Semi-acoustic guitar

This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  "Semi-acoustic guitar"  –  news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) ( Learn how and when to remove this message )

A semi-acoustic guitar, also known as a hollow-body electric guitar, is a type of electric guitar designed to be played with a guitar amplifier featuring a fully or partly hollow body and at least one electromagnetic pickup. ^[1] First created in the 1930s, they became popular in jazz and blues, where they remain widely used, and the early period of rock & roll, though they were later largely supplanted by solid-body electric guitars in rock.

Contents

• Types
• History
• Usage
• Gallery
• See also
• References

They differ from an acoustic-electric guitar, which is an acoustic guitar that has been fitted with some means of amplification to increase volume without changing the instrument's tone.

Types

Semi-acoustic guitars may have a fully hollow body, making them essentially archtop acoustics with the pickups permanently mounted into the sound board, such as the Gibson ES-175. Some models feature bodies the full width of acoustics, allowing them to be played fully acoustically, while others, such as the Epiphone Casino, have "thinline" bodies where the hollow body serves purely to alter the tone, not increase the acoustic volume.

Other semi-acoustic guitars have a solid center block running the length and depth of the body, called a semi-hollow body. Examples include models that feature sound holes, like the Gibson ES-335, ^[2] and ones with no sound holes but hollow interior chambers, like the Gretsch Duo-Jet. ^[3] In these, the bridge is fixed to a solid block of wood rather than to a sound board, and the belly vibration is minimized much as in a solid body instrument. ^[4] The addition of the central block helps to manage feedback and allows the guitar to be played normally at higher gain and higher volume. ^[5]

Other guitars are borderline between semi-acoustic and solid body. Known as a chambered body guitar, they start from a solid body blank that has been routed out to include a sound hole in an otherwise solid body. ^{[6] [7]} Examples include the Fender Telecaster Thinline.

History

In the 1930s, guitar manufacturers aimed at increasing the sound level produced by the instrument, to compete with louder instruments such as the drums. ^{[8] [9]} Companies such as Gibson, Rickenbacker, and Gretsch focused on amplifying a guitar through a loudspeaker. In 1936, Gibson introduced their first manufactured semi-acoustic guitar, the ES-150s (Electric Spanish Series). ^[10]

Gibson based them on a standard production archtop, with F-holes on the face of the guitar's soundbox. This model resembled traditional jazz guitars that were popular at the time. The soundbox on the guitar let limited sound emit from the hollow body of the guitar. The ES-150s could be electrically amplified via a Charlie Christian pickup, a magnetic single-coil pickup that converted the energy of the vibrating strings into an electrical signal. ^[10] The clear sound of the pickups made the ES series popular with jazz musicians. ^[8]

The ES-150 was made several years after Rickenbacker made the first solid-body electric guitar. The ES series was designed as an experiment for Gibson to test the potential success of electric guitars. Due to its financial success, the ES series is often referred to as the first successful electric guitar. The ES-150 was followed by the ES-250 a year later, in what became a long line of semi acoustics for the Gibson company. ^[11]

In 1949 Gibson released two new models: the ES-175 and ES-5. The ES-175 and ES-5 models were the first to come with built-in electric pickups and are widely considered the first fully electric semi-acoustic guitars. ^[12] Several models, including the ES-350T by Gibson, were made in the 1950s to accommodate a demand for a comfortable and modern version of the original archtop model. ^[10]

In 1958, Gibson first manufactured a 'semi-hollow body guitar' that featured a block of solid wood between the front and back sections of the guitars' cutaway. The guitar had a smaller resonant cavity inside, which makes less sound emit from the f holes. ^[10]

Rickenbacker also began making semi-acoustic guitars in 1958. German guitar crafter, Roger Rossmiesl developed the 300 series for Rickenbacker. The series was a wide semi-acoustic that used a sleeker dash hole on one side of the guitar, with a pick guard on the other side, rather than a traditional F-hole. ^[13]

In addition to the main model variants of the guitar, Gibson made several small changes to the guitar, including a laminated top for the ES-175 model and mounted top pickups for general use on all their models. ^[8] While Gibson provided many of the innovations in semi-acoustic guitars from the 1930s to the 1950s, there were also various makes by other companies including a hollow archtop by Gretsch. The 6120 model by Gretsch became very popular as a rockabilly model despite having almost no technical differences from Gibson models. ^[14] Rickenbacker was also a prominent maker of the semi-hollow body guitar. Gibson, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, and other companies still make semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars.

Usage

The semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars were used widely by jazz musicians in the 1930s. ^[9] The guitar became used in pop, folk, and blues. The guitars sometimes produced feedback when played through an amplifier at a loud level so they were unpopular for bands that had to play loud enough to perform in large venues. As rock became more experimental in the late 60s and 70s, the guitar became more popular because players learned to use its feedback issues creatively. ^[15]

Semi-hollow guitars share some of the tonal characteristics of hollow guitars, such as their praised warmth and clean tone, but with less risk of undesirable feedback. ^[16] Their sound is particularly popular with jazz, blues, rockabilly and psychobilly guitarists.

Today, semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars are still popular among many artists across various genres. Examples include Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, renowned jazz guitarist George Benson, John Scofield, multi-instrumentalist Paul McCartney, former Guns N' Roses member Izzy Stradlin, John Lennon of the Beatles, and B.B. King, and rock musician Ted Nugent. Semi-acoustic guitars have also been valued as practice guitars because, when played "unplugged," they are quieter than full acoustic guitars, but more audible than solid-body electric guitars because of their open cavity. They are also popular because the cavities reduce the weight of the guitar. ^[6]

Gallery

• 
  Epiphone Casino, a thinline hollow-body
• 
  Gibson ES-335, a semi-hollow-body with sound holes
• 
  Fender Starcaster
• 
  Comparison of the design and size of a hollow body versus a solid body.

See also

• Hybrid guitar

Related Research Articles

An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities from that of an acoustic guitar via amplifier settings or knobs on the guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz, rock and heavy-metal guitar-playing. Designs also exist combining attributes of the electric and acoustic guitars: the semi-acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars.

Jazz guitar may refer to either a type of electric guitar or a guitar playing style in jazz, using electric amplification to increase the volume of acoustic guitars.

Heritage Guitar is an American musical instruments manufacturer company based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The company produces a range of electric guitars that includes hollow-body models.

The Gibson L-5 is a hollow body guitar first produced in 1923 by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The first guitar to feature F-holes, the L-5 was designed under the direction of acoustical engineer and designer Lloyd Loar, and has been in production ever since. It was considered the premier guitar of the company during the big band era. It was originally offered as an acoustic instrument, with semi-acoustic models not made available until the 1940s.

The Gibson ES-335 is a semi-hollow body semi-acoustic guitar introduced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958. It features a solid maple wood block running through the center of its body with upper bouts that are hollow and two violin-style f-holes cut into the top over the hollow chambers. Since its release, Gibson has released numerous variations of and other models based on the design of the ES-335.

An archtop guitar is a hollow acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with jazz, blues, and rockabilly players.

Variax was the name of a line of guitars developed and marketed by Line 6 between 2002 and 2023. They differed from typical electric and acoustic guitars in that internal electronics processed the sound from individual strings to model (replicate) the sound of specific guitars and other instruments. The maker claims it was the first guitar family able to emulate the tones of other notable electric and acoustic guitars. It also provided a banjo and a sitar tone. The Variax was available primarily in electric guitar models, but acoustic and electric bass guitar models have also been available in the past.

The electric mandolin is an instrument tuned and played as the mandolin and amplified in similar fashion to an electric guitar. As with electric guitars, electric mandolins take many forms. Most common is a carved-top eight-string instrument fitted with an electric pickup in similar fashion to many archtop semi-acoustic guitars. Solid body mandolins are common in 4-, 5-, and 8-string forms. Acoustic electric mandolins also exist in many forms.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to guitars:

The Gibson ES-330 is a thinline hollow-body electric guitar model produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. It was first introduced in 1959 and the guitar had the same dimensions as the ES-335.

A solid-body musical instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electromagnetic pickup system to directly detect the vibrations of the strings; these instruments are usually plugged into an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to be heard. Solid-body instruments are preferred in situations where acoustic feedback may otherwise be a problem and are inherently both less expensive to build and more rugged than acoustic electric instruments.

The Fender Coronado is a double-cutaway thin-line hollow-body electric guitar, announced in 1965. It is manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The aesthetic design embodied in the Coronado represents a departure from previous Fender instruments; the design remains an uncharacteristic piece of Fender history.

The Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. The guitar debuted in 1961 and has been associated with such guitarists as Howlin' Wolf, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Keith Richards, Dave Davies, Brad Whitford, Shirley Manson, Paul Weller, The Edge, Josh Homme, Daniel Kessler, Brendon Urie, Gary Clark, Jr., Glenn Frey, John Illsley, and Peter Green.

The Gibson ES-135 is a semi-hollow body electric guitar made by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. Originally introduced in 1956, it was discontinued in 1958. Some guitars were stamped with and marketed as an ES-130. The original run amounted to 556 instruments produced. The model, with some modifications, was reintroduced in 1991 and remained in production until 2004.

Electric guitar design is a type of industrial design where the looks and efficiency of the shape as well as the acoustical aspects of the guitar are important factors. In the past many guitars have been designed with various odd shapes as well as very practical and convenient solutions to improve the usability of the object.

The Gibson ES series of semi-acoustic guitars are manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.

The Gibson ES-137 is a semi-hollow-body guitar which was manufactured in Gibson's Custom Shop Memphis factory as a limited production run from 2002–2013. It was a relatively new design in Gibson's ES line which was not based on a vintage instrument, as many of Gibson's instruments are. The ES-137 is available in two models, Custom and Classic.

The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele, is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music. Many prominent rock musicians have been associated with the Telecaster for use in studio recording and live performances, most notably Bruce Springsteen, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Keith Richards and George Harrison.

Roger Rossmeisl was a German luthier who designed electric guitars in the 1950s and '60s for the US companies Rickenbacker and Fender.

Grimshaw Guitars was a British manufacturer of guitars and related instruments from the 1930s to the 1980s, known for producing acoustic archtop guitars in the 1930s–1940s, electrified archtop guitars in the 1940s and 1950s, semi-solid (thinline) electric guitars in the 1950s–1960s, and mainly solidbody guitars from the late 1950s to 1980s, along with smaller quantities of banjos, hawaiian guitars, electric bass guitars, acoustic guitars and nylon string guitars. Their archtop guitars were used by British players from the 1930s to the 1950s, when equivalent U.S.-made instruments were difficult to obtain in Britain, and their early electric thinline instruments such as the "S.S.1" and "S.S.1 deluxe" were popular with British "beat" groups of the early 1960s. Sales declined in the later 1960s and 1970s with easier access by customers to better made U.S. instruments at one end of the scale, and cheaper imported instruments, mostly from Japan, with which the Grimshaw line could not compete on price. The Grimshaw factory closed in the mid 1980s and its junior partner founder, Emile Grimshaw Jnr, passed away in 1987. Since that time, surviving instruments occasionally appear on the used market but tend to be somewhat overshadowed in favour of better known instruments of similar age by other British manufacturers such as Burns, Vox, etc.

References