Solid, semi-hollow, or full hollow, and why?

[adorshki]

Semi-hollow is the term you’re looking for, but otherwise correct.

Yeah, coffee hadn't kicked in yet, and was probably editing to correct my post while you were composing.

 

[Stefan Eff]

It‘s all about tone. Nothing beats attack, liveliness and „woodiness“ of a full hollow electric guitar.

 

[fronobulax]

I don't hear it in my Starfire bass vs. my solids.

I can hear it in my Betts, solid body with Novak BSDS compared to either of my Starfires. The pickups are not identical but are a lot closer than comparing either of the Starfires to the JS or the Pilot. I figure if I can hear it in both Starfires and not the Betts then it comes from the hollow body.

Perhaps you need to mask up, go to a GC and just try and play a couple of instruments and try and see if you can hear the "woody" or whatever else we say to describe the "hollow" sound.

 

[lungimsam]

Regarding the Stranglehold solo tone, I am not meaning the distortion of the tone, just the "voice" of the instrument. A wood-vibrating-thin-panel sound I don;t hear outta solid bodies. At the 6:07 point. Not the vibrato technique but the voice sounds hollow. Hard to describe. I'm not really a Nugent fan just like that solo.

I have listened to Guild semi, holla, and s-100 videos. I don;t know that I could tell which was being played if I was blindfolded. The only one that stood out to me was an Aristocrat that sounded like a very mellow and soft attack. However, I don;t think it is that noticeable to me to warrant a semi or hollow over a solid body. I would probably hear better by playing in person.

 

[geoguy]

This guy shows some differences in tone between a solid-body guitar & a vintage archtop Guild (first six minutes of the video will get that point across).

For example, he gets rockabilly-ish tones out of a pointy solid-body guitar & solid-state amp (skip forward to 3:00 for his confession re: fooling his audience into thinking he was playing the Guild through a tube amp):

 

[SFIV1967]

yes. SF-1,2,3 are fully hollow. SF-4,5,6 are semi hollow.

Picture from the Westerly factory:

Ralf

 

[GAD]

Regarding the Stranglehold solo tone, I am not meaning the distortion of the tone, just the "voice" of the instrument. A wood-vibrating-thin-panel sound I don;t hear outta solid bodies. At the 6:07 point. Not the vibrato technique but the voice sounds hollow. Hard to describe. I'm not really a Nugent fan just like that solo.

I have listened to Guild semi, holla, and s-100 videos. I don;t know that I could tell which was being played if I was blindfolded. The only one that stood out to me was an Aristocrat that sounded like a very mellow and soft attack. However, I don;t think it is that noticeable to me to warrant a semi or hollow over a solid body. I would probably hear better by playing in person.

Remember that everything you hear online is afftected by the player, the strings, the amp, any pedals in use, the room being recorded, the compression, the playback software, and the speakers in use.

There is a huge difference in tone between a Starfire IV and, say, an S300 with the same pickups. There's a huge difference in tone between a Starfire II and a Starfire IV. I'd definitely recommend playing them side by side with the same rig.

 

[Rocky]

A fully hollowbody will also tend to have 'looser' slightly less defined low end. As the amount of bracing increases - from soundpost to waffle or ML bracing to trestle bracing to semi-hollowbody to chambered, to fully solid, in that order, the bottom end tightens up and inherent sustain increases, as less energy is expended flexing the top. All other things, such as scale length, being equal. Longer scale length also moves the sound in the direction of tighter.

Waffle, ML and trestle bracing being mainly Gretschy things. But generally stiffer, heavier bracing.

 

[lungimsam]

So a solid body will have the most defined fundamental and the further toward hollow you go you get a more scattered, vaguer sounding fundamental, would you say?

 

[Rocky]

So a solid body will have the most defined fundamental and the further toward hollow you go you get a more scattered, vaguer sounding fundamental, would you say?

That's one way of putting it, I think. I'm not positive of the exact physics, but it's just something from experience. I think it's one of the reasons you can get away with a wooden, or slightly less compensated bridge on an archtop. Notes don't sound as 'out.' But a solidbody requires a sharply defined and compensated bridge to work well. Something like a traditional telecaster with a 3-saddle bridge requires (sub)conscious fingering changes to keep chords from sounding sour.

 

[Rocky]

I'm not positive of the exact physics

After some thought, I suspect that it has to do with the vibration of the top ever so slightly altering the string length - a sort of minuscule vibrato. The stiffer the bracing, the less deflection there is, the tighter the note.

 

[walrus]

I'd definitely recommend playing them side by side with the same rig.

This.

walrus

 

[lungimsam]

Thanks for the info, y’all.
NS S-100 I think.
Just need to decide if I want to wait for a future walnut or natural finish or get a current cherry. Course vendors are empty now, so I got time to mull it over.

 

[fronobulax]

Thanks for the info, y’all.
NS S-100 I think.
Just need to decide if I want to wait for a future walnut or natural finish or get a current cherry. Course vendors are empty now, so I got time to mull it over.

Any reason beside hope to expect those finishes any time soon?

Several of the online dealers claim to have one or more in stock and some have more than one color. So waiting may be your choice rather than a function of availability, unless, of course, you want to play the specific instrument before you pull out your wallet.

 

[lungimsam]

I emailed Guild today asking if different colors are coming in 2021 for the S-100 and if they are gonna do JSII basses and they said :
"We may do some more colors of the S-100 some time in the future, so be sure to keep an eye out! As far as your request about the JS bass, I'll be sure to forward it to our products team for them to consider.".
Not sure what to make of that answer in regards to hope for new S-100 colors. Seems one could read deeply between lines to assume that "may do more" means no and "keep and eye out" means yes. So no way to tell.
As for JSII. Sounds like it ain't gonna happen.
My interpretations only.

 

[GAD]

I emailed Guild today asking if different colors are coming in 2021 for the S-100 and if they are gonna do JSII basses and they said :
"We may do some more colors of the S-100 some time in the future, so be sure to keep an eye out! As far as your request about the JS bass, I'll be sure to forward it to our products team for them to consider.".
Not sure what to make of that answer in regards to hope for new S-100 colors. Seems one could read deeply between lines to assume that "may do more" means no and "keep and eye out" means yes. So no way to tell.
As for JSII. Sounds like it ain't gonna happen.
My interpretations only.

That's a pure "don't offend anyone, don't promise anything, but keep hope alive" marketing response.

 

[fronobulax]

I emailed Guild today asking if different colors are coming in 2021 for the S-100 and if they are gonna do JSII basses and they said :
"We may do some more colors of the S-100 some time in the future, so be sure to keep an eye out! As far as your request about the JS bass, I'll be sure to forward it to our products team for them to consider.".
Not sure what to make of that answer in regards to hope for new S-100 colors. Seems one could read deeply between lines to assume that "may do more" means no and "keep and eye out" means yes. So no way to tell.
As for JSII. Sounds like it ain't gonna happen.
My interpretations only.

Marketing speak designed to neither discourage nor commit.

I tend to agree - something major is going to have to change to get the JS II in production but if S-100s continue to sell well new colors are possible. I note a lot of the existing colors on other instruments are "solid" and not transparent revealing grain so I do have to wonder if the finishes you hope for are feasible.

I tend to be "bird in hand" and easily distracted rather than patient so waiting for a finish is more likely to cause me to lust after a different instrument. In the case of Starfire basses the only sunburst was the Chris Hillman Signature. If I had to have a sunburst bass I would have given up on the hope of a new one and either started looking at non-Guilds or saving to go vintage. But that's me

 

[GAD]

Don't forget that solid colors make it so the wood can be cheaper, ugly, or multiple planks glued together whereas transparent finishes generally need nicer wood.

 

[lungimsam]

White-hmmmm. Could be nice. But I wanna see grain.
Black- beenthere done that way too many times with guitars.
Cherry red-I’ve had a cherry SG and now a NS Cherry starfire bass. Never a fan of red but in 2013 I could not be picky If I wanted a starfire bass and not knowing if they would even be around for long.
Now walnut!! Natural!! Sunburst!! Yum!!
Some but few of their electrics are bursted. Only one I think is walnut now. But I don’t think anything different was showing up for the S 100 but w/b/Cherry at the Namm virtual show. Anyone know?