The Chambered Telecaster Body

sgfraz · October 3rd, 2003, 08:52 PM

I have noticed that some private Tele body makers have been selling chambered Tele bodies. I have always been under the impression that "the more meat the better". Can anyone who owns one explain the tone characteristics of a chambered Telecaster body verses a solid body?

Ray G · October 4th, 2003, 09:56 AM

Hello,

What I'm about to say is only my opinion... but this what I think. The chamber thing really only decreases the overall weight of a guitar and doesn't have much if any influence on the overall tone of a given guitar. I have a 1976 Thinline Tele and the top portion of the guitar is hollowed out and there is an F-Hole. The guitar also has two Fender Wide Range humbuckers in it.

I did a side by side comparison of my guitar and a 70's Tele Deluxe that has the exact same pickups but the guitar is totally solid. I A/B'd em both through the same amp and the two guitars sounded practically identical. I also did the same test with a chambered Les Paul DC and a Les Paul Standard, same results... no noticable difference in tone.

Hope this helps

TeleGeir · October 4th, 2003, 11:47 AM

Hi Steve.

The middle stem(?) that the pickups sit on is still solid, and goes all the way from the back to the neck, that and the fact the lids and sides are so thick means it doesn't have much of the characteristics of an acoustic. But they do have more sound unplugged, and I'd like to think that some of that resonance is projected into the electric sound. However, I think that depends on the pickups. While the Tux sounds like it does, the 90s Thinline does not. Since all of my teles have different pickups, it is hard to tell, since the pickups probably account for more of the differences than the bodies...

Both of mine also have more sustain than my solid body ones, but again I don't know if that can be attributed to the body being semi hollow.

But the cool factor is high!

Geir :)

Brad · October 9th, 2003, 06:58 PM

I currently have a homebrew "chambered" USACG tele and a stock 1971 Fedner Tele. Of course, there are some differences with pickups, wood, hardware, etc....but all things being equal, they both sound like teles, they both sound good, yet the chambered tele has a warmth and open-ness to it that the solid 71 does not have. It's not just me, my wife can hear it also. She can tell what guitar I'm playing when she's out of the room by the tone. I really dig the 71, but the chambered just kills! This may be my own partiallity to semi's and I may be blowing smoke out my arse...but I ( at least I like to think I can ) can hear and feel a difference between a solid & semi.

Phil Jacoby · October 10th, 2003, 12:45 AM

Chambered and thinline bodies in general tend to be more resonant IMO than solid bodies. The trade off is that solids are more efficient - tighter overall tone and more sustain. Chambered/hollow seems to have more "air". I like and have both. Unless you are into mondo gain tones, a chambered/hollow body can be pretty cool. When I play with a loud rock band, I prefer the solid bodies; when played lower than painful volume rootsy Americana I really enjoy the thinlines. YMMV

tenstrings · October 11th, 2003, 05:17 AM

you guys are swinging me towards a thinline... my wife won't be happy if I get another guitar.
brian

Rob DiStefano · October 11th, 2003, 06:25 AM

IMO, Thinlines and some chambered body g'tars usually have that "woody" acoustic-like tone uplugged, and to some small degree when played at real low volumes, but when cranked up they're all electrics ...

TeleGeir · October 11th, 2003, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob DiStefano

IMO, Thinlines and some chambered body g'tars usually have that "woody" acoustic-like tone uplugged, and to some small degree when played at real low volumes, but when cranked up they're all electrics ...

Yeah, I have been playing my 90s Thinline unplugged for 3 weeks now, in my hotel room. And I definitely agree with that. To get an acoustic sound when plugged in at high volumes you need an acoustic type pickup.

Geir :)

Phil Jacoby · October 11th, 2003, 01:10 PM

You can woof out on high vol/high gain setting with a Thinline; its happened to me... Who was it that coined the term "breath of the Thinline"? They have a higher acoustic potential.

That said, I've seen a few that were fairly heavy and stiff that sounded, well just like a solid version.

Rob DiStefano · October 11th, 2003, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil Jacoby

You can woof out on high vol/high gain setting with a Thinline; its happened to me...

Thin and vibrant top woods, coupled big sound chambers (after market Thinline bodies with full chambers on both sides, not just the upper bout as in a stock Thinline), can feedback under the right conditions - and in most cases you can really control that as if it was a pedal.

Phil Jacoby · October 12th, 2003, 08:15 AM

Had a 68 and a 71 type I and both were significantly hollowed out on the treble side. They would woof too sometimes - DR and TS9, not that it wasn't cool though.

Now I have a self built maple top mahogany set neck and a MIM 72 RI. There is more meat in each of these compared to the Type I (single coil varient). The 72 RI will woof, the self built seldom does.

Cool idea Roger Rosmeisl had, huh?

Nick Fanis · October 14th, 2003, 01:27 AM

I currently own 3 thinlines and a solid one (I guess I am sold to thinlines at the moment...).
To be honest when I a/b my 69 Thinline RI and my 52 Warmoth tele copy (that have classic tele pups) through an amp there isn't any real difference in tone (than a slight "openess" the thinline has).
The thinline is lighter though and sounds great unpluged.

Brad · October 14th, 2003, 10:16 AM

the ability to get controlled feedback from the chambered at a moments notice! Not as easy as with my 335, but still, very easy. My solid body tele & my strat will not do this, but the chambered......well....all I need to do is find the sweet spot near my amp, turn a bit and it's right there.

11 Gauge · October 14th, 2003, 03:18 PM

...that to really take advantage of any guitar with a cavity in it, predominantly acoustics, you need some kind of saddle transducer pickup. if i remember correctly the particular article stated that electric guitar pickups almost entirely just sense the magnetic fields around them, i.e. string movement. an acoustic transducer, on the other hand, will actually sense pressures and soundwaves on wood surfaces, the interior of the guitar, etc.

so in essence, if the article is correct, then solids and semi hollows should respond in quite a similar matter. it would stand to reason that if you got a semi hollow close enough to your amp that you could get it to 'woof', but you can make a solidbody do that as well. chambered bodies should be yet more similar still, as the chambers are small and sealed.

one could argue that a guitar with a universal route, bender routing, jacuzzi route, or even routed for trem to be similar to say, a Thinline, maybe even more so.

i would think that the pockets would need to be out in the open to really have a pronounced affect, which would be more acoustic than anything.

it seems to me that the main selling point of a chambered body is the reduced weight. right now lightweight bodies are in vogue. a few decades ago it was the opposite. in 5 years it could be 'midweight' bodies are the rage. whatever floats your boat when it comes time to buy, i guess.

TeleGeir · October 14th, 2003, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 11 Gauge

...that to really take advantage of any guitar with a cavity in it, predominantly acoustics, you need some kind of saddle transducer pickup. if i remember correctly the particular article stated that electric guitar pickups almost entirely just sense the magnetic fields around them, i.e. string movement. an acoustic transducer, on the other hand, will actually sense pressures and soundwaves on wood surfaces, the interior of the guitar, etc.

That is probably correct. But I suspect that a true acoustic body will react differently to the vibrations from the strings through the bridge, and that response will then spread back to the strings. Now a normal Thinline has so thick walls and lids that the difference doesn't matter. But put the same pickup on a solid tele and a jumbo acoustic and I am pretty sure you would notice the difference.

And Thinlines do look sweet! 8)

Plus - assuming it doesn't matter much to the sound - me and my back like them light...

Geir :)

Phil Jacoby · October 15th, 2003, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brad

the ability to get controlled feedback from the chambered at a moments notice! Not as easy as with my 335, but still, very easy. My solid body tele & my strat will not do this, but the chambered......well....all I need to do is find the sweet spot near my amp, turn a bit and it's right there.

Yep - I love that, the old Larry Carlton hold a note and look towards the amp. Cool.

John E · October 17th, 2003, 11:21 AM

I love the way when I'm playing at a good volume at a gig, I can get this "Whomp" of air blasting out of the f-hole at certain times... it really feels like the guitar is letting out a huge breath of air... now it never does that when I'm unplugged... seeing as how my thinline reacts that way when plugged in I've got to assume it has some effect on the tone of the instrument when playing live... I love Thinlines. I'll take a Thinline any day over a solidbody. Maybe it's just psychological, but even when I pick up a thinline in a music store, they always have more of an airy, woody quality to the tone even when plugged in. I have a buddy who is a virtuoso violin player... he came with me to a local GC one time just to kill a little time. I played like 5 different tele's, among them a Muddy, a 52ri, MIM 50's and a couple of thinlines. he was well away from me and could not see whether it was a solidbody or thinline, he always came up to me when I had the thinlines plugged in and said "I like that one, it has a woody quality." That was enough confirmation for me...

tdub special · October 20th, 2003, 03:34 PM

check out my new hollowbody tele:

http://www.melodycustom.com/guitarga.../11/index.html

First of let me start of by saying Nate Snell is THE man. This is easily my favorite guitar. If i had to keep one guitar this would be it. Check out the pictures, they're sure to make you drool!

esquire_player52 · October 29th, 2003, 12:08 PM

what exactly are chambered bodies?

Kevin · October 29th, 2003, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire_player52

what exactly are chambered bodies?

<a href = "http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/HollowTele.htm"> HERE'S</a> a link to a page at Warmoth with a pic.

Basically they have weight-reducing chambers cut in them. F-holes are optional.

esquire_player52 · October 30th, 2003, 09:45 AM

so i already basically knew that. yesterday was a weird day. i thought it was thursday and then later in the day i thought it was tuesday and for about 5 minutes i knew it wednesday but at like 6 i thought it was 8 and i was really tired and stuff and today its the same thing except i thought it was friday

Kevin · October 30th, 2003, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire_player52

so i already basically knew that. yesterday was a weird day. i thought it was thursday and then later in the day i thought it was tuesday and for about 5 minutes i knew it wednesday but at like 6 i thought it was 8 and i was really tired and stuff and today its the same thing except i thought it was friday

I'm sorry, ep52, but that makes absolutely no sense. We try to use punctuation and capital letters around here.

blueshawk · November 4th, 2003, 07:51 AM

Quote:

.... I suspect that a true acoustic body will react differently to the vibrations from the strings through the bridge, and that response will then spread back to the strings. Now a normal Thinline has so thick walls and lids that the difference doesn't matter. But put the same pickup on a solid tele and a jumbo acoustic and I am pretty sure you would notice the difference.

And Thinlines do look sweet! 8)

Plus - assuming it doesn't matter much to the sound - me and my back like them light...

Geir :)

Geir - Everything you say is so true.
- and that bit later about controllable feedback - hitting the string and looking at the amp - it's better than chocolate cake - I use a Boss Compressor pedal to help the process along a bit

Tone

October 3rd, 2003, 08:52 PM	#1 (permalink)
sgfraz NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Clovis, California Posts: 2	The Chambered Telecaster Body I have noticed that some private Tele body makers have been selling chambered Tele bodies. I have always been under the impression that "the more meat the better". Can anyone who owns one explain the tone characteristics of a chambered Telecaster body verses a solid body? __________________ Telecasters are a gift from God!

October 4th, 2003, 09:56 AM	#2 (permalink)
Ray G Tele-Holic Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: New Jersey Posts: 606	Chambered Tele Bodies Hello, What I'm about to say is only my opinion... but this what I think. The chamber thing really only decreases the overall weight of a guitar and doesn't have much if any influence on the overall tone of a given guitar. I have a 1976 Thinline Tele and the top portion of the guitar is hollowed out and there is an F-Hole. The guitar also has two Fender Wide Range humbuckers in it. I did a side by side comparison of my guitar and a 70's Tele Deluxe that has the exact same pickups but the guitar is totally solid. I A/B'd em both through the same amp and the two guitars sounded practically identical. I also did the same test with a chambered Les Paul DC and a Les Paul Standard, same results... no noticable difference in tone. Hope this helps __________________ Regards, Ray

October 4th, 2003, 11:47 AM	#3 (permalink)
TeleGeir Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bergen, Norway Posts: 1,998	They don't sound that different Hi Steve. The middle stem(?) that the pickups sit on is still solid, and goes all the way from the back to the neck, that and the fact the lids and sides are so thick means it doesn't have much of the characteristics of an acoustic. But they do have more sound unplugged, and I'd like to think that some of that resonance is projected into the electric sound. However, I think that depends on the pickups. While the Tux sounds like it does, the 90s Thinline does not. Since all of my teles have different pickups, it is hard to tell, since the pickups probably account for more of the differences than the bodies... Both of mine also have more sustain than my solid body ones, but again I don't know if that can be attributed to the body being semi hollow. But the cool factor is high! Geir :) __________________ "This is a room in Paul's house."

October 9th, 2003, 06:58 PM	#4 (permalink)
Brad Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Tacoma, WA Posts: 1,294	I currently have a homebrew "chambered" USACG tele and a stock 1971 Fedner Tele. Of course, there are some differences with pickups, wood, hardware, etc....but all things being equal, they both sound like teles, they both sound good, yet the chambered tele has a warmth and open-ness to it that the solid 71 does not have. It's not just me, my wife can hear it also. She can tell what guitar I'm playing when she's out of the room by the tone. I really dig the 71, but the chambered just kills! This may be my own partiallity to semi's and I may be blowing smoke out my arse...but I ( at least I like to think I can ) can hear and feel a difference between a solid & semi. __________________ We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old becasue we stop playing.

October 10th, 2003, 12:45 AM	#5 (permalink)
Phil Jacoby Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 280	Chambered and thinline bodies in general tend to be more resonant IMO than solid bodies. The trade off is that solids are more efficient - tighter overall tone and more sustain. Chambered/hollow seems to have more "air". I like and have both. Unless you are into mondo gain tones, a chambered/hollow body can be pretty cool. When I play with a loud rock band, I prefer the solid bodies; when played lower than painful volume rootsy Americana I really enjoy the thinlines. YMMV __________________ How 'bout dem O's, hon?

October 11th, 2003, 05:17 AM	#6 (permalink)
tenstrings Tele-Meister Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: seattle Posts: 238 1 Photos	you guys are swinging me towards a thinline... my wife won't be happy if I get another guitar. brian __________________ "all that racket from wood and wire"

October 11th, 2003, 06:25 AM	#7 (permalink)
Rob DiStefano Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Park Ridge, NJ Age: 62 Posts: 4,670	IMO, Thinlines and some chambered body g'tars usually have that "woody" acoustic-like tone uplugged, and to some small degree when played at real low volumes, but when cranked up they're all electrics ...

October 11th, 2003, 01:10 PM	#9 (permalink)
Phil Jacoby Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 280	You can woof out on high vol/high gain setting with a Thinline; its happened to me... Who was it that coined the term "breath of the Thinline"? They have a higher acoustic potential. That said, I've seen a few that were fairly heavy and stiff that sounded, well just like a solid version. __________________ How 'bout dem O's, hon?

October 12th, 2003, 08:15 AM	#11 (permalink)
Phil Jacoby Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 280	Had a 68 and a 71 type I and both were significantly hollowed out on the treble side. They would woof too sometimes - DR and TS9, not that it wasn't cool though. Now I have a self built maple top mahogany set neck and a MIM 72 RI. There is more meat in each of these compared to the Type I (single coil varient). The 72 RI will woof, the self built seldom does. Cool idea Roger Rosmeisl had, huh? __________________ How 'bout dem O's, hon?

October 14th, 2003, 01:27 AM	#12 (permalink)
Nick Fanis Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Athens-GREECE Posts: 1,767 14 Photos	I currently own 3 thinlines and a solid one (I guess I am sold to thinlines at the moment...). To be honest when I a/b my 69 Thinline RI and my 52 Warmoth tele copy (that have classic tele pups) through an amp there isn't any real difference in tone (than a slight "openess" the thinline has). The thinline is lighter though and sounds great unpluged. __________________ "Hit him again Jack,he is crazy!" Hunter S.Thompson www.myspace.com/nickfanis

October 14th, 2003, 10:16 AM	#13 (permalink)
Brad Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Tacoma, WA Posts: 1,294	One big difference between my "chambered" & so the ability to get controlled feedback from the chambered at a moments notice! Not as easy as with my 335, but still, very easy. My solid body tele & my strat will not do this, but the chambered......well....all I need to do is find the sweet spot near my amp, turn a bit and it's right there. __________________ We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old becasue we stop playing.

October 14th, 2003, 03:18 PM	#14 (permalink)
11 Gauge Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: The East Coast Posts: 2,898 10 Photos	i seem to remember reading... ...that to really take advantage of any guitar with a cavity in it, predominantly acoustics, you need some kind of saddle transducer pickup. if i remember correctly the particular article stated that electric guitar pickups almost entirely just sense the magnetic fields around them, i.e. string movement. an acoustic transducer, on the other hand, will actually sense pressures and soundwaves on wood surfaces, the interior of the guitar, etc. so in essence, if the article is correct, then solids and semi hollows should respond in quite a similar matter. it would stand to reason that if you got a semi hollow close enough to your amp that you could get it to 'woof', but you can make a solidbody do that as well. chambered bodies should be yet more similar still, as the chambers are small and sealed. one could argue that a guitar with a universal route, bender routing, jacuzzi route, or even routed for trem to be similar to say, a Thinline, maybe even more so. i would think that the pockets would need to be out in the open to really have a pronounced affect, which would be more acoustic than anything. it seems to me that the main selling point of a chambered body is the reduced weight. right now lightweight bodies are in vogue. a few decades ago it was the opposite. in 5 years it could be 'midweight' bodies are the rage. whatever floats your boat when it comes time to buy, i guess. __________________

October 17th, 2003, 11:21 AM	#17 (permalink)
John E Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Connecticut Posts: 1,396	Thinlines are it for me... I love the way when I'm playing at a good volume at a gig, I can get this "Whomp" of air blasting out of the f-hole at certain times... it really feels like the guitar is letting out a huge breath of air... now it never does that when I'm unplugged... seeing as how my thinline reacts that way when plugged in I've got to assume it has some effect on the tone of the instrument when playing live... I love Thinlines. I'll take a Thinline any day over a solidbody. Maybe it's just psychological, but even when I pick up a thinline in a music store, they always have more of an airy, woody quality to the tone even when plugged in. I have a buddy who is a virtuoso violin player... he came with me to a local GC one time just to kill a little time. I played like 5 different tele's, among them a Muddy, a 52ri, MIM 50's and a couple of thinlines. he was well away from me and could not see whether it was a solidbody or thinline, he always came up to me when I had the thinlines plugged in and said "I like that one, it has a woody quality." That was enough confirmation for me...

October 20th, 2003, 03:34 PM	#18 (permalink)
tdub special NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 1	hollow tele check out my new hollowbody tele: http://www.melodycustom.com/guitarga.../11/index.html First of let me start of by saying Nate Snell is THE man. This is easily my favorite guitar. If i had to keep one guitar this would be it. Check out the pictures, they're sure to make you drool!

October 29th, 2003, 12:08 PM	#19 (permalink)
esquire_player52 Tele-Meister Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 482	what what exactly are chambered bodies? __________________ let's let love give what it gives

October 30th, 2003, 09:45 AM	#21 (permalink)
esquire_player52 Tele-Meister Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 482	so i already basically knew that. yesterday was a weird day. i thought it was thursday and then later in the day i thought it was tuesday and for about 5 minutes i knew it wednesday but at like 6 i thought it was 8 and i was really tired and stuff and today its the same thing except i thought it was friday __________________ let's let love give what it gives