Jazz Guitarists - Hollow Body vs Solid Body Guitars

**bluejaybill** · 02-28-2023, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by Jonathan0996

They're all guitars, man. There is no wrong answer.
Play a bunch of 'em and get the one that keeps you up at night.

Good advice for choosing a mate as well, I'd say!

**whiskey02** · 02-28-2023, 06:04 PM

As a lover of guitar based music, I would hate to see either one, solid or hollow, "win" the debate and become the only way to go.

**bluejaybill** · 02-28-2023, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by ruger9

Sometimes it's not about the back, it's about the shoulder.

Me, I can't play an archtop very well standing up, but I know most people here don't even try that LOL

I get that, if I want a sore shoulder I just play my Les Paul for a half an hour! I really don't know how I did 4 hour gigs on those things!

**entresz** · 02-28-2023, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by bluejaybill

I get that, if I want a sore shoulder I just play my Les Paul for a half an hour! I really don't know how I did 4 hour gigs on those things!

I did a two hour gig with my 70s Les Paul Recording last week and had a very sore shoulder.... four hours would be too much for me!

**ccroft** · 02-28-2023, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by bluejaybill

I get that, if I want a sore shoulder I just play my Les Paul for a half an hour! I really don't know how I did 4 hour gigs on those things!

Well, if you're like me those LP gigs were 4 or 5 decades ago. There's a whole lot of things I could do for 4 hours back then that I can only do for a half hour today.

**Hammertone** · 02-28-2023, 11:49 PM

Originally Posted by bluejaybill

I get that, if I want a sore shoulder I just play my Les Paul for a half an hour! I really don't know how I did 4 hour gigs on those things!

Originally Posted by entresz

I did a two hour gig with my 70s Les Paul Recording last week and had a very sore shoulder.... four hours would be too much for me!

Originally Posted by ccroft

Well, if you're like me those LP gigs were 4 or 5 decades ago. There's a whole lot of things I could do for 4 hours back then that I can only do for a half hour today.

Just get a 7 1/2 pound Les Paul. No shortage of them, and lighter than many full-sized jazz guitars.

**whiskey02** · 03-01-2023, 10:47 AM

I can understand how some prefer a lightweight guitar but I have had entrapment surgery and maintain a very small tear in my rotator cuff and often play my LP for 4,5,6 hours without issue. Always with a guitar strap, I find the weight to be beneath noticing while the much slimmer body depth is a great benefit. I am mostly using a tall stool with some time standing. Maybe standing up for that much time would be a factor that I don't understand. At any rate, there's no reason to play any instrument that causes discomfort or pain.

**pdfiddler** · 03-08-2023, 04:22 AM

Originally Posted by oldane

If you scroll up to post #52, you'll see a picture of Jim Hall with a Les Paul on which he had mounted a Van Eps String Damper (the device on the headstock reaching across the strings at the 1st fret). He used it on his 175 too. Herb Ellis also used one on his 175 for some years. And of course George van Eps himself used it.

The idea was to dampen the vibrations of the string length between the nut and the fretted note. For my part I have never seen the idea of it in amplified instruments, since the feedback is not much dependent of that length of string. It could be of more relvance on an acoustic guitar if the sympathetic ringing of the that length of string is getting on your nerves. But then I would not use a Van Eps Damper, where it's necessary to drill holes in the headstock til fit it. Anything sqeezed in between the strings and the fretboard at the first fret close to the nut will work just the same way. The original Van Eps damper has been discontinued for decades, but from time to time dampers working the same way has popped up - usually at a high price. They also have disappeared without a trace after some time - likely because you really don't have to pay anything, let alone a high price, or drill holes in your guitar to get the effect. Anything - a rolled piece of kitchen tissue, a short length of shoe string, a small strip of velcro - whatever - put between the strings and the fretboard will do the trick.

A lot of the bass players are using them now. A hair tie for a ponytail is what I see. Victor Wooton is who I noticed first, now I see them everywhere.

**pdfiddler** · 03-08-2023, 04:26 AM

Originally Posted by entresz

I did a two hour gig with my 70s Les Paul Recording last week and had a very sore shoulder.... four hours would be too much for me!

Those are over 10 lbs more like 12.
Not the weight of a normal LP

**Lionelsax** · 07-26-2023, 03:26 PM

Both sound good, there is just a little difference, solid bodies can play with a beautiful sustain, the archtop is more comfortable for very traditional comping à la Freddie Green and maybe for the neck.
Except this it's the same thing even if I prefer solid body guitars because they can have the sound you want with a little bit of understanding of how things work.

**pingu** · 07-26-2023, 05:13 PM

I would have said Hollow but I just got my
First Telecaster
and I'm really digging it !

So I didn't vote in the poll !

**frabarmus** · 07-27-2023, 05:11 AM

I much prefer the sound and feel of a hollowbody, but I've used just a solid body for 6 years (playing Jazz with it) and it was ok and as jazzy as I could get it to sound (but never the same as a hollow). Nowdays I play hollowbody + I'm having a small, travel, short-scale, headless solidbody being built that I can always bring with me anywhere I want to.

**GuyBoden** · 07-27-2023, 09:44 AM

Personally, some guitar shapes are easier for me to use sitting for long periods of time, whilst practicing, without too much fatigue. In my case, this means an ergonomic solid Strandberg type body design, although, I have many excellent archtop guitars and prefer how a good archtop guitar sounds.

**pingu** · 07-27-2023, 06:53 PM

ok i just did a band rehearsal
with my new tele ….

I prefer my hollowbody ….
i can vote in the poll now !

**Doug B** · 11-29-2023, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by JamesAP

I'm new to jazz guitar. I prefer solid body electric guitars. I'm curious about how many jazz guitarists prefer solid body to hollow body.

Why do we have to choose one or the other? I use solid, semi and hollow bodies. So do many.

**rpjazzguitar** · 12-03-2023, 05:36 PM

I like full size archtops when other players play them.

When I play them I don't like dealing with feedback, they feel too big and they may not sustain enough on high notes.

I find it easier to get my sound from a semi with a block or a solid, which don't always sound all that different to me.

**pdfiddler** · 12-08-2023, 02:55 AM

Using 335 now, does a great job

**Greywolf** · 12-08-2023, 05:43 AM

While I have a wide array of solid, semi hollow and hollowbody instruments , I feel traditional Jazz is best suited to hollowbodies with flatwounds. For the modern , fusionesque adventures solids have there place.

**dconeill** · 03-17-2025, 12:20 AM

Jim Hall - hollow
Ed Bickert - solid

What more is there to say? Play what you want, the sound of you will come out of it.

**Cunamara** · 03-17-2025, 12:48 AM

Originally Posted by Cunamara

Much the same for me these days. The GB10 is the biggest guitar I can comfortably play, at least seated which is most of the time, rather than my full-size archtop or dreadnought. My low back and sciatica just starts to hurt from the compromising position*. With my solidbodies (esp my Stratishcaster) or my semi hollow classical (Rick Turner RN-6), I can play much more comfortably for longer. And I have come to find that I can better approximate the sound in my head with those instruments them with my full size carved top- partly because they seem to work better for fingerstyle playing.

And they all sound better if I am wearing the cap.

* my wife refers to these complaints as the "organ recital."

Talking to myself, I guess. It's funny how things change over time. When I wrote this post back in 2023, it was true for me at that time. Since then, I have added an ES-175 to the stable and put a different pickup on my archtop with a floater (Pete Biltoft floating PAF); I use those guitars much more now. I've started playing with a strap in all cases even when seated, which has pretty much resolved the back pain problem that I was having. I can sit up with a better posture and not be so hunched over the instrument. It took quite a bit of experimentation to find the right position for each guitar, but now I can play them comfortably. The ergonomics of the ES-175 are particularly nice, and with the new pickup I find myself really liking the carvetop and wanting to play it more. My Telecasters are languishing lately and being not well attended to, my Stratishcaster still sees a fair amount of use (it too has new pickups and I am much happier with them).

Something else that seems to be interesting is that nobody particularly cares what guitar I play but me. Drummers, bassists, sax players, trumpeters, etc., don't care. They care what I play, not what I play it on. Other guitar players express an interest, which is not a surprise. For better or for worse, mostly worse, I sound like me no matter which guitar I am playing.

I've also noticed that cycles come and go in terms of what instrument I gravitate towards. A month from now, I may be thinking "boy, these Telecasters are really fun to play" and be playing them more than the others. It seems to be influenced by who I'm listening to: if I'm listening to Ed Bickert, I want to play my Telecaster; if I'm listening to Jim Hall, I want to play my ES-175; if I'm listening to Peter Bernstein, I want to play my carvetop; etc.

I keep thinking I should simplify my life by getting it down to one archtop, one solid body, my flat top acoustic and my classical. It's still four guitars, probably three more than I really need. For years I have thought that I could get away with my only guitar being the Ibanez GB 10, which is probably still true. I've had it for more than 40 years now

**ScarTissue** · 03-17-2025, 04:52 AM

I tried Epiphone ES 339, and I must say that I prefer solid body.
(Semi) Hollows just feel strange with my body. I have a strange feeling when I play (semi) hollow ...
I mean like - guitar to body - feeling - it just feels odd.
Other than that - I like tone of (semi) hollows.

**supersoul** · 03-17-2025, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by supersoul

I go back and forth. The acoustic archtop is perhaps more unique and suited (for me) to acoustic jazz, but when I try to amplify it I quickly understand how the solidbody electric came about. Feedback control.

It's a similar difference between a double bass and an electric bass; they are just two distinct instruments. The shape of the notes are different. The acoustic archtop and the double bass have a more percussive attack and less sustain.

So I like both. I've been thinking of trying a Casino Coupe (the smaller version of the Casino) just to try out a hollowbody electric.

It's funny to read what I wrote two years ago. I now own a Casino and think it's great, and I now own a cheap strat and a weird old Japanese dual humbucker jobbie from the 70s, and I think the both of them are great. Guitars are just great, and whichever one is in my hands at the moment is my favorite. It's amazing what a setup can do.

**Marker** · 03-26-2025, 02:50 AM

So many different guitars and pickups work well for jazz, I think it comes down to the feel of the neck and the amp being used.

For me, I need a wider nut width and a bit of chunk in the neck so even though a Telecaster can sound great they tend to not work for me regarding string spacing and the feel of the maple.

I tend toward P90s and use either a 50s Les Paul (goldtop) or a p90 equipped L-5CT. The amp is super important and I am just a dedicated valve amp person, my current love is an old tweed Princeton amp which makes almost any guitar sound good but works particularly well with p90s IMHO.

**Oscar67** · 03-26-2025, 03:08 AM

Originally Posted by supersoul

…whichever one is in my hands at the moment is my favorite. It's amazing what a setup can do.

+1

Really wish I could be that guy who always plays the same guitar, perhaps with one extra cheap guitar as a backup. I’m not that guy. Rotating keeps me inspired.

The hollowbody vs solidbody question isn’t really a thing for me. Some players just have great tone, some don’t. Ulf Wakenius played a $100 LP copy for decades, straight into a jazz chorus, and he sounded killer. These days he’s playing a Benedetto into the ground and he still sounds great. Personally I gravitate towards thinline hollowbodies, they offer the practicality of a solidbody but I can really hear the air and the wood behind the notes. Best of both worlds for me.

**GuyBoden** · 03-26-2025, 08:27 AM

Generally, the bigger hollow bodied guitars seem to have a more 'air' and 'woody' sound. You can hear them acoustically as you play, which can be inspiring. But, the thicker a carved top and a thicker finish lessens the acoustic qualities. IMHO.

But, I did have a small bodied hollow 'Jimmy Foster' guitar that had an impressive acoustic sound for a 15 inch body. It had a thin top and thin finish.