The electric guitar started right here! In the early 1930s, Hollowbody Guitars were the very first electrics to be made, incorporating pickups that were mounted to the inside of an archtop instrument specially designed to be amplified. These are the instruments that have been popularized by jazz icons, singer-songwriters, and sonic travelers who seek to incorporate their wonderfully pristine sounds to genres ranging from electronic to fusion and all stops in-between. AMS carries hollowbody guitars of all types from the biggest brands in music - find yours today with the help of our True 0% interest payment plans!
Earn rewards every time you shop at AMS. You'll collect points on eligible purchases that turn into promotional savings on future gear, with points typically available several days after your order ships. All you need is a free AMS account — no credit card, financing, or payment plan required.
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Gretsch Synchromatic Nashville Hollow Body Single-Cut with Bigsby
The Synchromatic Nashville is the perfect everyday-player alternative to the legendary Gretsch 6120. This hollow body guitar embodies the spirit o...
Gretsch Synchromatic Falcon Hollow Body Bigsby Guitar
The Gretsch Synchromatic Falcon is a dream come true for players who admire the " White Falcon " but hesitate at its steep price. This guitar stands on its ow...
Gibson ES-330 Hollow Body Guitar
The Gibson ES-330 has earned its reputation the old-fashioned way: by sounding brilliant. A close cousin to the Epiphone Casino, this fully hollow thinline electric is lightweight...
The Taylor T5z Pro Armrest electric guitar has all the features you need to create an incredible sound. With a comfortable, compact hollowbody design, 24 7/8" scale length and repositioned volume and tone knobs, thi...
Our Professional Collection combines classic Gretsch sound with modern performance features that deliver an enhanced playing experience. Featuring flagship pickups and electronics, these guitars are designed for pow...
The G2420T Streamliner Hollow Body Single-Cut with Bigsby is designed for the modern guitarist who yearns for something beyond the norm. A commanding guitar for powerful players, the G2420T’s modern sonics, updated ...
<p>Our Professional Collection combines classic Gretsch sound with modern performance features that deliver an enhanced playing experience. Featuring flagship pickups and electronics, these guitars are designe...
SE Hollowbody II Piezo: Your Acoustic-Electric Swiss Army Knife
This isn't just a guitar; it's a two-for-one special, a sonic shapeshifter, a veritable Swiss Army knife for the gigging musician. The PRS SE Hollo...
The ultimate archtop guitar - the Epiphone Casino Archtop Hollowbody guitar. This classic piece of music history has been rocking with sound since 1961, and has been used by legendary musicians all over the world. W...
The Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin Archtop Guitar is the guitarists' dream come true. Made from Canadian Wild Cherry, this archtop beauty has everything you need for the perfect sound. Its molded arched top and back ensur...
The G5422TG Electromatic Classic Hollow Body Double-Cut with Bigsby and Gold Hardware features a laminated maple body with vintage-inspired perimeters and refined arches, as well as all-new trestle block bracing to ...
The 5th Avenue hollowbody guitar is crafted with the soul of a 1950s archtop, this vintage instrument has been modernized to give you more playability than ever. It offers more projection and volume in its low-mids ...
American Musical Supply is excited to be your stop for Hollowbody Electric Guitars from top brands! We offer True 0% interest payment plans - applying is easy. Use your own debit or credit card, enjoy fast and free shipping, and add an Hollowbody to your creative setup.
We make buying a Hollowbody Electric Guitar quick and easy - in-stock items that are ordered before 5PM will ship out the same day! (see our Shipping Information Page for more details) Do you have questions about Hollowbody Electric Guitars and want to know which one would be best for you? Give us a call at 800-319-9043 - our experts are standing by.
The acoustic guitar has always been a solo instrument and a singer-songwriter’s trusty companion. In the early part of the 20th century, they also served as both a vital rhythm and chording instrument in jazz combos and dance bands. As musical groups got bigger, played louder, and performed in larger venues, the guitar quickly got overwhelmed in the texture by the horns and percussion. What was the solution to this problem? Why, electrify the guitar and project the sound through an amplifier and speaker! Early builders and tinkerers started by mounting a pickup (a carefully constructed magnet wrapped in wiring that generates a current in coordination with the vibration of guitar strings) and the requisite electronics inside hollow archtops and the first electric guitars were born!
While the first hollowbody guitars were built and marketed in the early 1930s, it was during the middle of the decade that numerous companies released production models and manufacturing was scaled up. Gibson’s very first production hollowbody electric guitar – the ES-150 – was released in 1936. ES was short for ‘Electric Spanish,’ referencing an electric version of a traditional ornate archtop guitar built in the style of an instrument of Spanish origin, complete with violin-style F-holes and fine-finished appointments. Jazz guitarist Charlie Christian was the first to perform with the Gibson ES-150 and he quickly took the new guitar in exciting directions. Armed with that extra volume and a collection of fresh new tones, he was able showcase the guitar as both a solo instrument and more colorful accompaniment. That meant that commanding improvisations and lead melody lines quickly became available to a generation of players.
The biggest challenge facing those early hollowbody guitars was uncontrolled feedback at extremely high volumes. Guitar companies began working to tackle this challenge and sought to improve the instrument. Over the following decades, this spurred a rapid evolution in the guitar world, also leading to the creation of the solidbody guitar and semi-hollowbody guitar. Today’s full hollowbodies are remarkably consistent and versatile but remember . . . they are based around utilizing pure cleans and crisp attacks. If you’re looking for something that can handle mega distortion, tons of volume, and is able to drench your music in overdriven sound, a solidbody electric is going to be more of your style.
We carry a wide variety of hollowbody guitars from the biggest names in music - Gibson, Epiphone, D’Angelico, Gretsch, and Ibanez have wonderful offerings available! Their clear, focused cleans are some of the most pristine and complex guitar sounds in existence and it’s no wonder that they are sought after for their use in jazz, dub, atmospheric EDM, fusion, folk, and numerous singer-songwriter genres.
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