The semi-hollow guitar, which has always been a specialty of Gibson’s, is a very easy kind of guitar to fall in love with! Its sensual lines are one reason for sure, but the kind of tone they create, along with their unique shape, really makes them stand out as another of the true “classic” guitar types. This was no easy feat to accomplish, as these guitars came along a good deal of time after the large hollow bodies were around, and even well after the first classic solid body electrics were introduced.
I love the ES 335, as well as the Epiphone Sheraton, but also the fully hollow, yet double-cutaway and thin ES 330 has always been a simple, yet fascinating guitar to me. There is an unquestionably more “woody” tone to these instruments that is almost totally lost with solid body electric guitars, and their choice is an obvious one for players who want a rich and thick Blues/Jazz kind of tone.
I know that in the early days, for example, B.B. King had played solid body guitars, but since the late ‘50s, he’s been and exclusive user of semi-hollow beauties such as the ES 355 that became his famous “Lucille”. Chuck Berry, always a hollow-body guitar man, eventually decided to go with the semi-hollow guitars such as the 335, 345 and the 355. I’m sure their flashy looks didn’t hurt with his selection, either! Even Dave Edmunds, a definitive English Rock n’ Roller and Rockabilly artist, made the presence of his famous blond ES 335 always felt in his music, exploiting the fatness of tone those humbuckers allow!
Later on, certain great Jazz/Blues players such as Robben Ford, Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour helped define a newer generation of semi-hollow appreciators, and in a way, they helped to show another, perhaps more “sensitive” side of these instruments.
No matter what you’re into playing, it’s hard to beat the allure both physically as well as musically of these fine and unique instruments. I know they’ve got ME hooked, for sure!