From early carved archtops to laminated archtops to solid body guitar was mostly an evolution in the quest for more volume. See the History of the Solid Body Electric Guitar.

The archtop design was meant to increase the power and quality of tone an instrument was capable of in the days of acoustic instruments. It is effective in increasing volume and projection. Archtops were widely adopted before amplification was available.

The early acoustic archtop guitar was loud enough for small spaces and smaller performances. Once the pickup and amplifier were available many guitar makers like Gibson just attached pickups to the existing archtops. As guitars were electrified and were played at higher volumes, feedback became a problem that needed to be solved. Eventually the solid body guitar build from a hunk of wood routed for pickups solved this feedback issue. No more danger of howling when the volume was raised and the guitar was close to an amplifier. In the case of archtops or hollow body guitars that does not tell the entire story.

Ted Nugent with Gibson Byrdland

Electric archtop or hollow body guitars are still very popular and not only with Jazz players. Even Ted Nugent plays a hollow body guitar and no one ever claimed the “Motor City Madman” was a Jazz player. Despite the fact that he favors a hollow Gibson Byrdland guitar! Yes guitarist, Steve Howe is know for his hollow body Gibson ES-175. Plenty of players are on big stages nightly slinging a hollow body Gretsch, Guild, Gibson or another hollow body guitar. Brian Setzer, Dave Gonzales, Darrel Higham and slew of other rockabilly players are hollow body devotees.

Brian Setzer with a Gretsch 6120 hollow body

So are all archtop and hollow body guitars equal? Of course not. But it is interesting to understand what differences and options there are that attribute to the sound and less prone to feedback.

Carved Tops

Early archtop guitars and many high-end modern hollow bodies feature a carved top made from solid wood. These guitars are mostly hand-made (at least the top is) where the guitar’s top is carved out from a solid tone wood and “tuned” by the builder. These guitars are highly resonant. The tend to be fairly loud when played acoustically. When a pickup and controls are added, most times they are not routed into the top. The single neck pickup is “floated” over the top and the controls are often found on the raised pickguard.

Guild Artist Award carved top with footed pickup

These guitars are usually quite expensive and are usually not suited for Rock, Pop or loud music. Generally you will hear these guitars in the hands of a Jazz player that wants the fantastic tones these guitars can produce at a reasonable volume.

Laminated Tops

Eventually, makers started electrifying the early hollow body guitars already in their line. Guys like Charlie Christian were changing the role of the guitar from chunking out some chords in the rhythm section in to a lead instrument with the added volume using amplification. Basically the first electric guitars were just hollow bodies with pickups routed into the top. They soon discovered the feedback problem.

Gibson ES-175 with laminated top

Instead of a carved wood top that is expensive and mostly needed to achieve volume and tone in an acoustic instrument, using laminated wood made the top stiffer and less prone to feedback. Since the pickups and amp were now a big part of the tone anyway this was a great option and far less expensive. The Gibson ES-175 that was introduced in 1949 with a laminated top became a favorite. The laminated top is a plywood made from glueing thin layers of wood together. This makes the tops stiff, less resonant. But being a hollow body guitar they do not sound the same as a solid body, even when sporting the same pickups.

Bracing and Sound Posts

Laminated tops are less prone than a carved archtop guitar, but can still feedback and give you unwanted howl. The bracing pattern used my some makers can make a laminated top even stiffer.

Trestle bracing or sound posts are used on many deeper hollow body guitars. Trestle bracing consists of two bridge-like spruce braces with a wide “U” shape. These run parallel to each other down the inside center of the guitar’s interior. Usually from the neck joint ending directly under the bridge. Each rigid trestle brace has two “feet,” there are four points of attachment that are glued to the back of the guitar. Gretsch developed trestle bracing and first used it in the late 1950s to increase sustain and decrease feedback.

Trestle style bracing

Sound post is usually a block of wood that is glued inside that connects the guitar’s top to the back. Sound-post is a brace where a vertical wooden dowel located directly under the bridge connects the top of the guitar to the back. The sound post itself doesn’t add much mass, so it has little impact on sustain. Since the sound post takes up very little space inside the guitar, the feedback characteristics of the body remain largely unchanged. The sound post does help with the feedback issue however.

Sound Post inside a Gretsch

TIP: If you have a beloved fully hollow body guitar that is giving you feedback issues. You can can have a qualified luthier add a sound post. It is not that big a job and can even be reversible.

There are some players that have been known to “stuff” their hollow body guitars with foam or other materials to reduce feedback.

Semi-Hollow

After the solid body guitar was introduced in the form of the Fender Telecaster and the Gibson Les Paul in the early fifties. Before 1952, Gibson produced only hollow-body guitars, which are prone to feedback when amplified, until the introduction of their first solid-body, the Gibson Les Paul.

My Gibson ES 335

Ted McCarty was the President of Gibson, launched the Gibson ES-335 in 1958. Gibson ES-335 was the world’s first commercial thinline archtop semi-acoustic electric guitar. Known as “semi-hollowbody” as it is a hollow body with a maple block of wood that runs up the center of the body. Neither fully hollow nor fully solid the ES-335 was a different type of instrument that featured something in-between.

Chambered

Guitars like the Gretsch Duo Jet that many compare to the Gibson Les Paul are actually not solid bodied guitars. They are chambered and do not feature any sound holes. This gives you a more resonant instrument with less weight while not being prone to feedback.

Gretsch Country Gentlemen with painted F holes

Getting rid of the sound holes can reduce feedback. This is a trick that Chet Atkins liked and was featured on the Gretsch Country Gentlemen model. The Gretsch Country Gentlemen is a hollow body guitar with painted on “F” holes.

Thinlines

Some players like a thinner hollow body as it can be easier to handle, especially when played standing. Guitars like the Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino or Guild Starfire II are good examples. These guitar are hollow and do not feature a block of wood down the center of the body.

Epiphone Casino and Gibson ES-330 Hollow Bodies with P-90s

Note all the guitar I have featured in this article are archtop guitars. These are quite different that “flat-top” acoustic guitars which are also hollow, but use a completely different construction.

You may wonder if feedback is such an issue, why not just stick to solid body electrics? Well that is an option, but “tone” is what we are all chasing…. Hollow bodies sound different. In fact all these guitars mentioned have their own “thing” their own personality and tone.