"Gibson Custom Les Paul Custom with Custom Bucker-Custom Pickups and Custom Custom tuning keys plugged into a Custom Fender Custom Custom with a Custom Custom Custom Custom Custom..."
I own a number of hollow body and solid body electrics. I've come to prefer the tone of my Gretsch 6120 with T.V Jones single coil pickups and Gibson ES-175 with '57 classic humbuckers over my favorite American Tele, Strat and ESP Eclipse solid body guitars. My hollow body guitars have a more complex "vintage" tonal character that I can't get with a solid body guitar. I don't play much with gain or distortion anymore and I use heavy gauge strings .012-.051 on my ES-175 and .011's on my Gretsch. The heavier gauge strings cause the body to resonate more and that sound comes through the pickups. The pure, clean amplified sound of my hollow body guitars is the holy grail of guitar tone I was searching for. I play roots Rock, blues and jazz. When I was younger I was a Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page worshiper, but as I got older I'm playing the stuff that inspired those two guys. My ES-175 and Gretsch 6120-55 cover all the bases for roots rock, blues, rock-a-billy R&B and jazz. I also want to say that you can still bend notes with heavier gauge strings for blues licks, but it takes some practice. Also, the Bigsby is way cooler and more musically satisfying than the whammy on a Fender Strat.
this guy is the best youtube guitar guy on youtube, no bs, just concise explanation and good tasty playing without showing off. props! he seems cool, i'd like to smoke weed with him.
Gosh , both guitars sound amazing, and very similar. I think very complimented by your playing. The hollow was just a bit more rich and earthy sounding, the custom was just a little bit brighter and sustaining. The hollow has a quicker decay on the low tones where the custom hangs on to everything. As I said , you make these models sound amazing. Very tough to separate them sonically other than decay and brightness.
I have the hollow Memphis. It's one of my most played guitars. It feels like a LP, like a jazz box, and like an ES-335 all in one. And the tone can be tweaked accordingly. I have half-round strings on it and play my own version of Jazz/Alt/Pop/Soul. Works great for me, since I don't do any distortion at all. The only solid body I have is a Strat. All my other guitars are hollows or semi. But I think if I had to take only one guitar with me for a very important gig, it would be my Ibanez AS153 semi-hollow, w/ Japanese Super 58 pups. It really fills the bill and has more tonal options with the Ibanez Tri-switch - the only reason I didn't pay more for the Gibson 335.
Hello, Harlyn. That is a good question. Hollowbody guitars certainly have more of an acoustic output due to the chamber and resonance in the guitar than a solidbody. However, this does not take place of the need to plug it in and use pickups. For instance, I can practice on a hollowbody unplugged and get a bit more volume than practicing with a solidbody, but i would never substitute a hollowbody guitar for an acoustic guitar. Thank you for the question. If you have any more, give me a call! Michael Morgan, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 1607, Michael_Morgan@Sweetwater.com
Are single F hole guitars solid on the middle aswell as the other end where there's no holes Like for example if it had a single f hole on the top Is the rest of the whole body solid or just the middle like normal double f hole guitars?
The Hollow Body ES-275 sounds better arpeggiated and single notes. It's more acoustic sounding. The Les Paul sounds more compressed and tight. It depends on the music.
Barely any difference when plugged in, not enough to justify buying one over the other IMO. I'd go for the more comfortable one, but a hollow body could sound cool is mic'd for recording!
And lots of it!!! He told a story once about how his Father said something along the lines of "it's all distortion??" Ted turned to him with a huge grin and said "I know! Isn't it great!!!!"
Lost my attention when you didn't even try to put identical pickups in the two guitars, but you're trying to sell the tone differences as being the result of the body construction and not the pickups. It's both, but the pickups are overwhelmingly more important.
Pickups def make a difference. They should be identical to test for differences between them. That's just basic scientific method. I'm not expert, but I've seen both sides of this debate, and tone woods really effect acoustic guitars significantly, but electric? You will get better sustain with a top-mounted tailpiece vs a trapeze, and a true hollowbody would also affect the purity of the string vibration. You should also use the same types of wood for the neck and as much body structure as possible, for that effects the resonance of the body. Could the resonance effect the tone insofar as more resonance cancelling out some frequencies of the pure string tone, I wonder?
Thomas Kiser Guess that's how warm Les Pauls are when in clean settings hahaha. One of my friends had a hard time brightining his tone for an ensemble he was in with a les paul and the enemble leader wanted brighter tone for some reason haha. Some Hollow bodies can even get brighter some brighter tones than les pauls hahaha.
Because the pickups and electrics are not identical, this test is highly questionable. "Identical" would mean: record with pickups A and B guitar 1, then bring A and B with cables etc. from guitar 1 to guitar 2, then record guitar 2. Well, the pickups seem to be very similar. BUT you cannot make any meaningful statement if you change more than 1 variable. An arbitrary college student with a little bit scientific training will tell you this. I think it's possible to make a statement concerning dynmic behavior and acoustical separation of strings (the better the guitar, the better the separation, and this has nothing to do with sound or pickup). I would like to hear better comparisons from you!
@@nav6maini Les Paul has more mass in it. More mass doesn't create bright sound. That's why many players press their headstocks against walls while they're practicing instead of turning on the amp and disturb the people around. Hollow body has less mass in it so it sounds brighter.
@@MBGureltol I bought a Gretsch hollow-body specifically because it didn't have the bright sound like the other solid-body guitars had when I tried them out. I think the Hollow-body has a more robust tone and I love fingerpicking ambient sounding chords using the neck position with only a bit of reverb and then adding layers of sound on top of that. I liked the hollow-body because it gave me piano-bell like warm tones where the other guitars sounded too bright. Just my experience.
@@MBGureltol No need to apologize! :) I was just describing my experience. I recently switched from classical guitar to electric and I had no clue about electric guitars. It was just my experience that the Gretsch I kept going back to had that nice warmer sound while all the other guitars I tried sounded bright to me, but I really had no idea whether all solid bodies are brighter than hollow bodies.
when it comes to Gibson sorry not interested any more in them ...Epiphone Les Pauls and SG's all day long over Gibson ...Epiphones are beautiful works of Art ...Gibsons are overrated ..over priced garbage
Masala music I like to think I am a Chuck Berry type of influenced guitar player therefore I have to go with the hollow body and it sounds like with the proper equipment you could make it sound heavy metal if you wanted to now everybody loves a f****** Les Paul if you could afford it and LS vs. Extract is my preference because it still has more of a resonance but if I want a sound that is more to my liking whenever I have a different song I can't afford two guitars that are $5,000 each so I'm still in a f****** dilemma. I have a 1965 telecast I'm never going to get rid of it. However I've had it Martin's I've had I've had my favorite one was a fender something called a Hellcat and they're only like 350 bucks. So wow this site is definitely leaned towards Gibson versus fender and we know fender is like who's my daddy let's check the DNA on how they spread their name around and then in different countries and all that other stuff for manufacturing and who knows what the quality control is whenever you get up Starcaster something like that there's a new Starcaster that sounds f****** wonderful but I if I buy one it's going to be the one that was that was the defect model you know Gibson has more quality control so I think I'm going to have to buy a Gibson. Hope I didn't talk to you then a few yeah but I hope you understand what I'm talking about I mean think about playing Neil Young and then think about playing Buffalo Springfield and then think about playing Van Halen and think about playing maybe something like a joke I mean just some kind of some kind of jazz music and your hollow-body is the way to go on this from this video I don't know how much they cost but if they're less than 2,000 and I mean maybe fifteen hundred bucks I'm going to buy one I'm going to buy a 275 Gibson. Peace out brother!
love that this guy talks quick, instead of talking for hours like every other utube video
Dirk Diggler Too car salesman-like for me. But credit where credit’s due, his vids are always very informative
This is a rather good utube video
He also seems like a rather cool guy
"Gibson Custom Les Paul Custom with Custom Bucker-Custom Pickups and Custom Custom tuning keys plugged into a Custom Fender Custom Custom with a Custom Custom Custom Custom Custom..."
i just came from a chapman video where they did that.. he might got the idea there
Lmao
Thanks for a concise comparison...no endless riffing with over driven distortion ....both beautiful instruments....
Bro is that a Les Paul Custom?
Nah bro, it's a custom Les Paul Custom
I own a number of hollow body and solid body electrics. I've come to prefer the tone of my Gretsch 6120 with T.V Jones single coil pickups and Gibson ES-175 with '57 classic humbuckers over my favorite American Tele, Strat and ESP Eclipse solid body guitars. My hollow body guitars have a more complex "vintage" tonal character that I can't get with a solid body guitar. I don't play much with gain or distortion anymore and I use heavy gauge strings .012-.051 on my ES-175 and .011's on my Gretsch. The heavier gauge strings cause the body to resonate more and that sound comes through the pickups. The pure, clean amplified sound of my hollow body guitars is the holy grail of guitar tone I was searching for. I play roots Rock, blues and jazz. When I was younger I was a Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page worshiper, but as I got older I'm playing the stuff that inspired those two guys. My ES-175 and Gretsch 6120-55 cover all the bases for roots rock, blues, rock-a-billy R&B and jazz. I also want to say that you can still bend notes with heavier gauge strings for blues licks, but it takes some practice. Also, the Bigsby is way cooler and more musically satisfying than the whammy on a Fender Strat.
that Les Paul costs more than my Jeep. LOL
this guy is the best youtube guitar guy on youtube, no bs, just concise explanation and good tasty playing without showing off. props! he seems cool, i'd like to smoke weed with him.
Gosh , both guitars sound amazing, and very similar. I think very complimented by your playing. The hollow was just a bit more rich and earthy sounding, the custom was just a little bit brighter and sustaining. The hollow has a quicker decay on the low tones where the custom hangs on to everything. As I said , you make these models sound amazing. Very tough to separate them sonically other than decay and brightness.
Guitardudeguy TMark/Osh Thank you for sharring I like it and it was verry interesting .
Guitardudeguy TMark/Osh you just saved me time from ⌚ ing the whole 📷
Some very good information and demoing here. The totally unplugged portion was a critical bit, IMO.
Both sound very nice, but I am leaning more towards getting the hollowbody first. I will get both eventually.
Great demo!!!! Also, nice job whoever wrote that track!
Neck pickup comparison: Solid 2:59, Hollow 3:15
Bridge pickup comparison: Solid 4:03, Hollow: 3:48
When they plugged into electricity, I almost can't hear the differences
custom custom custom
I have the hollow Memphis. It's one of my most played guitars. It feels like a LP, like a jazz box, and like an ES-335 all in one. And the tone can be tweaked accordingly. I have half-round strings on it and play my own version of Jazz/Alt/Pop/Soul. Works great for me, since I don't do any distortion at all. The only solid body I have is a Strat. All my other guitars are hollows or semi. But I think if I had to take only one guitar with me for a very important gig, it would be my Ibanez AS153 semi-hollow, w/ Japanese Super 58 pups. It really fills the bill and has more tonal options with the Ibanez Tri-switch - the only reason I didn't pay more for the Gibson 335.
I loved his playing played in octives which sounds great I'm a solid body guy but a hollow is intriguing
Great video and explanation!
Fast accurate quick to the point and informative very helpful
What was that last song he did at the very end showcasing both guitars?
Conclution: solid body: more agressive.
Hollow body: more like a acustic guitar.
Conclusion : semi-hollow body looks like a real dream.
Thank you
nice demo, mitch. that modern beauty made my heart stumble a bit.
Thx for the review
could i play a hollowbody w/o an amp and it still sound good?
Hello, Harlyn. That is a good question. Hollowbody guitars certainly have more of an acoustic output due to the chamber and resonance in the guitar than a solidbody. However, this does not take place of the need to plug it in and use pickups. For instance, I can practice on a hollowbody unplugged and get a bit more volume than practicing with a solidbody, but i would never substitute a hollowbody guitar for an acoustic guitar. Thank you for the question. If you have any more, give me a call!
Michael Morgan, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 1607, Michael_Morgan@Sweetwater.com
What songs did he play in this vid
great, whats the name of the music he played?
I got the ES339 ...guess its the best I'm likely to get
Are single F hole guitars solid on the middle aswell as the other end where there's no holes
Like for example if it had a single f hole on the top
Is the rest of the whole body solid or just the middle like normal double f hole guitars?
if it is a center block design semi hollow it will be hollow on both sides f hole or not，partially hollow body just dont make much sense aint it😂
@@jerryyeaaah15 Chambered body then yeah? Takes off some weight adds some resonance?
Damned beautiful guitars
What's the song at the end?
I'd like to write a custom comment to support this custom video
Is this sweetwater Tennessee? ?
Ddrtyu It's in Indiana
Great video :)
Guitarist's holy grail.
The Hollow Body ES-275 sounds better arpeggiated and single notes. It's more acoustic sounding. The Les Paul sounds more compressed and tight. It depends on the music.
the holllow body is better for country and blues but both sound amazing. however the les paul is unmatched with distortation.
Barely any difference when plugged in, not enough to justify buying one over the other IMO. I'd go for the more comfortable one, but a hollow body could sound cool is mic'd for recording!
tbh i want to buy the hollowbody because when its unplugged it oddly sound quite ok
Much expence for a ten minutes video, but very well done. My mind is pregnant for a ES 275.
But are they the same pickups? If not, then.....
gorgeous
Snarl?
Stand infront of at 4x12 at volume and you will know the difference in seconds ;)
Me watching this video and definitely understanding what the guy says: _y-yes_
More note seperation with the hollowbody but less sustain
It's a custom Les Paul!
Used a dynamic mic? Does not help....have too much own charistics.. always use a condensator mic!
For guitars, dynamic vs condenser doesn't make too big of a difference. It's there, but not major.
Ted nugent used distortion
And lots of it!!!
He told a story once about how his Father said something along the lines of "it's all distortion??"
Ted turned to him with a huge grin and said "I know! Isn't it great!!!!"
Well, sounds like the hollow electric guitar is going to stay a little shorter
Lost my attention when you didn't even try to put identical pickups in the two guitars, but you're trying to sell the tone differences as being the result of the body construction and not the pickups. It's both, but the pickups are overwhelmingly more important.
stop
Radoslaw Dlugowski Well, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
These people still think wood is what gives the sound in an ELECTRICAL guitar
Pickups def make a difference. They should be identical to test for differences between them. That's just basic scientific method. I'm not expert, but I've seen both sides of this debate, and tone woods really effect acoustic guitars significantly, but electric? You will get better sustain with a top-mounted tailpiece vs a trapeze, and a true hollowbody would also affect the purity of the string vibration. You should also use the same types of wood for the neck and as much body structure as possible, for that effects the resonance of the body. Could the resonance effect the tone insofar as more resonance cancelling out some frequencies of the pure string tone, I wonder?
Rubbish.
They sound almost identical
Thomas Kiser Guess that's how warm Les Pauls are when in clean settings hahaha. One of my friends had a hard time brightining his tone for an ensemble he was in with a les paul and the enemble leader wanted brighter tone for some reason haha. Some Hollow bodies can even get brighter some brighter tones than les pauls hahaha.
That Les Paul is around 8K? 🙄 China,...you know what to do.
For that kind of money you could buy a 60's Gibson Byrdland 🎶🎵
@@OldGriz708 but no 60s les paul tho😉
I mean with today’s tech, you can make a rusted wire on a 2x4 sound like $10,000 guitar.
With a killer amp even a Squier can sound great it just won’t feel very goood to play
Really scientific 😉👌 wink wink wink
Because the pickups and electrics are not identical, this test is highly questionable. "Identical" would mean: record with pickups A and B guitar 1, then bring A and B with cables etc. from guitar 1 to guitar 2, then record guitar 2. Well, the pickups seem to be very similar. BUT you cannot make any meaningful statement if you change more than 1 variable. An arbitrary college student with a little bit scientific training will tell you this. I think it's possible to make a statement concerning dynmic behavior and acoustical separation of strings (the better the guitar, the better the separation, and this has nothing to do with sound or pickup). I would like to hear better comparisons from you!
🌚🎶
Sound near identical.
Hollow body has more treble. End of discussion.
i don’t think that’s right
more hollow means more open and more low-end
the les paul is much brighter (has more treble) than the hollow body
@@nav6maini Les Paul has more mass in it. More mass doesn't create bright sound. That's why many players press their headstocks against walls while they're practicing instead of turning on the amp and disturb the people around. Hollow body has less mass in it so it sounds brighter.
@@MBGureltol I bought a Gretsch hollow-body specifically because it didn't have the bright sound like the other solid-body guitars had when I tried them out. I think the Hollow-body has a more robust tone and I love fingerpicking ambient sounding chords using the neck position with only a bit of reverb and then adding layers of sound on top of that. I liked the hollow-body because it gave me piano-bell like warm tones where the other guitars sounded too bright. Just my experience.
@@tenzinalexander Sorry. When I first watched the video, I mixed up the guitars. Yeah, hollow body has more low-end in it.
@@MBGureltol No need to apologize! :) I was just describing my experience. I recently switched from classical guitar to electric and I had no clue about electric guitars. It was just my experience that the Gretsch I kept going back to had that nice warmer sound while all the other guitars I tried sounded bright to me, but I really had no idea whether all solid bodies are brighter than hollow bodies.
Different pickups....
when it comes to Gibson sorry not interested any more in them ...Epiphone Les Pauls and SG's all day long over Gibson ...Epiphones are beautiful works of Art ...Gibsons are overrated ..over priced garbage
Masala music I like to think I am a Chuck Berry type of influenced guitar player therefore I have to go with the hollow body and it sounds like with the proper equipment you could make it sound heavy metal if you wanted to now everybody loves a f****** Les Paul if you could afford it and LS vs. Extract is my preference because it still has more of a resonance but if I want a sound that is more to my liking whenever I have a different song I can't afford two guitars that are $5,000 each so I'm still in a f****** dilemma. I have a 1965 telecast I'm never going to get rid of it. However I've had it Martin's I've had I've had my favorite one was a fender something called a Hellcat and they're only like 350 bucks. So wow this site is definitely leaned towards Gibson versus fender and we know fender is like who's my daddy let's check the DNA on how they spread their name around and then in different countries and all that other stuff for manufacturing and who knows what the quality control is whenever you get up Starcaster something like that there's a new Starcaster that sounds f****** wonderful but I if I buy one it's going to be the one that was that was the defect model you know Gibson has more quality control so I think I'm going to have to buy a Gibson. Hope I didn't talk to you then a few yeah but I hope you understand what I'm talking about I mean think about playing Neil Young and then think about playing Buffalo Springfield and then think about playing Van Halen and think about playing maybe something like a joke I mean just some kind of some kind of jazz music and your hollow-body is the way to go on this from this video I don't know how much they cost but if they're less than 2,000 and I mean maybe fifteen hundred bucks I'm going to buy one I'm going to buy a 275 Gibson. Peace out brother!