here's my situation. my friend is making a custom guitar for me. It is gonna be a rosewood tele. i want it to have a rosewood back and top and a slab of ash in between them. i would like the ash section of the guitar to be hollowed out and just sandwich the rosewood top and back on it. i really would like the guitar to be hollow but i don't want and f hole. is it ok to have a hollow tele without and f hole??? ive seen them that are chambered but i was just gonna have him hollow out the hole thing and just put the 3 pieces together. if there is no f hole will the wood warp or something??? do f holes serve a purpose or are they for decoration??? is this a good/sturdy design for a guitar??? and advice would be awsome
thank you and keep on rockin
F-holes aren't necessary. Having them will lower the natural resonance of the body. For a "plugged-in" electric, especially those with smaller bodies, the tonal difference is probably negligible -- especially if the top is thick or plywood or the body has a larger center block (semi). The big advantage of no f-holes is better resistance to feedback at stage volumes.
Depending up the top thinness/design and the bridge/tailpiece type, a true hollow may need some reinforcing blocks to keep the top from collapsing. If yours will be a string-thru-body Tele, there should be a block beneath the bridge area. Even if it's not string-thru, a block between the front and back will help keep the top from bellying or cracking.
Examples of guitars sans f-holes are B.B. King's Lucille and the Reverend line.
-Greg
-=tension & release=-
gretsch i think makes some guitars without the F holes as well
"I got a woman, stay drunk all the time!"
-Led Zeppelin-
Now that you mention it, that's right -- and Gretch actually painted f-holes on some of those models!
-=tension & release=-
and just from looking at pictures of them, its almost hard to tell they are painted on at times
"I got a woman, stay drunk all the time!"
-Led Zeppelin-
There's a lovely old Silvertone semihollowbody with no holes hanging in my local music store right now.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
B.B. King's Lucille had no f-holes.
The king of rock, some say lives
the lizard king, is surely dead
the king of France, lost his head
the King of Kings... bled
( email me at esherman@wideopenwest.(com). I almost never check my hotmailaccount.
