Hollowbody? Semihollow?

[Empty Pockets]

I've been listening to more and more melodic music lately, with very nice acoustic tones that are making me rethink my only-solidbody guitar collection.

Would a jazz box like an Epiphone Dot or Casino add a nice, acoustic edge to my sound? I really like the look of classical semi- and hollowbodies, but I don't know if they'll do what I want.

The tone I'm looking for is more-or-less the opening to "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer...anything that'll get me close with my Fender Bassman?

Thanks

-X

[That90'sGuy]

A jazz box will give you a warm, but airy type tone. That's typically what hollowbody/semi-hollow guitars offer.

I believe Weezer uses Fender Strats, so that's something to look into.

[mrfjones]

weezer uses fender strats almost exclusively. Chris is right about the sound of a hollow body, nice and airy tones think jazz and blues, but you can get them to do almost anything. i think a casino is a good addition to anyones collection.

[Bludave]

A lot of this will depend on the type of amp you play through, and the volume. Hi gain and High volume will make a "hollow" or Semi hollow" howl due to air in the hollow chambers. Many players have solved this by putting tape over the "F" holes. some people have stuffed the holes with foam. (I have done this on my 335) Consider the B.B. King Epi. It does not have sound holes and will be easier to manage.

[garublador]

Originally posted by mrfjones
weezer uses fender strats almost exclusively.

Only live. They use lots of other stuff for recording albums. They have a nice page on Weezer's equipment at www.weezer.com. The intro to "My Name is Jonas" was played on an acoustic guitar if that helps any. The closest you'll get from an electric might be something with a piezo pickup.

[frigginalex]

I think Rivers used Gibsons almost exclusively on Maladroit (the new record). Mostly an Explorer. Brian split his parts between an SG and a Thinline Tele. Sadly, that's all the Weezer axology I know of.

[Pandemonium]

Originally posted by Bludave
A lot of this will depend on the type of amp you play through, and the volume. Hi gain and High volume will make a "hollow" or Semi hollow" howl due to air in the hollow chambers. Many players have solved this by putting tape over the "F" holes. some people have stuffed the holes with foam. (I have done this on my 335) Consider the B.B. King Epi. It does not have sound holes and will be easier to manage.

True. My 335 is hard to manage with my JCM 800 rig, squeals like a pig if you make a wrong move, but it's easy to get controlled feedback through my tweed Bandmaster. Tape over the f-holes never helped me much though. I've always wondered how Ted Nugent manages to handle those Byrdlands at the volume he plays, but he's been pulling it off forever.

[BluesNRock87]

if ur set on an semi hollow, check out the epi joe pass in comparison to the dot and casiono, it runs about 500 bucks, comes with a gorgeous quilt top, and plays well. nails semi hollow tone, i really liked the 2 i played at gc a month or so ago

[tone4days]

i got my brian moore partly because i wanted to add "acoustic" flavored tones to my playing via the piezo pickup .. i am very happy with the results, especially becuase i use a carvin ag-100d for amplifying the 'acoustic' signal with its own processing (eq, effects, etc.) ... the nice thing with the brian moore is that it also has an A2P (n) and JB(b) with PRS_style 5-way .. this means i dont have to switch axes to play both kinds of sounds in the same song (or at the same time) ... with the synth output, i can get pretty cool patches that sound like a 12-string, a steel string acoustic, or even a nylon string ...

you might not want all that, but i totally recommend a piezo to add acoustic sound to the electric sound

semi-hollows are very cool - i won one that i love .. but i have never thought of the sound as 'acoustic'

cheers,
t4d

[Empty Pockets]

Well, thanks for your help, although I'm a little disappointed in the answers I got...guess I'll have to sell-out and buy myself an actual acoustic guitar.

[garublador]

Perhaps it may help to go to a few music stores and try out some guitars with peizo systems in them and see if that's what you're looking for. I know there's a Schecter semi-hollow with one and I think Peavy has a decent semi-hollow with one in it too and neither of them are too expensive.