In Praise of Semi-Hollowbodies (Teles and others)

DrRobert said:

I still have a Carvin HH2, which is semi-hollow and uses different pickups from the run of the mill Carvins. Nice sounding and stores easily at church...

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DrRobert said:

Earlier this year I got on the very end of the "Fender George Harrison Limited Edition" semi-hollow rosewood train, and I'm super glad I did. There's a midrange to this tele that played gently reminds me of a really good 70s Thinline. Played hard, it goes back to tele land with all the spank and brightness you'd expect. But it got me thinking more about semi-hollows....
-Suhr Hollow-T with P90s: I had this one at the same time from a trade. Great sounding guitar, but felt too much like some of my others and went down the road. Impeccably workmanship, though, not a thing I could criticize.
-Schechter Prototype for the CETH-1: done for a customer in Cali in the early 90s and snagged from the Bargain Finder sight unseen. It came with a pair of perfectly serviceable Duncan pickups, but I had two Patent# just sitting around. With those in it, it's a really special guitar. Cocobolo I think, comes across pretty bright for a humbucker equipped guitar, but smooth midrange and great sustain. Plug it into GE Smith's (former) Bassman and just let the notes hang, dripping mojo.
-72 Thinline Tele-I guess I'm noticing a trend here, my favorite semi-hollows are Fender inspired or built. Loved this one since the day I picked it up. Those "Wide Range" humbuckers from Seth are as good as PAFs to my ears-bright, lowing output, soulful and flexible. It was near mint when I got it, now just "good" since I leant it to a band to record with, but the scars were earned... Sadly the album never did come out.

I've owned a bunch of other Semis: a couple of PRSi but, with the carved top they never seemed much different than the solid versions. In fact, the fully Hollowbody II feels more like other maker's semis. I'm not sure if I'd characterize an ES335 as semi-hollow in the same way, but they're very cool, of course. And someday I'll add a 345 to the stable.

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tonar8353 said:

Here is my Warmoth that I did the finish on. Its a very nice guitar and weighs less that six pounds.

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