Hollow Body Electric Guitar

[Julie Moriarty]

Last night we went to a Boz Scaggs concert. I found myself intensely aware of the instruments the band members were playing, the effect of building guitars I suppose. In a few of the songs, Bozz had a Sakashita hollow body guitar. Taku Sakashita was known for making very high quality instruments. I started wondering how much effect the hollow body and the top wood had on the amplified sound. Critical analysis by some concluded the amplification drowned out any effect at all.

Still, I wondered what kind of wood was used for the top, how thick it was and why Boz seemed to prefer the hollow body over the solid body. Anyone care to take a guess?

[george wilson]

That type guitar is really solid down the center,so it is essentially a solid body guitar. The larger body would be comfortable for someone who was used to playing an acoustic,or other guitar larger than the usual solid body type.

It appears to be made of maple veneers,glued up and formed inro an arch top and back,like the similar Gibson thin line( as they were called) 335 type guitars.

I must say,I don't care for the deformed soundhole. Can't see the other one. There is nothing about it that is attractive or graceful.

[george wilson]

Julie,most tops like this one are between 1/8" thick(for old Gretsch guitars like I made a copy of,model 6120),and up to 3/16" for others.

These 2 arch tops I made are typical of the 1950's. They are full depth bodied guitars with 1/8" thick plywood tops. Yes,plywood sounds better in an electric guitar. Adds a little more sustain.

Each of these guitars has a spruce strut going under each foot of their bridges. 2 per top. They are not made for the super high volume playing that is done today,as they can start vibrating,and cause feed back. They have a nice combination of electric tone,but assisted by the timbre of their bodies.

The original 1958 Gretsch which I copied here(The old ones cost about $10,000.00,so I made myself one. It has no label inside,or serial number stamped on it like the real ones),had a wooden,arched "bridge" under the string's bridge on top of the body. Chet Atkins wanted this to help eliminate feedback. I left it out of this guitar,because I think it makes the guitar sound too "hard". I had an original Gretsch Anniversary model from 1958 that did have this internal bridge. I traded it off because it sounded too hard.

I think the more modern 335 style guitars,which really are pretty solid down the center of their bodies,sound too hard,too. But,I am not playing on stage in really loud situations. The orange guitar in the picture,is the guitar,of all the ones I have(about 19),that I keep going back to. It's tone is just right.

[Julie Moriarty]

When I was watching the performance and my mind wandered to the guitars they were playing, I was trying to figure out why Boz chose the "hollowed out" guitars and his lead guitarist preferred the solid body. The lead guitarist was every bit as good as Boz and maybe even better. I found myself wondering if the decision each made was simply a matter of aesthetics or if they felt the guitars they chose to play gave them the sound they wanted to produce?

I've read guitars built by Taku Sakasihta (or Sakashta), like the one Boz was playing, originally sold for $20K-$35K. That's a lot of money and my guess is most of the cost comes from the aesthetics.

Anyway, I couldn't make out the wood from where we were sitting and I got to wondering if using Sitka spruce and making the top very thin would enhance the sound at all. I saw one solid body build where the luthier used Sitka spruce for the body in the hopes there would be an improvement in sound. I never read that it did. Obviously, with the need for solid wood through the center of the body, much of the sound the hollow produces would be negatively affected.

I guess the big question for me is if I ever decided to make a thinline-type electric guitar, would it be more practical to focus on aesthetics or is there some value in choosing soundboard-type wood for the top and being attentive to the thickness of the wood and the amount and placement of the hollows?

[george wilson]

I would not worry too much about the soundboard material. Just buy a pre formed arch top and back from Stewart Macdonald and use it.

When I made my Gretsch copy,you could buy REAL left over Gretsch tops and backs for $15.00 each,from the ex vise president of Gretsch. After the fire that brought the company to a close,he bought up the remaining pallets full of backs,sides,pick guards,and peghead overlays,and was selling them. This was back in the 80's. I bought my top,back,peghead overlay,and pick guard from him for about $15.00 each. I made the sides,soundholes,neck and fingerboard. I found some original Gretsch filtertron pickups. I actually made the brass knobs,after making a steel punch that duplicated the G with an arrow through it. I have lost that punch,but it has to be in the shop somewhere.

These days,you'll have to pay the much higher price for the Stewmac tops and backs.

The alternative would be to carve the top and back. For an electric,I advise the use of the plywood ones you can buy. The sustain is better,even if it seems like the guitar is cheaper made. That guitar that Scaggs is playing is made of plywood. Either that,or the maker carved the top out of maple,which doesn't seem likely. And,the 2 halves of the top don't even look book matched. I can't see the money for that guitar that you have mentioned.

I have another arch top I made as an acoustic. It is carved top and back. The top is spruce,and the back and sides are curly maple. I tried a nice,vintage Gibson Johnny Smith pickup on it,and it does not make a great electric. The tone hasn't enough sustain for electric playing. Acoustically,it is just fine,which was what it was made for,after all. I can post pictures if you wish.

[John Coloccia]

Taku was a brilliant builder and probably would have gone on to be regarded as highly as Bennedetto et al. He was murdered a few years ago...mugged for the couple of bucks in his pocket.

Check out the rest of his work, George. This particular design is a bit bland, but most of his work is stunning and elegant. I've gotten some great ideas from him.

[Shawn Pixley]

As George said Boz' guitar is a semi-hollow body. The block down the middle anchors the bridge / stop tailpiece. These are generally better on stage than a pure hollowbody at rock stage volumes especially in the past. Currently with the state of sound reinforcement and in ear monitors, the true hollowbodies do not have as much problem with feedback. I have a 335 that is one of my favorite guitars to play on stage. I also have a '65 Gretch double anniversary that I really can't play on stage without the risk of awful feedback. My friends in the Rangehoods used to play with a pair of Guild X-175's from the '50's. They needed to be very careful with stage volumes. The guitarist from the Jesus and Mary Chain, made a living off the sound of a hollowbody feeding back. You can imagine the challenges of feedback with humming single coils, microphonic pickups, and loud stage volumes.

The other challenge with hollowbodies is that it is easy for the bridge to slip if you hit the strings hard. Some players pin the bridge but I have resisted that so far. Others put a bit of cello rosen under the bridge plate that provides enough friction to keep it in place with out marring the guitar nor putting pins in the soundboard.

[Shawn Pixley]

There are a few people out there who make semi-hollow and hollow bodied tops out of carved solid maple rather than laminated. When building a semi-hollowbody guitar this way, would you start off as it you were building a solid body (thick maple cap on the body) with the body being bent sides, a back (presumably not yet carved), and center block? Getting everything aligned before carving the top and back?

It would seem to me that this would ensure you had a strong connection of the top and back to the center block and sides. If carving beforehand, the carving / shaping of the center block to fit the top connection might be very challenging if you didn't have a jig for it (I'm presuming bigger manufacturers do have a jig or CNC).

[george wilson]

It just takes a little skill,Shawn. I pre carve the top and back with no special jigs to put them in place. But,I have always warned everyone that I do a lot of things the hard way!!
I googled him,John. He was a very prolific builder. Too bad that loser murdered him. His work was very accurate and well finished. I can't say I always share his sense of aesthetics,but he did make very fine instruments.

[Julie Moriarty]

Taku was a brilliant builder and probably would have gone on to be regarded as highly as Bennedetto et al. He was murdered a few years ago...mugged for the couple of bucks in his pocket.

Check out the rest of his work, George. This particular design is a bit bland, but most of his work is stunning and elegant. I've gotten some great ideas from him.

While at the concert, I was trying to figure out what the logo on Boz's guitar was. When I got home the next day I found out he was playing a Sakashta and I did some research on him. That's when I found out about the murder and read the story. It was said Taku was working on a guitar for Boz when he was murdered by a career criminal who had over 30 arrests at the time of the robbery/murder.

After that a lot of musicians got together and held a concert for him and I read what they had to say about him. Comments such as yours, John, were very common. I read he was very meticulous with his builds and that he had been making guitars for about 25 years. What I didn't see was specific reasons, other than what I mentioned, as to why he was such a great builder. Besides Boz Scaggs, Robben Ford is the only well known guitarist I could find who plays Sakashta guitars.

Taku was 43 at the time of the murder and had been working with Boz for 10 years at that time. Why hadn't his guitars gotten into the hands of more artists? The Internet is filled with stories of his murder but it's a bit harder to find out what made him a great luthier.

[John Coloccia]

While at the concert, I was trying to figure out what the logo on Boz's guitar was. When I got home the next day I found out he was playing a Sakashta and I did some research on him. That's when I found out about the murder and read the story. It was said Taku was working on a guitar for Boz when he was murdered by a career criminal who had over 30 arrests at the time of the robbery/murder.

After that a lot of musicians got together and held a concert for him and I read what they had to say about him. Comments such as yours, John, were very common. I read he was very meticulous with his builds and that he had been making guitars for about 25 years. What I didn't see was specific reasons, other than what I mentioned, as to why he was such a great builder. Besides Boz Scaggs, Robben Ford is the only well known guitarist I could find who plays Sakashta guitars.

Taku was 43 at the time of the murder and had been working with Boz for 10 years at that time. Why hadn't his guitars gotten into the hands of more artists? The Internet is filled with stories of his murder but it's a bit harder to find out what made him a great luthier.

There are only a handful of famous musicians, and there are a LOT of guitars out there. David Myka is another world class builder that doesn't show up a lot. Ron Kirn....Terry McInturff. These are all great builders, and fairly well known too. Terry has built a LOT of guitars, but I couldn't name one well known artist that plays a McInturff.

For some builders, their lifetime output might be somewhere in the range of 100 to 400 guitars. Fender probably makes that in a day. It's just a numbers thing.

[David Weaver]

I never had a lot of love for semi-hollow guitars. They look like a hollowbody guitar, but if they have the same pickups and hardware as a solid body guitar, there isn't much difference in their plugged sound.

As far as the super high dollar builders go, it reminds me of straight razors. There are custom makers making straight razors one off for $1000+ per, but they are about as capable as a $100 factory made razor that doesn't have flaws. Guitars at that level of expense are about reputation and relationship between the builder and the customers. 10% mechanics and 90% jewelry and status. Maybe there is some mix of a builder doing everything by hand and expecting to be paid well, but I don't know what a lot of those guys do.

It's a development of the modern world, because the makers of the fine instruments in the 1950s or so didn't get so much out of average customers.

I'd imagine that for most builders, getting the reputation so that mediocre players with a lot of money (as a local dealer put it to me here, "most of my customers can play three songs and sit in a corner office") buy is probably the best proposition.

[george wilson]

In the 15th. C.,David,such poor musicians were described as being able to "Scrape out a few allemandes and boast of their own poverty".

I used to teach shop in a school across the street from a music store. I was over there a lot,and did all their repair work and refinishing at the time. I was about 22 then,and very active.

Anyhow,there was an old guy who wore overalls,was obviously not educated,and didn't look like he had 2 dimes to rub together. But,I swear,no exaggeration,honest,every week he was back at the store,trading in his last expensive Gibson,or other good brand of guitar,and buying another. I have no idea how he afforded it.

I had a customer in North Carolina,who regularly bought 5 guitars a year from me. He had built a nice little building to keep all his guitars in. Unfortunately,it was not heated. He would not let me come into his large house,saying there was barely a path through it!!

[Julie Moriarty]

If you can get a great guitarist to play one of your guitars you'll sell more and can charge more. The quality really doesn't have to be there. It just has to be good enough to play well enough to satisfy the owner. I've had some suggest to me I should try to get one of my guitars into the hands of someone well known locally. If I was 30 years younger, that may have appealed to me, but for right now, I just want to learn the intricacies of what makes a guitar a great guitar.

I see people nuts about the Fender logo. And they want what David Gilmour or Jeff Beck or Stevie Ray Vaughn plays (or played). As if having the same looking guitar as one of the great artists plays makes you great too. I understand that in the impressionable youth, but as you get older you'd think that would naturally fade. But that's not always the case.

But when I hear a great guitarist sing the praises of a particular guitar builder I want to know what makes that guitar builder so great. Robben Ford said, "Taku Sakashta made some guitars for me that I fooled with, but they never quite clicked. But this particular guitar I’m playing all the time now." I guess it's like trying to explain why you like this shade of blue over that.

[John Coloccia]

Robben Ford is well known for two things:

1) his playing
2) his tone

By and large, he's only really played a handful of guitars during his solo career. There was the Fender Robben Ford model (also called the Esprit) and I think a Baker Robben Ford model too. Then there's his Telecaster....quite famous. He's also played a handful of Les Pauls and 335s. And now there's Taku's "Noupaul" model. Robben is a very very very picky guy.

Honestly, though, I've played the Fender Robben Ford model. I really just didn't like it that much. I thought it was a too bright, but that works well through the Dumble he plays. The Dumble has a big bass response. Robben also has a light touch and knows how to use his tone control. I would imagine most people would sound awful through a lot of his gear.