Hollow buddies: A Gretsch 6118T-LTV, a PRS Hollowbody I, and a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion III.
Certain guitar models often
get associated with specific
genres of music and become the
visual association for that genre.
When most of us see a Telecaster,
we think of chicken pickin’ and
country music. On the same
theme, it’s difficult to see a big
orange Gretsch 6120 and not
think of rockabilly music. While
these examples are broad generalizations,
there are many exceptions
to the tonal clichés of a specific
guitar model. Many people seem
to associate hollow guitars with
jazz, but if you listen to the gritty
tones that Dave Grohl gets out of
his Gibson DG-335 or the powerful
rock tones that scream out
of Ted Nugent’s Byrdland, then
a broader tonal palette beyond
smooth, warm jazz tones becomes
evident in hollow guitars. I own
several different hollow guitars,
but there are three that I am
going to focus on, along with
their unique, respective tones:
a Gretsch 6118T-LTV, a PRS
Hollowbody 1, and a Gibson
Howard Roberts Fusion III.
Gretsch 6118T-LTV: This
guitar was briefly featured in
my March Tone Tips column
[“Covering the Tonal Bases,”March 2011] where I mentioned
the importance of a pinned Tune-o-matic bridge on Gretsch guitars.
Most Gretsch guitars, like this
one, have a tone selector that is
sometimes referred to as a “mud
switch.” For any type of “regular”
guitar playing, I usually do not
have the tone selector engaged. In
fact, I’ve seen several players have
their tone selector completely
removed from the electronics
altogether. However, I’ve found
a useful sound using the tone
selector that is great for padding a
song with a keyboard-like effect.
To do this, set the tone selector
to the bass setting and engage a
rotary effect and a delay. Set the
delay’s mix low and dial in four
to five repeats. The tone selector
covers up most of the attack from
your pick and the delay paired
with the rotary creates a lush,
non-guitar sounding tone that’s
great for playing chords.
Feedback suppression technology
has come a long way from the
days when Les Paul would stuff
his hollow guitars with socks and
towels in an attempt to tame feedback.
When it comes to Gretsches,
I prefer the models that sport the
1959 trestle bracing because it
helps reduce feedback issues. The
trestle bracing also gives the guitar
a feel and response that’s more like
a solidbody, which I like. To further
travel down the road of giving
my Gretsch a more solid-like
feel, I put a piece of foam under
the strings in the area behind the
bridge. This helps cut down on
some of the high-pitched overtones
that sometimes sneak over
the bridge and into the pickups. If
I’m doing Bigsby-intensive playing,
I’ll remove the foam and let
those overtones add to the overall
character of the sound.
PRS Hollowbody 1: I mainly
use this guitar for plugged-in,
acoustic-based guitar tones. I
have the action set higher than
most of my other electric guitars
and string the instrument with
SIT Power Wound .011s with a
wound 3rd string, which has a
more stable feeling and a meatier
sound. To combat thin and anemic
tones, which can often appear
when using most piezo pickups,
I use heavier strings to add body
and vitality to the sound. One
of the special tones I’ve found
on this guitar involves using all
three pickups. Blending the piezo
transducer with the PRS 245 neck
and bridge pickups delivers an
unusual tone that is reminiscent
of Django Reinhardt’s gypsy
jazz sound when he picked close
to the bridge. Adding a piezo
system to any electric guitar is a
great way to open up a new universe
of tonal possibilities.
Gibson Howard Roberts
Fusion III: Musicians often ask
each other questions like, “If you
could only have one guitar, what
would it be?” Well, for a long
time, my Howard Roberts was the
only electric guitar I used, both in
the studio and on the road. Don’t
be fooled by this guitar’s jazzy
looks because some of the best
tones I can pull out of this guitar
are rock and Tele-esque sounds.
The guitar’s top, back, sides, and
neck are all made from maple,
which is a very bright and crisp
wood. To further enhance the guitar’s
already bright tone, the guitar
is strung with a .0095-gauge set of
strings. The lighter strings allow
me to easily get a bright, snappy
attack and I let the guitar’s hollow
chambers fill in my tone’s
low end to round out the sonic
character. This guitar has a center
block running down the middle
of the body, which greatly reduces
feedback when I have my amp
cranked. However, if I want to use
feedback to my advantage to add
sustain to notes during a solo, I’ll
move to different points onstage
during soundcheck to find the
best amp-to-guitar proximity
for maximum wailing. I make
mental notes of those “feedback
zones” and use them accordingly
throughout the show.
Whenever you’re playing a
guitar and you come across a
tonal setting that seems unusable,
stop for a moment and
think about an application
where that tone might sound
good. Is there an effect you can
stack on top of that “unusable”
tone and turn it into a cool
sound? This type of thinking
can take you on a unique sonic
voyage, which can lead to some
original and inspiring music.
Paul “TFO” Allen
is a multi-instrumentalist
who has worked with
Big & Rich, Sebastian
Bach, 112, Jake Owen,
Montgomery Gentry,
Larry the Cable Guy,
and many others. He also has his
own project called Ten Finger
Orchestra, and can be reached at
tenfingerorchestra@yahoo.com.