small bodied guitars - hollow and semi-hollow?

[Top of the Arch!]

A Seventy Seven Stork Jazz or an Albatross Jazz, both well under two thousand. Both hand made in Japan with solid woods, ebony fingerboards and lacquer finish. Both semis. Bob . PM me if interested. Thanks.

[Scotto]

Always thought these Les Paul jazzers were cool.

[Top of the Arch!]

Always thought these Les Paul jazzers were cool.

Yes they are very cool. Masaki at Walkin is a nice cat to buy from too. Bob

[sgosnell]

I have an Eastman T145 that I really like. Fully hollow, carved spruce top, sounds like a big archtop amplified, decent acoustic tone. They're no longer made, AFAIK, but they're available used. The current model is the T146, which has a 16" bout instead of the 15" of the T145. Either is a very good value IMO. There's just something about a humbucker set into a carved top that I really like. The pickup vibrating under the strings gives something akin to reverb, a more complex sound than it's possible to get from a solidbody or a floating pickup. You can get it from a laminated top, but it's more subtle.

[Woody Sound]

Check out the Carvin SH550 / SH575 semis. (The 575 adds piezo acoustic blend and synth output.) Bigger than LP, smaller than a 335. Very comfy size.

Custom Shop USA Guitars | KieselGuitars.com

You can get most any finish/option you can think of. And they sometimes pop up on ebay or reverb, if you're looking for used.

[agentsmith]

In terms of full hollow bodies, there are few 2.5" guitars that I really like. I have owned/tried the painter, benedetto, holst, eastman T145, Collings, eastman 803 and several others. I didn't much care for any of them, ultimately. The problem is that most of these manufacturers just took a 3.5" and made it thinner without thinking about the loss of dynamics, freq response, etc.

A couple that I do like are the Ibanez PM-120 and the Gibson 175T

In terms of semihollows, they are all over the map in terms of capturing a full hollowbody vibe. I really like the Gibson 339 and of course the sadowsky semi is fabulous...

[JakeAcci]

Thanks guys! these are all great.

Narrowing it down a bit, how about under $1k?

[bananafist]

The Gibson ES-275 is a small bodied hollowbody, 15" wide, 2" deep, 24.75" scale and beautiful, just like a mini L5. The body is in fact an L5 shape scaled down by 10%. Great sounding pickups too.
I have a couple of custom built tele-types, chambered bodies, 5 1/2lbs each and easy to play, but Gibson neck is better (to me) for jazz type playing. (I hesitate to call my playing jazz!)
Peerless Maestro and Virtuoso are nice compact, light, guitars too.

[Headshot]

I have tried a lot of hollow and semihollow guitars, and the only one I have kept is not usually mentioned on the jazz side, but I love my Epi Wildkat. I bought it on the way home from my cancer surgery last August 29th, and it still makes me happy. If you don't want the Bigsby there is a Studio model with a typical Gibson-style stop tail, but I love having a giggle stick.

[IbanezAS100]

If you'd rather stick with the strat ergonomics, I would recommend the Cort M custom. Fantastic guitar with a great spec, Duncan pickups, Tone Pros etc. Its earlier incarnation, the M800 was my workhorse for years.

The PRS SE semi hollow is another option.

If you prefer more of an archtop flavour, the Ibanez AG series are great (the semi hollow AGS as well, I've owned an AGS83 for almost 10 years).

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Thanks guys! these are all great.

Narrowing it down a bit, how about under $1k?

My pony is out of the running. I don't think you can get a used Eastman El Rey that low.

[christianm77]

don't have time to read all posts. But Godin Montreal anybody?

[Jim Soloway]

Thanks guys! these are all great.

Narrowing it down a bit, how about under $1k?

There's a nice D'Angelico EX-SS on the sales forum for $1000.

[Herbie]

What about the Little Sister? These look interesting.



https://bngguitars.com

[macuaig]

don't have time to read all posts. But Godin Montreal anybody?

Now that I have the Epi ES-339, I'm feeling an itch for the Godin Montreal Premiere Supreme. Of course it's four times the cost, and seems somewhat close to what I have already (well, minus the coil-splitting and dual vol/tone knobs, plus the trapeze, LP shape, better wood...never mind). But I haven't pulled off a decent barred chord yet and I already have two guitars and a ukulele, so I'm staying in my spider hole for a bit.

[garryrenfro]

My pony is out of the running. I don't think you can get a used Eastman El Rey that low.

El Reys are quite often sold under $1K. I have two and love them well. Both were less than $1k each. Of course the El Rey 2 was a husk in poor shape, requiring a great deal of work.

[JakeAcci]

thanks again everybody. a lot of great stuff to look up. and maybe save up for.

[arnie65]

John Stowell turned me on to the Soulezza on YT.

Awesome guitar, just got mine in September..



Cheers,
Arnie..

[JakeAcci]

Went to a small guitar shop today, had an interesting experience.

They had mostly the big names.

Guitars I tried out:

several thinline teles
a few jazzmasters
gibson es336 and 335
les pauls
a yamaha semi-hollow
an american strat (for reference, as that's been my main guitar for a while.)

Played them all through a twin reverb

For some reason I can't stand playing a tele, I always hate it! In theory I should like it...

Jazzmasters were fine but preferred the strat.

es336 was beautiful in look and sounded great, however I felt I got more of what I wanted with the $900 Yamaha, oddly enough. The Yamaha sounded great and was very respectable as a "modern" jazz sound - whatever that means now. Had a very big sound but also could do more chime-y epic-big reverb kind of stuff which is something I enjoy. The smaller es336 sounded and played a little bit more like a solid body than the yamaha.

still really liked the color and quirkiness of the strat and the single coils.

I was thinking that if I did something like the G&L legacy semi-hollow that it might be something I'd like but not exactly a 'strat with more depth.' Perhaps I need some medium sized semi hollow with HBs and good coil tapping so I can access that color of single coils at times, or blend it.

Still hard to suss things out, because for every quality of a guitar I liked or disliked, was it the body, the pickups, the neck, the weight, the materials, the bridge...what? Hard to be scientific about this.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Still hard to suss things out, because for every quality of a guitar I liked or disliked, was it the body, the pickups, the neck, the weight, the materials, the bridge...what? Hard to be scientific about this.

I think a guitar is more than the sum of its parts: you could spec out a guitar that looks great on paper then when you play it ... meh. That's why I can't buy a guitar online.

[JakeAcci]

I think a guitar is more than the sum of its parts: you could spec out a guitar that looks great on paper then when you play it ... meh. That's why I can't buy a guitar online.

maddening! But also great because I've been saving so much money all these years not buying guitars.

[rabbit]

Many choices here, new, for around a grand$.

Especially take a look at the 'BluesBird' , 'T-50 Slim' and the 'M-75 Aristocrat.'
Korean, good necks, fret & all around quality. I've an 'A-150 Savoy' that is very nice indeed.

Electric Guitars | Guild Guitars

[Drifter]

Can't believe it took 49 posts for the Aristocrat to come up. Small, full hollow featherweight, sounds and plays wonderful.

Small and semi-hollow I vote for the Heritage Millennium. Mine is quite heavy though.

[jim777]

What about the Little Sister? These look interesting.



https://bngguitars.com

I LOVE the sound of these, but I don't know if I could live without the upper frets. Very interesting guitar!

[Hammertone]

What about the Little Sister? These look interesting.

Well-built hipster abomination being blasted across the universe through heavy use of social media.
"hey, let's reverse the f-hole orientation, and place them too low. Y'know, to make them REALLY ugly."
These kids today, why, I oughta...