solid body, then disassembled it and hollowed the body out for comparison. So, what can you compare? Even if you built two of the same thing with one being hollow and the other being solid, wood being the inconsistent material it is you wouldn't know for certain if any difference you heard was due to the solidity of one vs. the other or just the characteristics of the wood itself. That's assuming you heard any difference at all. With electric guitars, bodies and the wood they're made of don't have nearly the effect on sound that pickups and necks do

 

[DslDwg]

I think it's hard to quantify.

I have three "W" teles two Thinline and one Chambered.

I find the thinline bodies much lighter though all three are different wood - Ash, Alder the  Chambered is Mahogany.

Acoustically the Alder thinline sings almost like a Semi-hollow.

I play hi-gain so I believe pick-ups to have the greatest effect.

I will say even with the Chambers that particular body weighs a ton. it is Les Paul heavy.

The chunk of wood makes all the difference. Look at the showcase bodies and you can see there so many differences from one to the other.

I would personally not worry about the tone between chambered and solid.