full hollow body, semi hollow body help!

[ashapaul]

Hi guys , i am planning to buy my first jazz guitar but i really don't understand the difference between full and semi hollow. I also wanted to ask why so many jazz guitars have twin humbucking pickups when most jazz guitar players only seem to use the front pickup.Any help would be great.Thanks ,Paul

[derek]

Hey Paul. The difference between fully hollow and semi is, the semi has a center block of some sort running down the middle, and usually a stop tailpiece is mounted into this block, as are the pups.

On a fully hollow, you have a floating type bridge that is held in place by string tension, rather than being bolted in. The pups are mounted into the top, but are not sitting in a block of wood, because the interior of a hollowbody is as hollow as say, an acoustic guitar.

The two pup configuration on a hollowbody does a couple of things. First, it has another heavy piece of metal mounted to the top of the guitar, which helps reduce feedback. Second, many players enjoy a front and back pup blend, rather than using just the neck pup. Hope that helps.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Semihollow guitars like the ES-335 are used for a lot more than jazz -- blues players dig them, too.

[docbop]

It's all about how much of the acoustic sound you want. With semi-hollow you have a block of wood down the middle. That reduces the acoustic properties of the guitar which helps cut down on feedback. Then there are basically two types of hollow bodies the laminate tops and the expense solid wood tops.

The laminate tops are used to cut down on feedback because they are stiffer, but also help keep cost down. Laminate tops they typically cut holes in the top and mount the PUP to the top of the guitar. With solid wood tops they want that acoustic sound so tend not to cut into the top of the guitar so it can vibrate and sound full. So you will see Floating PUP used that is attached to the neck and floats over the body. Then some are trying to keep the as much acoustic vibration of the guitar top will only put one PUP on the guitar and not cut the top for 2nd PUP and reduce more top vibration. Now you will see both laminate and solid tops with one or two PUPs. Last you will see on some hollow bodies wood bridges versus the metal tuneomatic style. Again using wood give a more acoustic sound.

Also with Jazz boxes a lots things with size of body 14"->17" and depth of body 1.75"->3" are common variations.

So with Jazz guitars there are a lot of factors involved.

[Steve Hoffman]

Originally Posted by ashapaul

Hi guys , i am planning to buy my first jazz guitar but i really don't understand the difference between full and semi hollow. I also wanted to ask why so many jazz guitars have twin humbucking pickups when most jazz guitar players only seem to use the front pickup.Any help would be great.Thanks ,Paul

Now that you understand the differences, my question to you is: How loud are you going to be playing? That is the main issue. If you are going to crank it, you need a semi. If you are going to be playing pure, straight jazz at a moderate volume for a small club, you should get a fully hollow guitar for that rich, woody jazz tone.

It's all about how much volume you need, really.

[ashapaul]

Wow, thanks a lot.I didn't know any of this stuff!I'll have to have a sit down and ponder on the mysteries!I'm sure i will have some more questions after i digest all the above info.Thanks

[cosmic gumbo]

Those hollows and semis get used by country and rockabilly players a lot, they're not just for jazzers. The bridge pick up really helps you to get yer twang on.

[backliner]

Originally Posted by ashapaul

...why so many jazz guitars have twin humbucking pickups when most jazz guitar players only seem to use the front pickup.Any help would be great.Thanks ,Paul

Yes I spend most of my time on the neck pickup, but sometimes a certain room can suck all the highs out already and I'm left wishing for more highs (especially since I use a wooden bridge).

If it was up to me I'd only play straight ahead jazz in small quiet dinner places (my usual haunts), but occasionally I (used to) get calls for Bigband/Showtunes/variety in 1,000 seaters. For those a Telecaster actually worked better.

Nowadays I suppose a floater on a nice solid topped "jazz" guitar would be ideal most of the time for me, but a couple of weeks ago we played a "Western" themed spaghetti feed fund raiser for the Lions Club Blind School, and the leader called "You Don't Know Me" (Ray Charles style). I was pretty glad to have a bridge pickup that night!

[haden olmsted]

Now that you know the differences between the two, Id say your best bet is figuring out what best suits your needs and wants. Iv found that the semi hollow bodies, and thinlines, have too much of a solid body electric guitar sound, and that the full hollowbodies are a bit more full and jazzy. I play a gretsch 6120. It suits me cause i play jazz and big band and rockabilly stuff. There are tons of different configurations on these guitars so just play a lot of them and find ones you like.

[jazzuki]

I still play a lot of chord/melody on a full bodied guitar because of the fullbodied tone-I have a single p/u-tone and vol.control for electric use-the hollow bodied/thinline doesnt give me the loudness or tone!