Variations
Other semi-acoustic instruments include basses and mandolins. 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 and Epiphone Casino), 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).
In the 1970s, John Veleno made a polished aluminum guitar. Liquid Metal Guitars makes a metal body guitar made out of a solid block of aluminum and then chrome or gold-plates the instrument. Several metal bodies were made in the 1950s by violin and cello makers.
Other guitars are borderline between semi-acoustic and solid body. For example, some Telecaster guitars have chambers built in to 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. Exactly where the line is to be drawn between a constructed sound box and a solid wooden body, whose construction also affects the sound according to many players, is not generally agreed. Any of the following can be called semi-acoustic:
- Instruments starting from a solid body "blank" which has been routed out to make a chambered body guitar.
- Instruments with semi-hollow bodies constructed from plates of wood around a solid core, having no soundholes, such as the Gibson Lucille or Brian May Red Special.
- Instruments with a solid core but hollow bouts and soundholes (usually f-holes), such as the Gibson ES-335. In these, the bridge is fixed to a solid block of wood rather than to a sounding board, and the belly vibration is minimised much as in a solid body instrument.
- Thin-bodied archtop guitars, such as the Epiphone Casino. These possess both a sounding board and sound box, but the function of these is purely to modify the sound transmitted to the pickups. Such guitars are still intended purely as electric instruments, and while they do make some sound when the pickups are not used, the tone is weak and not normally considered musically useful.
- Full hollowbody semi-acoustic instruments, such as the Gibson ES-175; these have a full-size sound box, but are still intended to be played through an amplifier.
Read more about this topic: Semi-acoustic Guitar
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