Consider a Semi-Hollow Body For a Great Guitar Experience
What makes a semi-hollow body guitar such a versatile instrument? To start with, you can play it as an acoustic guitar or plugged in as an electric. The other great feature is how large the sound can get while plugged in by turning the pickup volume up or down. This is a very responsive feature of a hollow body.
Price is usually a big factor that keeps a lot of guitarists from ever getting a quality hollow body guitar. Gretsch, Gibson and Rickenbacker are a few of the big names in the business. But, one model that really stands out as a great value and still top quality construction is the Epiphone Dot studio. Many of the high priced models have stunning finishes, gold hardware and beautiful binding and inlays throughout. The Dot studio is a simplified version of these visual masterpieces with some very basic looks but great tone.
Semi-hollow body guitar instruments come with a variety of different body and neck wood. The majority are constructed from mahogany, maple, alder and spruce, with each having its own tonal characteristics. The Dot studio is made of mahogany on the sides, back and top, which has a dark and warm sound to it naturally. Because of the volume versatility of a hollow body guitar, you can drastically adjust the tonal range, up or down, which adds a lot of usable color to an otherwise darker sounding guitar.
Having pickups that are mid to high output is a great balance on this style of guitar. If you’ve never tried one out then you’re probably unaware of how adaptable the hollow body class is when played across many different styles of music. For heavy metal, you turn the pickup and tone volumes up and add some distortion to the amp for a mid to high tone, while keeping the volume and tone pots low on a slightly overdriven amp will give you a fantastic blues tone that will compete with any solid body, such as a Les Paul.
Consider an all-around guitar such as a hollow body and if you’re on a tighter budget and don’t need the visual perks, try out an Epiphone Dot studio; you’ll be very impressed.
