I believe I might be. The reason my Telemaster came to mind, besides, of course, that it’s mine and I am playing it, is that it is a guitar-with-one-difference. I mean, if you’re going to discuss body changes, yes, individual guitars will vary, but overall, if you can pick two models of guitar with one change, and the character of the guitar changes, then you can probably point to that change.
Telecasters and Telemasters, Telecasters and Thinline Telecasters. Strats and Thinline Strats. Hardtail Strats and free-tremolo strats. What other guitars have one degree of change in the body?
There’s the Gretch Country Gentleman, which started with normal F-Holes which were later abandoned to the improvement of the guitar.
Anything come to mind, where there’s one change in the body shape? I’m thinking hollow to solid might not be perfect for this concept.
I totally appreciate your line of inquiry, E-Sabs, but am inclined to not walk too far down that path for fear of Shakester’s and **gaffa’s **dreaded snake oil. While I appreciate that from a design standpoint, your two guitars are similar in design with the body as the exception, it is more complex than that. Two guitars of the exact same model can come out of finishing and set-up and sound different.
That is why I tend to speak in generalizations; boiling it down to a double-blind, peer-reviewed analysis doesn’t really work here. And I am inclined to put the neck before the body as a factor in the overall sound…
Yeah - that’s crap. Fender Tele Thinlines basically sound like a variant of a solidbody Tele, obviously influenced also by the pickup config in place. The difference in tone is not like where your brain goes when you hear “semi-hollow” in Gibson land (warmer, rounder, etc.) - it is still down in the mostly-solidbody range of the spectrum. And “increase sustain”? - mmmmokay.