hollow body strats - what's the low down???

[flexistential]

in my ongoing quest to purchase the finest custom guitar i can dream of i have come across several custom shops that build hollow body strat bodies ( warmoth custom shop & fender custom shop)
...

can anyone offer any opinions as to what advantages / disadvantages a hollow body strat body would have... i've been playing for 10 years, but i've never played a hollow strat before...

...P.S. if youre considering putting together a custom guitar take a look at www.warmoth.com , you'll be glad you did...

[The Fury]

Ooohhh yeah! I saw those at Warmoth a while back. A Strat with loads of cavaties routed in it, then a quilted maple top - Sweet! I don't know what they would play like, but I imagine you would get greater sustain.

[gck]

and they won't be so heavy that they break your shoulder like solid body strats do :)

the drawback will be that will definitely *not* sound like a strat is supposed to do... I don't know what it will sound like, but definitely not like a solid body strat!!

[55'gibby]

I haven't seen a hollow body strat, but I am a lover of hollow body electric guitars. advantages are a warmer sound and better weight, as well as a more of a jazzy/bluesy feel to the tone. the major dis-advantage is sustain, you lose it but the fact that the physics of sustain is simple: mass=sustain. Being a hollow body by nature you lose mass. one thing that fall in both advantage and dis-advantage is feed back. you can feed back for days with a hollow body, if you want to or not.

[flexistential]

wow... a lot of contrasting opinions... all appreciated...

here is a link to the warmoth site with a pic of what a hollow body looks like as well as what they have to say about tone resonance etc...
http://www.warmoth.com/common/frames/bodies.htm

anyone got some 1st hand experience on the tone of a hollow strat...?

respect...

flexistential

[flexistential]

...sorry that link to the warmoth site above isn't direct to the hollow body page, just click the purple "guitar bodies" tab on the upper left of the page... then click "strat"... then "hollow body"...

if you haven't seen one before it's well worth it...

flexistential