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We've all seen the video comparing sound difference. (Or perceived difference. Or no major difference. etc.) Both can nail a jazz tone. Whatever a "jazz tone" is.
But how do players of both feel the two styles compare in terms of comfort? And if you have both, what makes you pick up one versus the other?
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12-06-2023 05:39 PM
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It really depends on what you are used to but I find I pick up a solid body a bit more simply because that's what I played for years. Also, they are more durable instruments and don't feedback. They simply hug my body better and when playing in front of a computer they have less of a tendency to hit my desk. They are certainly less cumbersome in regards to neck joints, as well. I ALWAYS feel I can play faster on my solid body.
Archtops will obviously be thicker but honestly it's not a huge deal once you've gotten adjusted to it. Because of body depth I find my picking hand is higher in relation to my legs and that I actually do prefer over a solid body. There is something very infectious, however, of playing an archtop and feeling the back vibrating against your chest but that is unrelated to comfort.
Overall, I say solid body wins for comfort.
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It’s pure personal preference. I’m almost exactly 180° from the previous post. I have both, but rarely pick up my Tele (or Strat).
My archtop weighs less, is more comfortable to hold, plays faster, and sound much better unplugged.
Sometimes I pick up my Tele to mix it up, but mostly I play my hollow body. I have both regular 3” and a thinline with 1.5” rims. My hand find either more often than my solid body guitars.
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That is very true and I forgot to mention the weight of archtops. They are super light which is great and playing unplugged is definitely a huge plus in terms of ease of use. When I had an archtop I was playing unplugged 99% of the time.
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Tele's shine in sustained upper voices. You also get harmonics more easily. These can be said about all solids and semi-hollows actually.
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I had a Tele copy (G&L), and I gave it to my son. I wasn't playing it. It's heavy, the neck is thin, and playing unplugged is not a great experience. Full-depth archtops are also uncomfortable for me. My preference is for semi-thin archtops, 2 to 2.75" deep, and 2-2.5" is better. Full-depth guitars used to be fine, but as I get older I like bigger bodies less and less.
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I recommend not playing "uncomfortable" guitars, regardless of style/design - you will end up getting hurt!
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Unless you tend to play many different styles on one guitar, I just don't see how tele can compete with archtops for jazz application. If I have a strictly jazz gig I will sure take my hollowbody, not the tele. Unless I'm traveling, or some other logisitcal reason, but never as the tone preference.
If you play some fusion or something, maybe. Otherwise for straight ahead jazz, please, don't bring a tele if you can help it. Just not the right vibe.
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Once the music is loud enough that you can only hear the amp, you may as well be playing a Jackson Dinky.
Sound wise.
I'm only sort of kidding.
Feel is another thing entirely. ALWAYS try to play the guitar that feels best for the situation.
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I know I'm going against the grain somewhat given that this is a jazz (i.e. archtop crowd) guitar forum, but a Telecaster is objectively a sleeker, slimmer, more durable design and as such will be more ergonomic to a larger crowd of people than an archtop guitar. This is all independent of sound as what is being discussed is ergonomics and comfortability. I personally think nothing beats the sound of an all carved archtop but a telecaster, for a larger group of people, will certainly be more comfortable.
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I like the P90s in my archtop better than the tele pickup. I also think the archtop is a more comfortable shape and it's pretty, and I like it more. And the archtop doesn't need an amp, and I like simple things.
Originally Posted by Blkat
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I just finished a Tele build, and am about to put another one back together that I refinished. The refin with a SD Alnico 2 in the neck really hits a nice mellow tone. The new build is OK, but I'm not liking it quite as much. (I made it to sell at auction, so not a big deal to me. Some kid will probably get it and rock out to AC/DC.)
That said, I prefer the archtops or for a different experience my Cordoba Stage. Right now I'm playing my Gretsch G6117T-HT mostly, second my 175. They have the thunk and an indescribable feel that is like an ASMR kind of thing. I don't have to play around to get the tone I want. The necks are super comfortable.
And they look the part.
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I'm slightly cheating on the tele part (it's an EJ thinline strat the I've tele-fied a bit with a charlie Christian in the neck and a Duncan twang banger in the bridge). But for me it's just a feel thing in two ways. The acoustic response is the main one, whether I'm after that full dynamic range or the compressed amp sound. I also find that the acoustic response of an arch top makes me play a little softer, which can be nice for the tone. The second is that my arch top requires more effort to play, not that one is faster or slower, but the arch top is a bit more of a fight. I tend to gravitate towards it when im practicing, but out playing I tend towards my strat or 330 for that reason.
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Would it be fair to say the comfort/ergonomics and even playability (disregarding tone) of an archtop are akin to those of a flattop acoustic? Thicker, lighter, but maybe a bit more work for the right hand?
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No. It depends on the specific guitars you’re comparing and how they’re set up. That’s true for both comfort and playability. Originally Posted by Blkat
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i have a strange experience playing
a tele i can’t work out why ….
perhaps someone can help
when I play my lam archtop with
a band I can leave the volume as
it is more or less , control my projection with pick attack
When I try it with a tele I’m fiddling
with the Volume knob all the time
for solos , sitting well with the dynamics of the band etc etc
I wanted to like the tele but I can’t
be doing with all that volume fiddling all night ….
Anyone else find this ?
Maybe a solid plank guitar just isn’t as dynamic as a Box
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That's definitely true. The more acoustically resonant an archtop, the more electrically dynamic it gets. But even the stiff, heavy hollowbodies are more dynamic than solid bodies in my experience. Originally Posted by pingu
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I don’t know that that is a tele vs archtop issue. I suspect a setup issue, and further would guess that your strings on the Tele may be closer to the strings than makes sense for those particular pickups.
With the caveat that it is near impossible to diagnose setup issues over the phone, I would play with the pickup height a little in your Tele and see if you can solve your issue.
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I've tried repeatedly to like archtops and, even now, am on the hunt for a good Ibanez GB10 which I may or may not talk myself out of . I've had S400, JS, 175, 165, 335, ES5, Peerless (something), and I don't know how many other archtops over the years and have ended up getting rid of all of them because......they just weren't Teles. Got my first one ('68) for $120 in 1971 and played it for 35 years then parted it out and I've built close to, probably, 75 of them since then. I've built solid, chambered, and hollowed ones of every color and pickup configuration imaginable. I don't know the reason..... they just seem right and every archtop I've had seemed like a chore to play - and don't say 'setup' because I used to do that for a living. Sure would like to have a GB10 though - probably best neck I ever had in my hands and couldn't afford it at the time. YMMV.
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You raise an interesting point. There is a decided cool factor to archtops. Right now, I'm on the hunt for one. Sort of. But it seems, whether new or used, there's a decided hit or miss factor. Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
I've had numerous guitars in my life. Most have been inevitably sold. Right now I'm selling a Gretsch because I've tried to talk myself into liking it for years now. It's beautiful, it sounds good, but it doesn't work... for me. Because one can fret about the specs, the precedents, the looks, the build, etc. until the cows come home. But if you don't connect with that one specific guitar, it's just not a love connection no matter how much you try.
Teles are great guitars because they are so simple they can be whatever you want them to be. The same slab of wood can sound like Joe Strummer or like Ted Greene with a few minor tweaks. So while there are clearly gems and every now and again a clunker, I think getting it "right" with a tele is simply easier than with a chambered instrument.
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Same strings action Humbuckers on both Tele and archtop Originally Posted by rlrhett
Same distance from strings ....
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Ok maybe that's it ....I Originally Posted by Tal_175
for info
my jazz box is a Laminate fairly heavily braced Ibanez
half stuffed with foam but it's still much more
dynamic than the tele
The tele's got a good sound at home and on the gig
It's just the lack of extra punch when I dig in means I have
to turn up the volume control for playing heads and solos , doubling lines with a horn etc
Maybe a tele's just not for me ....
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IME my Teles sound fine, are easier to get in and out of the gig or jam session, are much more durable. Ergonomically they are much better to play sitting down than my 17" archtop and a little better than my GB10. But when standing the slab style body is just never quite comfortable no matter what, whereas either archtop is fine to play standing. I have a Strattishcaster that's very comfortable standing and sitting, needs a strap in both cases. The lack of feedback with the solidbodies is important, removes one hassle completely.
The amplified archtop is a kludge. Frequencies don't amplify evenly, there are wolf tones, they sound dramatically different one room to the next, and given a tenth of a chance will howl like a banshee if your amp is louder than a whisper. They need to be coddled and fettled, adjusted, humidified, polished, petted and praised or they won't perform. And we want a dark, fat smoky sound from an instrument designed to be inherently bright, thin and cutting (it replaced the banjo in big bands, after all).
In terms of comfort in most my playing situations, the Teles and Strat thump the 17" archtop and are about a dead heat with the GB10. But there's the visual/romance factor that the archtop has- all those compound curves, dramatic woods- and the tradition of archtop guitars in jazz that exerts a pull. The archtop looks like jazz- the Tele looks like country, the Strat looks like rock.
If I was held at gunpoint and had to give up all of my guitars but one, though, the one I'd keep is the GB10. And my tweed Deluxe.
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To actually answer the original question, I don't have a tele, but I do have a strat, so close enough. I also have a semi-hollow and an archtop. The strat is the most comfortable to play, but they're all comfortable enough, so it's not really a factor in which one leaves the house with me. It mostly comes down to which one works best for the music at hand, and things like the room where I'm playing, or whether I'm using my own amp or a mystery backline amp. But honestly, a fair amount of it is just random mood/preference.
I think a lot of what people are saying here about the differences between the different types of electric guitars is greatly exaggearted. IMO, if it has a neck pickup, it'll work for jazz (and sometimes even if it doesn't have a neck pickup). Most people sound like themselves on whatever guitar they play.Last edited by John A.; 12-08-2023 at 11:11 AM.
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It’s called an electric guitar because there are electric controls on it. You are actually supposed to use them Originally Posted by pingu
Having said that, I can get a fairly wide range of dynamics on my telecaster, simply by picking harder or softer. I can’t do that as well on my archtop, because if you hit it too softly, it doesn’t sound at all.
And if you hit a Tele extra hard, it goes into a sort of natural compression, which I like a lot, and is part of its appeal for me.
Finally, I think an arch top is sort of a One Trick Pony. Can you guess which camp I’m in?
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