thinline, how hollow is hollow

Greetings all, the classic lurker here.
I am building a guitar loosely based on the thinline Tele style.
I wanted to build a thinline and bought mahogany neck cutoffs for my body wood, and some maple for the center. After cutting up the wood I was a bit short for the whole enchalada. The pieces of mahogany are not long enough, close though, so I did not think glueing pieces together would work. So it became a Bo Diddily square body thin line Tele idea. I bought a maple neck for this endeavor so that part is fairly straight forward. I have some nice cherry for the Top.
So if you are still with me here, this is my first guitar making efforts and things are coming along. I have the mahogany sides with the hollow out cut and a maple center strip which is wide enough to fit the PU's in as well as to screw the hardware into the maple. From what I have read on this form the amount of hollow can vary from build to build. I am wondering if this affects the sound all that much. I do you think a solid center strip will give this guitar enough body to sound right. I am not really taken by the fully hollow electrics but do like the semi hollow sound. Or is this just getting to picky since my build is a bit off anyways not having the classic Tele shape in the first place.
I could post some photos tonight. Any thoughts/guidence on this would be aprecieated. If it comes out alright I could build another with the proper shape, and tthis would be test run build.
Cheers Ron.

If you're talking about little teeny chambers an inch and a half wide on either side of the center block, I can't imagine it would do anything at all to the sound. With microphonic pickups, you might be able to rap on that part with your knuckles and hear something hollow-sounding, but that's about it.

Recent thread http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/328859-add-chamber-good-idea-bad-idea.html

Keep this in mind. You're building an electric guitar. The sound comes from the pickups and the amp.

Thanks for the info, here is what it looks like so far.

Cheers Ron.

All hollow/solid talk aside, that looks like it will be kinda cool. Is that the final outside shape or will you round the corners a bit? I'm with Jack on this one, I don't notice much tonal difference between my chambered tele's and solid ones - except some weight.

That is close to the final shape, I have to make a cutout on one side of the neck, I don't know the name for it.
Here is a photo of the neck blank waste piece. I got them for $4 each and figured they would be about as good instrument wood as I could find. The local hardware store has a big bin of them and I never really knew what they were until I got the building bug and then the light bulb ,Duh, came on to what the shape is.
So I cut one piece in half and cut the pointed end off and I was their.
I don't have a lot of photos up to this point but I could post some as I go along from here. Cheers Ron

Wow - good question. I just chambered the heck out of the guitar I'm building, and I never even thought to ask how it would effect the sound. I guess Jack's answer is probably right though.

Cool looking instrument - post more pictures when you can.

By the way.......welcome to the forum!

Keep this in mind. You're building an electric guitar. The sound comes from the pickups and the amp.

Yep. That's why a 335 sounds exactly like a Les Paul. NOT!!!!!!!!

I'm not a sound engineer, but, from experience, I do know that 335's sound similar to a Les Paul. At the same time, they sound distinctly different. It's hard to quantify how the hollowing will change the sound of your guitar, but it certainly will sound different than if it were simply solid. Semi-hollows have a different feel as well. Notes bloom differently and the sustain is different, especially when you crank your amps up.

Yep. That's why a 335 sounds exactly like a Les Paul. NOT!!!!!!!!

I'm not a sound engineer, but, from experience, I do know that 335's sound similar to a Les Paul. At the same time, they sound distinctly different. It's hard to quantify how the hollowing will change the sound of your guitar, but it certainly will sound different than if it were simply solid. Semi-hollows have a different feel as well. Notes bloom differently and the sustain is different, especially when you crank your amps up.

I don't know this for sure - but I always thought Gibson 335's were constructed pretty much like a proper hollow body with bent sides rather than routed out like a Thinline Telecaster. I think they have a block of wood to mount the pickups into - whereas a Thinline Tele is routed out of solid wood.

I think a Thinline Telecaster sounds more like a solid Telecaster than a 335 sounds like a Les Paul. The differences are real but subtle for Thinline Tele's.

I'm not disagreeing with you but 335's are more hollow in construction than Thinlines - so it's a matter of degree.

I'm don't know this for sure - but I always thought Gibson 335's were constructed pretty much like a proper hollow body with bent sides rather than routed out like a Thinline Telecaster. I think they have a block of wood to mount the pickups into - whereas a Thinline Tele is routed out of solid wood.

I think a Thinline Telecaster sounds more like a solid Telecaster than a 335 sounds like a Les Paul. The differences are real but subtle for Thinline Tele's.

I'm not disagreeing with you but 335's are more hollow in construction than Thinlines - so it's a matter of degree.

True, 335's aren't routed out of a single piece of Maple. Unlike Thinlines, they have bent sides but they have a very solid block right down the middle. They're hollow on the wings just like a thinline. I don't have any troubles hearing the difference between my solid tele, and my semi hollow tele. They sound quite different even though they have the same type of pickups.