A semi-acoustic guitar , also known as a hollow-body electric guitar , is a type of electric guitar designed to be played with a guitar amplifier featuring a fully or partly hollow body and at least one electromagnetic pickup . First created in the 1930s, they became popular in jazz and blues , where they remain widely used, and the early period of rock & roll , though they were later largely supplanted by solid-body electric guitars in rock.
63-601: The Gibson L-5 is a hollow body guitar first produced in 1923 by the Gibson Guitar Corporation , then of Kalamazoo, Michigan . The first guitar to feature F-holes , the L-5 was designed under the direction of acoustical engineer and designer Lloyd Loar , and has been in production ever since. It was considered the premier guitar of the company during the big band era. It was originally offered as an acoustic instrument, with semi-acoustic models not made available until
126-500: A chambered body guitar , they start from a solid body blank that has been routed out to include a sound hole in an otherwise solid body. Examples include the Fender Telecaster Thinline . In the 1930s, guitar manufacturers aimed at increasing the sound level produced by the instrument, to compete with louder instruments such as the drums. Companies such as Gibson , Rickenbacker , and Gretsch focused on amplifying
189-534: A "florentine" (sharp) cutaway, replacing the "venetian" (rounded) cutaway design. The L-5 has for multiple generations been seen in the hands of many performers. Many RCA recordings from the fifties feature the guitar prominently, including Elvis Presley 's records, which feature the sound of Scotty Moore 's L-5. Nashville session guitarist Hank Garland , who also recorded acclaimed jazz albums before his near-fatal automobile accident, frequently played an L-5, as did jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. A little known fact –
252-428: A constant hum or buzz. This is most noticeable when using distortion , fuzz, compressors , or other effects which, by adding gain to low-level signals, reduce the signal-to-noise ratio and therefore amplify the unwanted interference relative to the signal from the strings. Humbuckers work by pairing a coil that has the north poles of its magnets oriented "up" (toward the strings) with another coil alongside it with
315-652: A cutaway (introduced in 1939), unlikely in a story set during the Great Depression . Comedian and singer George Gobel had a special version of the Gibson L-5 archtop guitar custom designed and gifted to him by his friend Milton Berle in 1958, the "L-5CT" (cutaway, thin), featuring diminished dimensions of neck scale (24 3/4") and body depth (2 3/8"), befitting his own small stature, and a cherry red finish (for optimal appearance on Gobel's new color TV show). About 45 L-5CT's were produced from 1958 to 1963, making them one of
378-447: A form factor that can be retrofit in place of a single coil. Many different kinds of "mini-humbuckers" are available from numerous manufacturers, and they produce a wide range of different tones. Not to be confused with the full size rail design. The origins of the hot rail/blade design are contested, with Joe Barden being quoted in Jan 1989 Guitar World magazine as claiming to having invented
441-401: A guitar pickup made with two identical coils wrapped around self-magnetized iron cores, where one is then flipped over to create a reverse-wound, reverse-polarity, humbucking orientation. The iron cores of these pickups were magnetized to have their north–south poles at the opposite ends of the core, rather than the now more common top-bottom orientation. To overcome the hum problem for guitars,
504-458: A guitar through a loudspeaker. In 1936, Gibson introduced their first manufactured semi-acoustic guitar, the ES-150s (Electric Spanish Series). Gibson based them on a standard production archtop , with F-holes on the face of the guitar's soundbox . This model resembled traditional jazz guitars that were popular at the time. The soundbox on the guitar let limited sound emit from the hollow body of
567-496: A humbucking pattern beginning in late 1953 but dropped the design in 1954 due to the perceived distorted sound, which had stronger mid-range presence. The Gibson Les Paul was the first guitar to use humbuckers in large-scale production. Over the following decades, variants of practically every type of electric guitar have also been equipped with humbuckers, even types which are traditionally associated with single-coil pickups, like Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters . In particular,
630-444: A humbucking pickup was invented by Seth Lover of Gibson under instruction of then-president Ted McCarty. About the same time, Ray Butts developed a similar pickup that was taken up by Gretsch guitars. Although Gibson's patent was filed almost two years before Gretsch's, their patent was issued four weeks after Gretsch's. Both patents describe a reverse-wound and reverse-polarity pair of coils. A successful early humbucking pickup
693-506: A parallel option. Starting in 1958, the P-90 pickups were replaced by humbuckers . Today the standard model of the L-5 is the L-5 CES, the electric version designed to minimize the feedback that well-carved archtops are prone to when amplified. Gibson periodically issues variations of the L-5 built in limited editions of varying size. One example is the thin-bodied "L-5 CT" (cutaway thin), which has
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#1732880454452756-444: A switch or within the pickup selector) so that only one coil is active. Slightly smaller than a traditional humbucker/double coil form factor. Many guitars feature cavities only for single-coil pickups. Installing full/double-sized humbuckers in this type of guitar requires additional routing of the woodwork, and/or cutting of the pickguard if the instrument has one. Many pickup manufacturers now produce humbucking pickup designs in
819-456: A unique knight/shield crest design on the headstock. Only six Crests were produced (all in 1961), and no two were identical. Gibson produced another model called a "Crest" in 1969–70, but this was a different type of instrument, similar to an ES-330, but with a rosewood body and floating pickups. In the 1970s, Gibson produced the L-5S , which was effectively a solid-body version of the L-5 archtop. It
882-516: Is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from coil pickups . Humbucking coils are also used in dynamic microphones to cancel electromagnetic hum. Humbuckers are one of two main types of guitar pickups. The other is single coil . The "humbucking coil" was invented in 1934 by Electro-Voice , an American professional audio company based in South Bend, Indiana , that Al Kahn and Lou Burroughs incorporated in 1930 for
945-443: Is a series/parallel switch, which in one position causes the coils to be connected in parallel rather than in series. This retains the humbucker's noise-cancellation properties, and gives a sound closer to that of two single-coil pickups used together. Coil splitting is often wrongly referred to as a "coil tapping". Coil taps are most commonly found on single coil pickups, and involve adding an extra hook-up wire during manufacture of
1008-424: Is also found in the balanced lines used in audio equipment. By convention, both humbucker coils are wound counterclockwise. The coils can be connected in series or in parallel in order to achieve this hum-cancellation effect, but humbucker pickups tend to be connected in series because that doubles the signal of the strings while keeping the hum reduced. Some types of humbucker pickups can be manually split (with
1071-502: Is an acoustic guitar that has been fitted with some means of amplification to increase volume without changing the instrument's tone. Semi-acoustic guitars may have a fully hollow body, making them essentially archtop acoustics with the pickups permanently mounted into the sound board , such as the Gibson ES-175 . Some models feature bodies the full width of acoustics, allowing them to be played fully acoustically, while others, such as
1134-429: Is magnetically isolated. The inverted signal of this coil only serves to cancel out the hum picked up by the other coil, with the actual string signal remaining unaffected. This is often used on bass guitars , where the type of pickup used has a greater effect on the instrument's overall sound, and the lower range of notes and their fundamental frequencies can match frequencies typically more heavily affected by hum. This
1197-572: Is no hum canceling effect. Usually, this feature is activated using a miniature toggle switch or a DPDT push-pull switch mounted on a potentiometer . Some guitars (e.g., the Peavey T-60 and the Fender Classic Player Jaguar HH) make use of a variable coil split circuit that allows the guitarist to dial a variable amount of signal from the second coil, from purely single coil to full humbucker and everything in-between. A similar option
1260-407: Is often called a "stacked" pickup, because the coils are most often "stacked" vertically, with the coil containing magnets placed closer to the strings. Another design known as the rail humbucker features a single magnetic component spanning across the entire string width of the instrument. These pickups are similar in size to single and double coil pickup, replacing the 6 slugs/magnets per coil. This
1323-408: Is often referred to as a "split coil" pickup, which should not be confused with the possibility of "coil-splitting" a regular humbucker, as discussed above. Both coils see nearly identical extraneous electromagnetic disturbances, and since they are wired in humbucking fashion, can effectively cancel them. However, the majority of the sound signal of any single note will mostly be generated by just one of
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#17328804544521386-404: Is sometimes expanded into a double sized "quadrail", or double humbucker, effectively combining 4 coils connected together to produce an extremely high-output pickup. The Kent Armstrong "Motherbucker" is an example of such an overpowered pickup. The same type of rails can also be found in a normal-size humbucker. Heavy metal guitarist Dimebag Darrell made heavy use of this type of pickup wired in
1449-574: Is the standard and more popular bracing is the slightly brighter sounding "parallel bracing", which is considered to project the sound farther than an X-braced archtop. The 1955 Gibson Byrdland model is yet another L-5 variation, designed by Billy Byrd and Hank Garland . The Byrdland guitar has a thin L-5-style body and originally came with a narrower neck that featured a relatively short 23 1/2-inch scale length to aid in playing difficult chords. Several different L-5 hollow-body models have appeared over
1512-514: The Epiphone Casino , have "thinline" bodies where the hollow body serves purely to alter the tone, not increase the acoustic volume. Other semi-acoustic guitars have a solid center block running the length and depth of the body, called a semi-hollow body . Examples include models that feature sound holes, like the Gibson ES-335 , and ones with no sound holes but hollow interior chambers, like
1575-474: The Fender Jazz Bass , introduced in 1960, which used a pair of single-coil pickups, one near the bridge and another about halfway between the bridge and the neck, and many Stratocaster style guitars, which often have 3 pickups with the middle one reversed electrically and magnetically. The usual five-way selector switch provides two humbucking settings, using the reversed middle pickup in parallel with either
1638-461: The Gretsch Duo-Jet . In these, the bridge is fixed to a solid block of wood rather than to a sound board , and the belly vibration is minimized much as in a solid body instrument. The addition of the central block helps to manage feedback and allows the guitar to be played normally at higher gain and higher volume. Other guitars are borderline between semi-acoustic and solid body. Known as
1701-570: The Lace Sensor pickup, which uses proprietary screened bobbins to reduce hum while preserving single-coil tone. In the early 1980s DiMarzio introduced replacement pickups for Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars. These were of the stacked humbucker design, where the lower pickup coil functions solely to cancel hum. The DiMarzio "Super Distortion" pickup, introduced in 1972, was the first after-market replacement guitar pickup. With its much-increased output compared to humbuckers installed in guitars of
1764-439: The south pole of its magnets oriented up. By connecting the coils together out of phase , the interference is significantly reduced via phase cancellation : the string signals from both coils add up instead of canceling because the magnets are placed in opposite polarity. This dramatically improves the signal-to-noise ratio . The technique has something in common with what electrical engineers call " common-mode rejection ", and
1827-556: The " Superstrat " style of guitar. In any magnetic pickup, a vibrating guitar string, magnetized by a fixed magnet within the pickup, induces an alternating voltage across its coil. However, wire coils also make excellent antennas and are therefore sensitive to electromagnetic interference caused by alternating magnetic fields from mains wiring ( mains hum ) and electrical appliances like transformers, motors, and computer screens , especially older CRT monitors. Guitar pickups reproduce this noise, which can be quite audible, sounding like
1890-421: The 17" L-5 was outfitted with a pair of P-90 pickups to keep up with the musical requirements of the time. The designation of this version of the instrument was L-5 CES—standing for Cutaway Electric Spanish. This instrument could be had in the standard sunburst finish or with the blonde, natural finish. However, the all-acoustic version of the L-5 was not replaced by this new introduction, and remained available as
1953-431: The 1940s, the L-5 came in different configurations (all strictly acoustic): When regular production resumed at Gibson after the war, the L-5 appeared more or less identical to the 17" acoustic instrument produced at the end of the previous decade. Apart from the switch from the script to the "block" Gibson logo on the headstock, the most significant change in subsequent years was the introduction of an electric L-5. In 1951,
Gibson L-5 - Misplaced Pages Continue
2016-422: The 1940s. Worldwide, the L-5 was the first guitar to feature F-holes . Then as well as today, the construction of the L-5 is similar in construction, carving, bracing and tap-tuning, to building a cello. This guitar as well as the cello are similarly designed in order to amplify and project the acoustic vibration of strings throughout carved and tuned woods, using f-holes as the projection points. From 1922 to 1934
2079-487: The Beatles , and B.B. King , and rock musician Ted Nugent . Semi-acoustic guitars have also been valued as practice guitars because, when played "unplugged," they are quieter than full acoustic guitars, but more audible than solid-body electric guitars because of their open cavity. They are also popular because the cavities reduce the weight of the guitar. Humbucker A humbucker , humbucking pickup , or double coil ,
2142-448: The L-5 is the guitar that Groucho Marx kept by his side throughout his private life. Though not widely known, Marx played the guitar well. Contemporary guitarists who play and have played an L-5 on notable recordings as well as live include Tuck Andress from Tuck and Patti , Melvin Sparks , Lee Ritenour , George Van Eps , and Howard Roberts (who used his L-5 to record the opening bars of
2205-596: The L-5 was produced with a 16" lower bout width. In 1934 the lower bout was increased to 17"; this width is still used today. Also released in 1934 was the larger 18" archtop guitar named the "L5 Super", which was later renamed the Gibson Super 400 . These two highly ornate acoustic guitars are Gibson's top-of-the-line carved archtop instruments. Since the 1930s there have been several other 17" archtops designed by Gibson, including variations introduced to be more affordable, less ornate models. From its introduction in 1922–23 to
2268-435: The best tonewoods were not necessary in an electric model and pressed laminated wood would produce a more affordable to manufacture model and thus could land in many more players hands than the carved instruments. The L-5 CES was a direct electric version of the L-5, introduced in 1951. These originally used P-90 pickups, but used humbucker pickups from 1958 on. From 1961 through 1969, most production L-5CES guitars featured
2331-403: The bridge or neck pickup. If the pickups are wired in series instead of parallel, the resulting sound is close to that of a normal humbucker. It is even closer to a humbucker-type sound if the coils are placed closer together. In 1957, Fender introduced a split pickup to its Precision Bass , where one coil is serving the E and A strings, and the other one the D and G strings. This configuration
2394-423: The bridge position. These tend to have a higher output and bass response than the single coil-sized versions. DiMarzio has designed and sold many such pickups. Some guitars which have humbucking pickups feature "coil splits", which allow the pickups to act as "pseudo-single" coils by either short-circuiting or bypassing one coil. The electrical circuit of the pickup is reduced to that of a true single coil so there
2457-437: The coils, so that output level and tonal qualities are much closer to a regular single-coil pickup. The resulting "P-Style" pickup is usually regarded as the main ingredient of the "P-Bass" sound, and many variants on the design are offered by many manufacturers. The concept was later developed into G&L 's "Z-coil" pickup, which is used for standard guitars such as their Comanche model. In 1985, Lace Music Products introduced
2520-471: The design in late 1983. The US patent for the L-500 attributes the hot rail design to Bill Lawrence. Two flat vertical magnetically conductive blades are placed side by side within half the width of a typical fender strat/telecaster sized single coil. Both "blades/rails" pass under all strings and placed lengthwise, each with its own winding around one rail/blade, and a magnet placed directly under and contacting
2583-419: The f holes. Rickenbacker also began making semi-acoustic guitars in 1958. German guitar crafter, Roger Rossmiesl developed the 300 series for Rickenbacker. The series was a wide semi-acoustic that used a sleeker dash hole on one side of the guitar, with a pick guard on the other side, rather than a traditional F-hole. In addition to the main model variants of the guitar, Gibson made several small changes to
Gibson L-5 - Misplaced Pages Continue
2646-512: The first fully electric semi-acoustic guitars. Several models, including the ES-350T by Gibson, were made in the 1950s to accommodate a demand for a comfortable and modern version of the original archtop model. In 1958, Gibson first manufactured a 'semi-hollow body guitar' that featured a block of solid wood between the front and back sections of the guitars' cutaway . The guitar had a smaller resonant cavity inside, which makes less sound emit from
2709-511: The guitar, including a laminated top for the ES-175 model and mounted top pickups for general use on all their models. While Gibson provided many of the innovations in semi-acoustic guitars from the 1930s to the 1950s, there were also various makes by other companies including a hollow archtop by Gretsch. The 6120 model by Gretsch became very popular as a rockabilly model despite having almost no technical differences from Gibson models. Rickenbacker
2772-487: The guitar. The ES-150s could be electrically amplified via a Charlie Christian pickup , a magnetic single-coil pickup that converted the energy of the vibrating strings into an electrical signal. The clear sound of the pickups made the ES series popular with jazz musicians. The ES-150 was made several years after Rickenbacker made the first solid-body electric guitar. The ES series was designed as an experiment for Gibson to test
2835-549: The iconic theme for The Twilight Zone ). John Mayer uses one on his 2008 live CD/DVD Where the Light Is . Eric Clapton used an L-5 to record Reptile (2001) and also used one on his 2002 live CD/DVD One More Car, One More Rider during the songs " Reptile ", and " Somewhere Over the Rainbow ". Early players of the L-5 include Eddie Lang , and Maybelle Carter from The Carter Family , who played her now-famous 1928 model for
2898-715: The late 60s and 70s, the guitar became more popular because players learned to use its feedback issues creatively. Semi-hollow guitars share some of the tonal characteristics of hollow guitars, such as their praised warmth and clean tone, but with less risk of undesirable feedback. Their sound is particularly popular with jazz , blues , rockabilly and psychobilly guitarists. Today, semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars are still popular among many artists across various genres. Examples include Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys , renowned jazz guitarist George Benson , John Scofield , multi-instrumentalist Paul McCartney , former Guns N' Roses member Izzy Stradlin , John Lennon of
2961-524: The majority of her career. Maybelle Carter's L-5 is now kept in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee . Django Reinhardt played an L-5 fitted with a DeArmond pickup during his tour with Duke Ellington November 1946. Groucho Marx is seen playing his L-5 in the 1932 Marx Brothers film Horse Feathers . Clint Eastwood featured an L-5 in the 1982 movie Honkytonk Man . This had
3024-565: The market. The body depth has been reduced to 2 3/8". The upper cutaway is purely cosmetic, since the neck base or heel prevents higher access to the frets. ES-5 Switchmaster ([1949]/1955–1962) (Switchmaster with P-90 was (1955–1957)) L-5 CES electric guitar (1951–) c.f. Byrdland (1957–) (thinline, narrower neck, 23 ½" short-scale version) L5-S solid-body guitar (1972–1980s) L-5 Lee Ritenour Signature (2003–) Hollow body guitar They differ from an acoustic-electric guitar , which
3087-416: The original humbucker remains the most common noise-reducing pickup design, inventors have tried many other approaches to reducing noise in guitar pickups. Many instruments combine separate single-coil pickups in a hum reducing configuration by reversing the electrical phase of one of the pickups. This arrangement is similar to that of a humbucking pickup and effectively reduces noise. Examples of this include
3150-446: The pickup so the guitarist can choose to have all the windings of the pickup included in the circuit, for a fatter, higher output sound with more midrange, or switch the output to 'Tap' into the windings at a point less than the full coil for a brighter, lower-output and cleaner sound. For example: a full pickup coil may be 10,000 turns of wire and the "Tap" may be at 8000 turns. Because of the confusion between coil splits and coil taps—and
3213-549: The potential success of electric guitars. Due to its financial success, the ES series is often referred to as the first successful electric guitar. The ES-150 was followed by the ES-250 a year later, in what became a long line of semi acoustics for the Gibson company. In 1949 Gibson released two new models: the ES-175 and ES-5 . The ES-175 and ES-5 models were the first to come with built-in electric pickups and are widely considered
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#17328804544523276-408: The purpose of manufacturing portable public address equipment, including microphones and loudspeakers . The twin coiled guitar pickup invented by Arnold Lesti in 1935 is arranged as a humbucker, and the patent USRE20070 describes the noise cancellation and current summation principles of such a design. This "Electric Translating Device" employed the solenoid windings of the pickup to magnetize
3339-424: The rareness of coil taps in general—it is difficult to find tappable single-coil pickups for sale. However, pickup manufacturer Seymour Duncan offers tapped versions of many of their Telecaster and Stratocaster pickups. The split single coil may bear little resemblance to popular single coil pickups such as those made by Fender and the P-90 made by Gibson, owing to other differences in pickup construction. While
3402-509: The rarest Gibson models. Most of these were acoustic guitars, although a few were shipped with pickups. The rarest L5 model was a close relative of the L-5CT. It was called the "Crest"*. It was conceived by Gibson employee Andy Nelson (who helped to design the L-5CT) in 1961. It featured the same thinline body of the L-5CT, but the new-for-1961 "florentine" cutaway shape, Super 400-style fretboard inlays, and
3465-408: The replacement of the bridge pickup in a Stratocaster-type guitar with a humbucker, resulting in a pickup configuration noted as H-S-S (starting at bridge pickup: H for humbucker, S for single coil) has gained much popularity. Guitars in this configuration are sometimes referred to as "Fat Strats", because of the "fatter", "rounder" tone offered by the humbucking pickup, and are also closely related to
3528-432: The same form factor as a traditional single coil style. Though cancelling hum while preserving the original single coil appearance, stacked designs can sacrifice some of the "bite" in higher frequencies partially due to capacitative effect of closely/machine wound coils as well as other tonal differences resulting from the second coil having the magnet through it also. In some designs one of the coils simply has no magnet, or
3591-472: The same overall specifications, with the exception of the body thickness. The CT model was first constructed for George Gobel, who wanted a less bulky guitar. Another variation of the L-5 is the Wes Montgomery model, named for the popular 1950s and 1960s jazz guitarist. The Wes Montgomery model has a single "Classic 57" pickup in the neck position, and an parallel bracing supporting the top. Parallel bracing
3654-458: The steel strings by means of switching on a short D.C. charge before switching over to amplification. In 1938, A.F. Knoblaugh invented a pickup for stringed instruments involving two stacked coils described in U.S. patent 2,119,584 . This pickup was to be used in pianos, since he was working for Baldwin Piano at the time. The 1939 April edition of Radio Craft Magazine shows how to construct
3717-447: The two blades. Similar to full/double size hum bucking designs, one coil is reverse wound to cancel hum. Fender came out with their Fender Noiseless Pickups , a stacked bobbin design, around 1998. Fender's Noiseless pickups utilize two separate coils one on top of another, wound with one coil reverse wound to cancel hum, around a common set of magnetic pole pieces commonly referred to as the "bobbin". These "stacked" humbuckers were in
3780-631: The years, including the L-5 Signature and the L-5 Studio. The ES-5 was the first three pickup factory guitar model built. The ES-5 was inspired by the L-5, introduced in 1949, later modified as the Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster. Unlike the L-5 which had a solid carved spruce top and solid maple sides and back, the ES-5 body was constructed of pressed laminated wood to prevent feedback, Gibson also felt that
3843-528: Was also a prominent maker of the semi-hollow body guitar. Gibson, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, and other companies still make semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars. The semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars were used widely by jazz musicians in the 1930s. The guitar became used in pop, folk, and blues. The guitars sometimes produced feedback when played through an amplifier at a loud level so they were unpopular for bands that had to play loud enough to perform in large venues. As rock became more experimental in
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#17328804544523906-466: Was the type which is nowadays known as the " PAF " (literally "Patent Applied For") invented by Seth Lover in 1955. Because of this, and because of its use on the Gibson Les Paul guitar, popularization of the humbucker is strongly associated with Gibson, although humbuckers had been used in many different guitar designs by other manufacturers before. Rickenbacker offered dual coil pickups arranged in
3969-526: Was used by Pat Martino , Paul Simon and, from 1973 to 1976, by Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad (he is seen with the guitar in cover photographs on the band's 1975 live album Caught in the Act ); and a custom-made single-pickup version was made for Ronnie Wood , who loaned it to Keith Richards for his 1988 tour with the X-Pensive Winos. A double cutaway version of the L-5 has recently been introduced to
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