You might also know the semi-acoustic guitar as a hollowbody or archtop guitar. In any case, you should never confuse the semi-acoustic guitar with an electro-acoustic guitar. While semi-acoustic guitars do sound much like standard, solid-bodied electric guitars, since they have a hollow body, they have a more open and noticeably warmer sound, making them a favourite of jazz, blues, and rock ‘n’ roll guitarists – to name a few. If you’re seeking the distinctly warm tone of a semi-acoustic guitar but don’t know where to start, we’ve put together this Buyer’s Guide to help you find the right model for you. If you can’t see the answer to your question here, feel free to contact us!
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1. What is a Semi-Acoustic Guitar?
Before we start, it’s worth defining a few terms here that can often be used to say the same thing:
Acoustic: A guitar with a hollow body and no pickup. No cable can be plugged in and it gives you that well-known acoustic guitar sound. Electric: These guitars have a solid body mounted with one or more magnetic pickups. Amplify this guitar and get that renowned electric guitar sound. Play it unplugged and you get barely any volume. Electro-Acoustic: This is essentially an acoustic guitar with a hollow body (usually with a flat top) and a fitted piezo pickup and/or internal microphone. Unplugged, these guitars have a full acoustic sound. Plug it into an acoustic amplifier, and the natural acoustic sound is given more volume. Semi-Acoustic: These guitars have a hollow body (usually with an archtop*) fitted with one or more magnetic pickups. Played unplugged, you get an acoustic sound but at a lower volume than a fully acoustic guitar. Amplified, these guitars sound like an electric guitar but are more open and warm.
* Archtop: This is a hollow guitar with a convex soundboard that’s often finished with an f-shaped soundhole. Most of the time, these are semi-acoustic guitars but there are some archtop acoustic and electro-acoustic guitars around. Hollowbody: An archtop guitar with a fully hollow body. Semi-Hollowbody: An archtop guitar with a partly hollow body.
A semi-acoustic guitar is often referred to as an archtop because, unlike most standard acoustic guitars, it almost always has a rounded, convex soundboard.
The large, thick versions are called a full-body. These are often seen played by jazz and rockabilly guitarists.
When an archtop is almost as thin as a standard electric guitar, then it’s referred to as a thinline. Thinline models are often used to play blues, soul, rock, and indie.
3. What’s the Difference Between a Hollow and Semi-Hollow Guitar?
The body of many thinline models (see Question 2) are fitted with a chunk of wood in the middle – a centreblock – which is sandwiched between the back and soundboard of the guitar. The full-body archtop will usually not have this.
When a semi-acoustic guitar hasn’t been fitted with a centreblock, it’s better not to play it at a high volume or with masses of distortion or overdrive. Otherwise, you’ll get interrupted by that high-pitched, ear-splitting sound known as feedback – which you have very little control over. The addition of a centreblock counters feedback and helps solve this problem.
4. What Kind of Pickups Should My Semi-Acoustic Guitar Have?
While a semi-acoustic guitar does have a lot of volume when you play it unplugged, people choose these guitars because they can be amplified. As such, choosing the right pickups is essential.
Do you want a nice and warm, full and hum-free sound? Then you’ll prefer a guitar mounted with a humbucker. If you like the sound of a humbucker, but want something more ‘pointed’, then a ‘tron’ pickup, like those mounted on many Gretsch guitars will be perfect.
If you want a more transparent, sparkling tone, then maybe go for a single-coil pickup. And, if you want a single coil with a little more ‘body’, then a P90 will give you exactly that.
5. What Kind of Pickup Configuration Should My Semi-Acoustic Have?
By ‘pickup configuration’, we mean the combination of pickups the guitar has been mounted with and where each pickup is placed. Most semi-acoustic guitars have one pickup mounted at the bridge and one pickup mounted at the neck to offer a good selection of different tones since the sound picked up just after the bridge has a different flavour from the sound picked up at the bottom of the neck. So you also have the option to switch to a more acoustic sound, sometimes a piezo pickup is also fitted. If you only need a simple layout and just want that characteristically warm semi-acoustic sound, then you’ll get more than enough with a guitar mounted with a single pickup at the neck and a volume and tone control.
6. What Kind of Wood Should My Semi-Acoustic Guitar Be Made of?
Most beginners are likely to struggle to hear the difference that specific wood makes to the sound of a guitar, so they shouldn’t worry too much about this detail. But, if you want to know more, then read on! Just as with acoustic guitars, the body of a semi-acoustic is usually made out of different woods. The soundboard or ‘top’ is often made of maple, spruce, or mahogany, the back and sides are usually made of maple, mahogany, or sapele, and then the guitar is usually finished with a maple or mahogany neck. The fretboard is regularly made using rosewood, but due to the unfortunate scarcity of rosewood and subsequent CITES regulations, more and more fretboards are made of woods like ebony. Tip: While browsing through all of the semi-acoustic guitars we have, you can use the filters found on the left of the page to specify what kind of wood you want your guitar to be made of.
7. Do Semi-Acoustic Guitars Have a Glued-In or Bolt-On Neck?
Pretty much every hollowbody archtop has a glued in neck, just like the rest of the body parts. By gluing it into the body, the sound is made even warmer. Sometimes, a semi-acoustic model has a design that’s closer to that of an electric guitar. In this case, it can be that the neck has been bolted on to give the sound a little more brightness.
8. What Scale Length Can a Semi-Acoustic Guitar Have?
Just as with normal electric guitars, semi-acoustic guitar devotees get to pick their preferred string tension depending on the scale length. The scale length is measured from the nut at the top of the neck, to the bridge saddle(s). The shorter the length, the lower the string tension. Many models follow the 24.75” scale length used by Gibson, while others use the 25.5” scale length of Fender models. With hollowbody guitars, there’s actually a third option: the 24.6” scale length used by Gretsch.
9. What Kind of Bridge Should My Semi-Acoustic Guitar Have?
There are three different kinds of bridges that are divided into two groups. Fixed bridges include the steel ‘Tune-O-Matic’ style (TOM) bridge and the steel TOM bridges with a wooden base that’s securely pinned to the soundboard. Both bridges are incredibly stable and usually, each string is perfectly intonated.
If the bridge is made entirely from wood, then you’ll get a more wood-like sound, but less precise intonation. Also, since the bridge is held in place by the string tension, if you play with a particularly heavy hand, then you’re always in danger of actually shifting the bridge. So, if you have a bridge like this, regularly check that it’s sitting in the right place.
Tip:When browsing through all of our semi-acoustic guitars, you can use the filters found on the left of the page to select the kind of bridge you want.
10. Should My Semi-Acoustic Guitar Have a Fixed Tailpiece or a Vibrato?
Most semi-acoustic guitars have a fixed tailpiece. When the guitar also has a centreblock, the fixed tailpiece is referred to as a ‘stopbar tailpiece’. If it doesn’t, then the tailpiece will be fixed somewhere near the strap button of the guitar, on the bottom edge. This is so that the tailpiece doesn’t apply any unnecessary tension across the soundboard.
If you want classic rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll sound, then you’ll probably want a semi-acoustic with a vibrato-tailpiece, like the legendary Bigsby. Vibrato is often referred to by guitarists as tremolo, but in reality, this is the incorrect term.
Tip: When browsing through all of our semi-acoustic guitars, you can use the filters found on the left of the page to select the kind of bridge you want.
11. What Kind of Amplifier Should I Use with My Semi-Acoustic Guitar?
When it comes to amplifiers, you can basically treat your semi-acoustic guitar like you would an electric guitar. But, of course, you want to pick out something that best suits your model, so here are some tips:
You can usually do just fine with a combo amplifier with one or two built-in speakers and a low wattage.
To counter unwanted feedback, it’s a good idea to go for a guitar amplifier that’s limited to a medium gain.
For beginners, modeling guitar amplifiers with a 50 Watt power output are a great choice, since these offer everything you need to experiment, learn about effects, and find your own sound.
Note: Always make sure to read the product descriptions and specifications of a model to be certain that you’re not choosing an amp that’s designed for something like metal or hard rock since the power and gain will be too high for your semi-acoustic.
Of course, you could do some research and find amplifiers that are built for, or recommended for jazz or blues guitarists, but then you might be limiting your options a little.
