A semi-acoustic guitar, hollow-body electric, or thinline is a type of
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
that was first created in the 1930s. It has a
sound box
A sound box or sounding box (sometimes written soundbox) is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibr ...
and at least one electric
pickup. The semi-acoustic guitar is different to an
acoustic-electric guitar
An acoustic-electric guitar is an acoustic guitar fitted with a microphone or a magnetic or piezoelectric pickup. They are used in a variety of music genres where the sound of an acoustic guitar is desired but more volume is required, especiall ...
, which is an
acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
with the addition of pickups or other means of amplification, added by either the manufacturer or the player.
History
In the 1930s, guitar manufacturers aimed at increasing the sound level produced by the instrument, to compete with louder instruments such as the drums.
[Ingram, Adrian, A Concise History of the Electric Guitar, Melbay, 2001.] Companies such as Gibson, Rickenbacker and Gretsch focused on amplifying a guitar through a loudspeaker. In 1936,
Gibson
Gibson may refer to:
People
* Gibson (surname)
Businesses
* Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment
* Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based
* Gi ...
introduced their first manufactured semi-acoustic guitars, the
ES-150
The Gibson Guitar Corporation's ES-150 guitar is generally recognized as the world's first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and Gibson designated it "150" because they priced it (in an in ...
s (Electric Spanish Series).
[Hunter, Dave, The Rough Guide to Guitar, Penguin Books, 2011.]
Gibson based them on a standard production
archtop
An archtop guitar is a hollow electric or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with jazz, blues, and rockabilly players.
Typically, an archtop guitar has:
* Six strings
* An arc ...
, with
f holes on the face of the guitar's
soundbox
A sound box or sounding box (sometimes written soundbox) is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vib ...
. This model resembled traditional jazz guitars that were popular at the time. The soundbox on the guitar let limited sound emit from the hollow body of the guitar. The
ES-150
The Gibson Guitar Corporation's ES-150 guitar is generally recognized as the world's first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and Gibson designated it "150" because they priced it (in an in ...
s could be electrically amplified via a
Charlie Christian pickup
The Gibson Guitar Corporation's ES-150 guitar is generally recognized as the world's first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and Gibson designated it "150" because they priced it (in an ins ...
, a magnetic single-coil pickup that converted the energy of the vibrating strings into an electrical signal.
The clear sound of the pickups made the ES series popular with jazz musicians.
The ES-150 was made several years after
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range ...
made the first solid-body electric guitar. The ES series was designed as an experiment for Gibson to test the potential success of electric guitars. Due to its financial success, the ES series is often referred to as the first successful electric guitar. The ES-150 was followed by the
ES-250 a year later, in what became a long line of semi acoustics for the Gibson company.
[Miller, A.J., The Electric Guitar: A History of an American Icon, Baltimore, MD, Smithsonian Institution, 2004.
]
In 1949 Gibson released two new models: the
ES-175
The Gibson ES-175 (1949-2019) is a hollow body Jazz electric guitar manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. The ES-175 became one of Gibson's most popular guitar designs.
History
In 1949 the ES-175 was introduced by the Gibson Guitar comp ...
and
ES-5. The
ES-175
The Gibson ES-175 (1949-2019) is a hollow body Jazz electric guitar manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. The ES-175 became one of Gibson's most popular guitar designs.
History
In 1949 the ES-175 was introduced by the Gibson Guitar comp ...
and
ES-5 models were the first to come with built-in electric
pickups and are widely considered the first fully electric semi-acoustic guitars.
[Martin A. Darryl, Innovation and the Development of the Modern Six-String, ''The Galpin Society Journal'' (Vol. 51), 1998.] Several models, including the
ES-350T by Gibson, were made in the 1950s to accommodate a demand for a comfortable and modern version of the original archtop model.
In 1958, Gibson first manufactured a 'semi-hollow body guitar' that featured a block of solid wood between the front and back sections of the guitars'
cutaway. The guitar had a smaller resonant cavity inside, which makes less sound emit from the f holes.
Rickenbacker also began making semi-acoustic guitars in 1958. German guitar crafter, Roger Rossmiesl developed the
300 series for Rickenbacker. The series was a wide semi-acoustic that used a sleeker dash hole on one side of the guitar, with a pick guard on the other side, rather than a traditional f hole.
In addition to the main model variants of the guitar, Gibson made several small changes to the guitar, including a laminated top for the
ES-175
The Gibson ES-175 (1949-2019) is a hollow body Jazz electric guitar manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. The ES-175 became one of Gibson's most popular guitar designs.
History
In 1949 the ES-175 was introduced by the Gibson Guitar comp ...
model and mounted top pickups for general use on all their models.
While
Gibson
Gibson may refer to:
People
* Gibson (surname)
Businesses
* Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment
* Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based
* Gi ...
provided many of the innovations in semi-acoustic guitars from the 1930s to the 1950s, there were also various makes by other companies including a hollow archtop by
Gretsch
Gretsch is an American company that manufactures musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Friedrich Gretsc ...
. The
6120 model by Gretsch became very popular as a rockabilly model despite having almost no technical differences from Gibson models.
[Carter, William, The Gibson Guitar Book: Seventy Years of Classic Guitar, New York, NY, Backbeatbooks, 2007.] Rickenbacker was also a prominent maker of the semi-hollow body guitar. Gibson, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, and other companies still make semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars.
Usage
The semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars were used widely by jazz musicians in the 1930s.
The guitar became used in pop, folk, and blues. The guitars sometimes produced
feedback
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...
when played through an amplifier at a loud level so they were unpopular for bands that had to play loud enough to perform in large venues. As rock became more experimental in the late 60s and 70s, the guitar became more popular because players learned to use its feedback issues creatively; One example is
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony Nugent (; born December 13, 1948) is an American rock musician and activist. He initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock an ...
, who primarily plays the semi-acoustic
Gibson Byrdland
The Byrdland is an electric guitar made by Gibson. Its name derives from the names of guitarists Billy Byrd and Hank Garland for whom Gibson originally custom-built the guitar.
Thinline series
The Byrdland is the first of Gibson's Thinline se ...
.
Semi-hollow guitars share some of the tonal characteristics of hollow guitars, such as their praised warmth and clean tone. However, the addition of the central block helps to manage feedback and allows the guitar to be played normally at higher gain and higher volume. Semi-hollow guitars with a central block are also more durable than fully hollow guitars, whose sound is particularly popular with
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
,
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
,
rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...
and
psychobilly
Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ram ...
guitarists.
Today, semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars are still popular among many artists across various genres. Examples include
Dan Auerbach
Daniel Quine Auerbach (; born May 14, 1979) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. As a member of the group, Auerbach has ...
of
The Black Keys
The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing their ...
, renowned jazz guitarist
George Benson
George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist.
A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, pla ...
,
John Scofield
John Scofield (born December 26, 1951), sometimes referred to as "Sco", is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention in the ...
, multi-instrumentalist
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
and former
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...
member
Izzy Stradlin
Jeffrey Dean Isbell (born April 8, 1962), best known as Izzy Stradlin, is an American guitarist. He was a co-founder and rhythm guitarist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, which he left at the height of their fame in 1991, and with whom he ...
. Famous guitarists of the past who have used semi acoustic guitars include
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
of
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
and
B.B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...
, both of whom have had signature semi-acoustic models released. Semi-acoustic guitars have also been valued as practice guitars because, when played "unplugged," they are quieter than full acoustic guitars, but more audible than solid-body electric guitars because of their open cavity. They are also popular because the cavities reduce the weight of the guitar.
With most solid-body guitars, the electronics are accessed, repaired, or replaced by removing either the pick guard or an access panel on the back of the guitar's body. In a semi-acoustic guitar, where there is no solid body to create a chamber to house the electronics, these components are pushed or pulled through the lower f-hole of the guitar's body.
Variations
Other semi-acoustic instruments include
basses
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass ...
and
mandolins
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
. These are similarly constructed to semi-acoustic guitars, and are used in the same ways and with the same limitations.
Some semi-acoustic models have a fully hollow body (for instance the
Gibson ES-175
The Gibson ES-175 (1949-2019) is a hollow body Jazz electric guitar manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. The ES-175 became one of Gibson's most popular guitar designs.
History
In 1949 the ES-175 was introduced by the Gibson Guitar comp ...
and
Epiphone Casino
The Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. The guitar debuted in 1961 and has been associated with such guitarists as Howlin' Wolf, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, K ...
), others may have a solid center block running the length and depth of the body, called semi hollow body (for instance the
Gibson ES-335
The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody electric guitar, sometimes known as semi-acoustic. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES (Electric Spanish) series in 1958, it is neither fully hollow nor ful ...
).
Other guitars are borderline between semi-acoustic and solid body. For example, some guitars have chambers built into an otherwise solid body to enrich the sound. This type of instrument can be referred to as a
semi-hollow or a
chambered body guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
.
Players disagree on exactly where to draw the line between a constructed sound box and a solid wooden body (whose construction also affects the sound according to many players). Any of the following can be called semi-acoustic:
* Instruments that start from a solid body ''blank'' that has been
routed out to make a
chambered body guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
, such as the
Fender Telecaster Thinline
* Instruments with semi-hollow bodies constructed from plates of wood around a solid core, with no soundholes, such as the
Gibson Lucille
Lucille is the name American blues musician B.B. King (1925–2015) gave to his guitars. They were usually black Gibson guitars similar to the ES-330 or ES-355, and Gibson introduced a B.B. King custom model in 1980, based upon the latter.
Th ...
or
Brian May
Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and astrophysicist, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen (band), Queen. May was a co-founder of Queen with lead singer Fredd ...
Red Special
The Red Special is the electric guitar designed and built by Queen's guitarist Brian May and his father, Harold, when Brian was a teenager in the early 1960s. The Red Special is sometimes referred to as the Fireplace or the Old Lady by May and ...
* Instruments with a solid core but hollow bouts and soundholes (usually f-holes), such as the
Gibson ES-335
The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody electric guitar, sometimes known as semi-acoustic. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES (Electric Spanish) series in 1958, it is neither fully hollow nor ful ...
. In these, the
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
is fixed to a solid block of wood rather than to a
sounding board
A sounding board, also known as a tester and abat-voix is a structure placed above and sometimes also behind a pulpit or other speaking platform that helps to project the sound of the speaker. It is usually made of wood. The structure may be spe ...
, and the belly vibration is minimised much as in a solid body instrument
* Thin-bodied archtop guitars, such as the
Epiphone Casino
The Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. The guitar debuted in 1961 and has been associated with such guitarists as Howlin' Wolf, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, K ...
, that have a sounding board and
sound box
A sound box or sounding box (sometimes written soundbox) is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibr ...
, but purely to modify the sound transmitted to the pickups—still intended as purely electric instruments because of their weak acoustic sound
* Full hollowbody semi-acoustic instruments, often called
Jazz guitar
Jazz guitar may refer to either a type of electric guitar or a guitar playing style in jazz, using electric amplification to increase the volume of acoustic guitars.
In the early 1930s, jazz musicians sought to amplify their sound to be hear ...
s, such as the
Gibson ES-175
The Gibson ES-175 (1949-2019) is a hollow body Jazz electric guitar manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. The ES-175 became one of Gibson's most popular guitar designs.
History
In 1949 the ES-175 was introduced by the Gibson Guitar comp ...
; these have a full-size sound box, but are still intended to be played through an amplifier.
Sound Hole Variations:
* Many hollow body guitars, both semi and full have Cat-Eyed or Cat Eye sound holes which are shaped like the eye of a cat instead of the traditional F Holes.
Gallery
Image:B.B. King, Lucille, 2009-07-17.jpg, B. B. King's Lucille
Image:Left handed epiphone dot.jpg, Epiphone Dot
Image:Gibson ES-335 sunburst.jpg, Gibson ES-335
The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody electric guitar, sometimes known as semi-acoustic. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES (Electric Spanish) series in 1958, it is neither fully hollow nor ful ...
Image:Rickenbacker 330JG.jpg, The Rickenbacker 330
The Rickenbacker 330 is part of Rickenbacker's 300 series of guitars, the series for which Rickenbacker is perhaps best known. The 330 entered the Rickenbacker product line in 1958, though at the time the 300 series of guitars was known as the "C ...
JG
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semi-Acoustic Guitar
Amplified instruments
Guitars
String instrument construction