What is the difference??

If you mean physically speaking I'm going to say...

Electrics are usually the thinnest body style and therefore have the weakest amount of natural sound and volume. To be heard they require external amplification that works with the built in electronics....(i.e. pickups, volume/tone controls and possibly a pickup position switch.

A semi-hollow body will give a larger fuller accoustic sound and still has the electronics of an electric. In many cases they may look very similar to the electric counterpart but will have "f" holes.

Hollowbody usually refers to accoustic guitars with large bodies and a large opening. These can be played without amplification and have a huge full loud tone. Some Hollow's also have preamp/eq built in and can integrate into amplification mode.

Hope this helps.

A solid body is just that - a solid chunk of wood, with no air chamber to promote acoustic amplification. The guitar in bish's avatar is a solid body. Go to http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ , click on the "guitars" tab and, then, the "solid body" ooption on the left hand sida of the screen.

A hollow body is, again, just that. It is the same concept as an acoustic guitar, but very often with a body that is very much slimmer than an acoustic guitar. On the Musician's Friend site, select the "Hollow Body" option in the guitars section, scroll down and selct "Body Type" "Hollow Body"

A semi hollow body is the same as a slim bodied hollow body, except that it has a solid block of wood running down the centre of the inside of the body. This reduces the tendency of a hollow body to cause feedback, when amplified. On the Musician's Friend site, select the "Hollow Body" option in the guitars section, scroll down and selct "Body Type" "Semi-Hollow Body".

Stick w/ your electric (solid body) Greg. An elec. is easiest to learn on IMO.

Coolness meter:

Hollow -

Semi - *

solid. - *****

Stick w/ your electric (solid body) Greg. An elec. is easiest to learn on IMO.

No guitar type is easiest to learn on. It may take less strength but that doesn't make it easier, better or anything else. Play the guitar that makes the sounds you want to hear, whatever the type. As for coolness factor: everytime non-guitarists are over at my place the one guitar everyone seems to like stylistically is the full hollow-body. The massive electrics get little to no attention at all.

Stick w/ your electric (solid body) Greg. An elec. is easiest to learn on IMO.

Coolness meter:

Hollow -

Semi - *

solid. - *****

well compared to an acoustic you may somewhat right, And a solid may be the coolest to you but to another person a semi or hollow may be more appealing to their ears. I would never buy a guitar based on looks, that's just insane. I've seen some pretty ugly guitars at first sight I was like EWW i don't want that, but played them and was amazed by the sound.

Stick w/ your electric (solid body) Greg. An elec. is easiest to learn on IMO.

No guitar type is easiest to learn on. It may take less strength but that doesn't make it easier, better or anything else. Play the guitar that makes the sounds you want to hear, whatever the type. As for coolness factor: everytime non-guitarists are over at my place the one guitar everyone seems to like stylistically is the full hollow-body. The massive electrics get little to no attention at all.

Ummm...dude, thats just my opinion. Im not makin' a factual statement per se. I think elecs. are cooler and easier to learn on. Thats just me. :?

Stick w/ your electric (solid body) Greg. An elec. is easiest to learn on IMO.

Coolness meter:

Hollow -

Semi - *

solid. - *****

well compared to an acoustic you may somewhat right, And a solid may be the coolest to you but to another person a semi or hollow may be more appealing to their ears. I would never buy a guitar based on looks, that's just insane. I've seen some pretty ugly guitars at first sight I was like EWW i don't want that, but played them and was amazed by the sound.

I get it now! You guys are acoustic players. Friends, I wasnt trying to downplay your instrument of choice. I was just giving my opinion. Acoustics rock too. Someones gonna jail me for instrumental profiling. :)

would you mind telling us *why* electrics are easier to learn on then? Unless I'm severely mistaken there is a big difference between accoustic and electric playing which makes any comparison pretty useless. As such my belief is that it is in one's best interest to learn the instrument one is interested in, regardless of whether steel cuts deeper in your fingers then nylon strings or whether or not a slimmer electric-neck is easier to play on then the wider classical neck.

Please don't make me edit anymore posts.

Keep it civil, on topic, not about anyone but about the question.

Thanks much,

The Iron Fist

Stick w/ your electric (solid body) Greg. An elec. is easiest to learn on IMO.

Coolness meter:

Hollow -

Semi - *

solid. - *****

well compared to an acoustic you may somewhat right, And a solid may be the coolest to you but to another person a semi or hollow may be more appealing to their ears. I would never buy a guitar based on looks, that's just insane. I've seen some pretty ugly guitars at first sight I was like EWW i don't want that, but played them and was amazed by the sound.

I get it now! You guys are acoustic players. Friends, I wasnt trying to downplay your instrument of choice. I was just giving my opinion. Acoustics rock too. Someones gonna jail me for instrumental profiling. :)

I play acoustic and eletric. I play acoustic rock as well as rock and some heavy metal and grunge on my electric.

I know that is your opinion. Mine is a solid body may be the coolest to you but not to the next person. I like solid body electrics very much and prefer to play them vs a hollow body. I wasn't trying to jump on you I was just pointing out that to some people, they may prefer a semi or hollow body and that's all well and good and may depend on their type or style of music they play.

No ones gonna jail you for instrument profiling. That's ok you feel strongly about the type of guitar you prefer to play. there's nothing wrong with that. I think acoustics and electrics are equelly hard to learn on. The only real difference is on an acoustic the string gauges are larger and hurt more when first starting out and are a little harder to fret, but, that's actualy better to learn on an acoustic then going to electric and that's my opinion. I learned on an acoustic first and I played electrics from time to time but when i went fully electric, I was a better player but only because I learned on acoustic first, it taught me so much. an acoustic is not as forgiving when you make mistakes than an eletric, cause i can plug my eletric up and add distortion and if i make a slight mistake you really won't hear it but on an acoustic you will and you will then work to correct the mistake. That's al I was saying.

Stick w/ your electric (solid body) Greg. An elec. is easiest to learn on IMO.

Coolness meter:

Hollow -

Semi - *

solid. - *****

As with almost everything else, it's the person (player) that makes the guitar cool.

WRT ease of playing goes: Just because a guitar seems easy to play, doesn't mean you are playing it better. It can be far more difficult to play well and sound good on an undistorted, dry (no 'verb) electric than a nicely-voiced acoustic.

More on-topic Bish and Greybeard answered the question, but here's a little more: When it comes how much guitar one can get for the money, a solid or semi with bolt-on neck can be an excellent newbie value as compared to a full hollow, as the tone and strength requirement will demand a bit more expense in the full hollow. If you want to check out some very similar guitars in the same price range in all three styles, look at the Ibanez Artcore line -- many set-neck (not bolt-on) semis and hollows in the $300-ish price range that you can compare directly to Ibanez's (and others) solid bodies. They are all easy players in their own way. When you decide what appeals to you, then you can look across different brands in the particular style (e.g., choose semi and compare semis by Ibanez, Washburn/OS, Epiphone, Cort ... )

-G

would you mind telling us *why* electrics are easier to learn on then? Unless I'm severely mistaken there is a big difference between accoustic and electric playing which makes any comparison pretty useless. As such my belief is that it is in one's best interest to learn the instrument one is interested in, regardless of whether steel cuts deeper in your fingers then nylon strings or whether or not a slimmer electric-neck is easier to play on then the wider classical neck.

Elects. are easier to learn on b/c the action is usually easier to handle. The body is smaller/thinner and to me is easier to hold. Another reason is b/c of the versatility of an amplified instrument w/ pups. Newbies can play around with an elec. for days making different crazy sounds (with distortion, feedback, tremolo bar ect) and having fun whenever they get tired of practicing. With an acous. you always have the same mellow sound that IMO can get boring after a while.

Whos comparing acoustics to electrics? Chill out. I wasnt insulting acoustics. I gave my opinion on them in hopes that it would be somehow helpfull to the origional poster.

I notice that I pick up my acoustic more often than my electric. The reason being, I can just pick up it and play. With my electric I have to plug in the amp, plug in the guitar, plug in the pedal, etc. Then there is the fact that the acoustic easier to pick up. It's a lot lighter so I'll reach for it when I feel really lazy. Also I sometimes practice while the TV is on and the acoustic isn't affected by the electronic noise. Lastly, it's a lot easier to tune, I tune each string to the pitch I want and I'm good to go.

Though the electric is suited to the music I like to play, and it is easier to fret. Plus I can experiment with a wider range of tones. That's not saying my acoustic doesn't have different tones though. It's also easier to record on, since I don't have to position the mic and guitar just right.

To me, I don't really think one is easier than the other and it is just best to pick whatever is suited to the music you want to play and what will inspire you to play.

I am new to guitar, what are the differences between solid, hollow, and semi hollow electric guitars??

To answer your question.

Solid guitar = (Fender Strat/Tele/Gibson Les Paul etc.) No sound box as in an acoustic you are relying totally on the pickups for sound. Best for rock/metal/grunge/whatever
Used by countless rock guitarists from Slash to Vai

Semi hollow (Gibson 335 eg.) Not hollow but has some cavities built within the body. A more mellow sound but can be driven hard for blues/rock sort of sound. Favourite of Eric Clapton during the Cream era

Hollow (Epiphone Casino or similar) Totally hollow bodied but with pickups usually fitted with a trapesoid bridge ( a sort of metal frame fixed to the heel of the guitar to attatch the strings) Can be used as an acoustic of sorts but gives very clear sounds, but if amped up too loud on a standard electric guitar amp will give terrible feedback problems. Use an acoustic amp and you will get some really nice Jazzy sounds from one of these. I should point out that The Beatles used these throughout their career and amped them through Vox amps and never had any problems.