Do Thinline Tele® bodies sound as good as solid or chambered?
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- čas přidán 29. 04. 2023
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I am a rhythm guitarist playing in a band for pop and rock music, the Thinline is my choice, I have 4of them with varies pickups. My main reason to choose it is the weight, 6lbs 4 oz is hard to beat for this 73 years old man.
I have Thin Line also. Mine was made from Warmoth one piece Maple neck & fretboard with a light Ash body and all Fender parts. When it was assembled it weighed under 5 Pounds. I love the fretboard it has a nice snap and bouncy feel. The body is very resonant and sounds loud enough to practice at home without an amp.
Appreciate all the effort you put into this!
They were so equal the thinline didn't seem to have the depth of the other two, just a tad more base in the chamber and solid. I allways favored the thin line and I own one they are so close in sound quality it would come down to weight for me long sets I would still favor the thinline but honestly the other two just sound better.
Honestly the most impressive/useful part of this for me was to see how the body weights change from thinline to chambered to solid. It was honestly a bigger difference than I expected.
I honestly thought A was the Solid. Couldn't believe it wasn't lol. I thought A actually sounded the best over the other two. That volume drop with B over A/C was very noticeable. Great video and comparison.
Yep I thought exactly the same.
@@ryanmccabe7821 same here. Very interesting!
Same
I know I'm a bit late watching this one, but I recognize just how much effort this takes (times three...), and it means the world to have you answering questions like this because it's exactly what I ponder when considering buying custom parts from you guys. Thank you for this!!
Thanks Gabriel!
I think the Tele is by far the most versatile electric guitar regardless of the wood used. You just keep doing what you're doing Aaron!
Dang. That's hard core. I love so much that you included the shot of them all sketched out on the same slab.
We appreciate some good wood and woodcraft here in Orygone lol
Thanks Aaron! Super helpful. I’m working on a Tele build with you guys now and was actually searching for the differences between chambered and Thinline and here you are with the perfect video!
Super effort! The review we all needed. Fwiw, I nailed all 3. My favourite was A.
Excellent as always.
Aaron - thank you! Almost nobody else does these kinds of comparisons and explanations. Really helpful and interesting stuff.
You always do great vids man, thanks
Amazing work!
I absolutely agree with your observations and final thoughts.
I did hear a bit more mids on the solid body, but only when I was looking to see when the change happened. When I was only listening and not looking at the video it was nearly imposible to hear the difference.
The Thin Line model sounded the best in all positions. There wasn't much of a difference between the other 2. As you said most of any difference can be changed by turning the controls on the guitar, the amp or effect pedal. What's the most important to me is the profile of the neck, the radius of the fretboard, the comfort contours of the body, the balance of the guitar and the weight. I have one of your 1972 Thin Line models with 2 Humbuckers that weighs a little under 5 pounds when it was completed. It was given to me buy a very good friend. I won't ever let it go.
That’s a LOT of work! Good results! I couldn’t tell much difference between the chambered and solid bodies. Definitely heard the volume drop in the thinline. If I we building one, weight would be a major consideration. I’d probably go with either the chambered or thin-line given the tonal differences are minor. Appreciate your videos!
I think your point at around 10:00 about acoustic tone vs amplified tone is spot on. Unless you’re playing with closed headphones or at really loud levels the acoustic sound will influence what you hear.
And feel
I'm in the process of building a thin-line mandola! Thanks for the pick-up mounting tip!! Great video :)
Thanks for another awesome video Aaron! I watched this together with my son (who started playing guitar about one year ago). We guessed correctly which guitar was the solid body and we did both notice a slight difference in the lows - most especially in the Thinline. Very interesting and inline with (my memory anyway) of the differences shown in your chambered vs. solid body video.
I was just talking to a friend about T bodies. Mine (solid) is sooo heavy. Now thinking the thinline is the way to go. Thanks for all yoir effort.
Excellent video Aaron, thank you! I really dug your playing, btw. You showed a surprising amount of versatility! :-P
Thank you for the all the work you did on this video. Guitar A sounded more to me. B and C sounded the same. Loved the headstock shape!
This was a timely video for me, as I am about 2 weeks away from ordering a Warmoth Tele body. Tonally speaking, the solid body wins by a comfortable margin. Very helpful video, as always.
I got it. I'd say the solid was very noticable in the low-mids (more thump as you said) also shocked at how much volume was lost w the f-hole. Great demo and shootout - good job!
Thanks so much for these tests! Another great one!
C definitely had more core and focus than A and a whole lot more than the thin line. It is true that in the end you could just favor a thicker sounding amp and/or speaker and/or pickup. In the end each element is just another mild eq. it's not an accident that a lot of semi hollow bodies have humbuckers instead of single coils. For me a relatively light solid body is still the best compromise. Also you could use a softer wood like mahogany to tame the high frequencies a bit on a thin line.
The reason semi hollows originally started getting humbuckers is because Gibson wanted a hum-free solution for the P90 pickup that would normally come on all of their guitars. The other brands just copied them afterwards.
Yeah, I was surprised that C was my favorite because I expected to prefer the chambered body! I kept coming back to C because it had that Tele 'quack' goin' on and sounded tighter in the bottom end. Always loved that sound even though I'm a "Srat guy," lol.
Excellent experiment, Aaron, I heard it exactly as you described, and agree that you get the more feedback in your hands and body as the player instead of just the listener. Also, I think that the reduced volume the Thinline brings the bass punch down making the mids more apparent.
Thanks, Aaron! I've got all three bodies, in swamp ash, as tested. They are all resonant, toneful, soulful. In my opinion, the Warmoth bodies are better than Fender. My '68 body was especially poor quality - it appeared to be pieced together from packing crates. It's five pieces and is now a wall decoration. I replaced it with your one-piece Swamp Ash solid body and it just SINGS!
I think the difference is noticeable when clean, but throw in some pedals and it's almost imperceptible. All sound good, but in every one of your videos comparing different bodies, after listening through fully blind it always turns out that my favorite was the chambered. This was very educational, thank you!
Thank you for doing this video!
Nice comparison. I couldn't tell any significant tonal difference between the 3 except a very slight difference in the clean middle position for the thinline. Might be more of a slight difference in playing than the body.
I notice that when I play, how the body feels, the weight and shape all tend to affect how I play the guitar. This for me has more impact on my sound than the wood, at least for me.
Great video as always.
Many thanks for this experiment. I also couldn't agree more with your conclusion; the timbres were so close that it gave the impression of "one instrument and three EQ settings".
Another banger Aaron. Ty
Agree with your observations 💯
And to my ears the C had a minuscule bit more snap than A & B
I love these videos. Aaron, please tell your boss that I said you've earned a raise!
have spoken to yr boss and he will approve if you also include metric units for weights
👍🏻
So glad you did this!!!
I thought I was going to get a thinline, but I chose the solid everytime. The chambered was very close to the solid. VERY, VERY close.
To me the F hole bodies were louder with a pronounced brightness -- not harsher but cutting thru easier with a louder volume,as well as a bit more sustain compared to the solid bodies. Great video. I love these tests / comparison demonstrations.
Kudo's for all the labor. This was a great comparison test and a delight for Tele lovers. Total weight of each guitar would have been nice.
Great Job Man Thankyou ❤❤❤
Thanks for this - just discovered your channel! I liked the Thinline (clean - which is mostly how I play) it seemed a little more 'open' and the other 2 seemed slightly 'constrained'. Back in the 70's when I was working as a guitar salesman in NZ a Fender Thinline came thru and I absolutely fell in love with it despite being a Les Paul player. While I was figuring out how to buy it with my staff discount a tall bearded chappie came in and bought it on the spot! Fast forward a couple of years and he turned up at the recording session for our first album - he was brought in to look after string arrangements and conducted the players from the Phil. Turns out he was pretty famous 😀 I asked him about it and he said he's already sold it . . . so it goes! One day, maybe!
This was the best video comparison of this issue that I've ever seen and could ever hope for. Thank you, my man! The only thing you missed on is telling us what your experience with playing each actually was. You were saying "it's hard to distinguish the way the body vibrates against your body from the tone while you're playing it." How did each one feel?
Fascinating video!
Really cool video, thank you!!
The solidbody sounded more defined, tight, thumpy bass, clear ringing notes and string definition. The thinline sounded warmer, flatter, more "jazzy", less tight. I thought I was going to prefer the thinline, but ended up being the exact opposite on every test. THANK YOU for taking the time to make this. I came out to your shop in Puyallup about 30 years ago and bought a B-stock neck for a strat I built when I was 14 years old. That thing is still my #1 guitar....never finished the neck (despite your warnings) and it's been rock solid! Pau ferro on maple. You guys rock!
Great video! Playing guitar for 25yrs, had it wrong...so yeah...the volume drop was the only thing noticeable to me.
Man.. thinline order incoming next year. I’m already to orders deep.. this month.. (Spike has been super helpful and awesome to work with over email. Very happy with my experience so far!)
Thanks for putting this up. I’m looking for a lighter guitar so became interested in the thin line.
That was really cool. Thanks so much for doing this video Aaron. The biggest difference I noticed, was obviously the volume level drop of the F hole Tele compared to the other 2. I personally thought that A tele and C tele were closest. But, when you did the overdrive section, although the frequencies were very similar between A & C Tele's, I noticed that the C Tele had a bit more bite, or "Grrrr" when you changed to the higher chord change from the lower chords you played in that rock n' roll riff.
Great Video. Very useful video, and I got it right. I picked C and like the solid body the best. You mentioned that you were using the Fralin Vintage Hot, but list the Blues Specials. I'll go with the Blues Special. Awesome Video. It was exactly what I was looking for.
after years of semi hollow vs solid comparisions .....I totally agree with your observations .....great , no BS test !
Thanks Aaron for another useful shootout. I could hear the differences and appreciate it. I was surprised at how good the thinline sounded with overdrive but did not prefer it for clean. That note bloom really does something good for the tone with overdrive but gets a bit lost with clean tone IMO. I did like the solid body the best, especially for clean tones, but I was also surprised at how close the chambered was.
I was fooled...I thought that guitar #1 was the solid body and #3 was the chambered body, but I preferred the sound of guitar #1 the chambered body. 🤯🤷♂
Great comparison demo!!!!! Thanks for the great videos!!
I thought the chambered and solid body sounded quite similar in clean tests, but the thinline had less body/girth to the tone. With some dirt, I found it difficult to tell them apart. Based on those clean test perceptions, I *slightly* favored the solid body over chambered but not by much at all. Thanks for doing this, very enlightening.
Greatest Tone Truth I have ever seen/heard
Really nicely done, as always, Aaron! I couldn't hear any difference between them, and totally agree with your conclusion that any slight differences one might hear (such as volume level) can easily be dialed in with pedal/amp settings.
Great video. I got it right! It was a very slight difference, but noticeable.
Your comments on the tactile feel are right on the money.
Thanks. I actually just did an entire video on this that will be go live in a couple weeks.
@@warmoth Excellent! This very overlooked.
I got them right surprisingly. I preferred the solid body tone all around . Seemed a bit thicker. Thanks for the effort good stuff 👍!
Thanks you for you review. The thin line was easy to hear in the test (I went so far to keep my eyes closed). It took the first two tests for me to feel pretty certain c was the solid. It was a pretty subtle difference you get a more solid thump as you said on c. I have both a chambered and solid tele. Mostly I notice the weight lol. Actually all I notice is the weight and the difference in fret radius. They have different pickups so they don’t sound really the same. You definitely make me want to pickup a thin line, I think it would be fun to play around with. Thanks
Wow. What a lot of good work…
Spot on that the perception when holding and playing is different than just hearing it over speakers or headphones. When I got my first Warmoth neck -- a Gibson conversion -- I did maybe 100+ swaps with the stock Fender Strat neck trying to hear subtle differences. I concluded that I was mostly chasing sound gremlins in my imagination. But the Gibson conversion was easier to play, and so I sounded better on it. It was me, not necessarily the neck itself.
I think this answered a question for me thanks. I’ve not been learning guitar for long, have a Tele and was considering a thinline to go alongside it. I’m sure I’ll get one in the future but this told me that I don’t need one right now. There is a difference but it’s subtle and with my current skill level it will be a waste of money
Aaron,
Thanks! Great comparison. As with others, I couldn't always detect a difference when you switched guitars. B and C had the largest difference (although none of the differences amount to much). So I reasoned that A must be chamebered since it seemed to be partway between the other two. for sound, I'd choose solidbody. To save my back, I'd go with a thinline. I suspect the pickup choice would make much more of a difference.
Thx so much for these clips! I’m a huge Warmoth fan. Wow, I thought for sure guitar 1 was solid and 3 chambered!
I took both a solid pine body SSH Tele and a Thinline mahogany Tele to a six hours gig. They were both the (made in China) Fender Modern Player Series, but the Thinline had the Seymour Duncan USA P-Rails with single coil, P90 and HB tones from the push/pull pots. Both guitars packed a lot of single coil and HB tones. The solid body simply had a little more volume thump, cut and midrange presence that better cut through or sat better in the mix of vocals, drums, bass guitar, keys/steel guitar, with one player alternating on either the steel guitar or keys, and singing too. He was very talented. The Thinline was more airy and bass-y, and didn't cut through as well, it had more of a scooped midrange. It seemed to be a little less present, more lost in the mix, or didn't sit in the mix as well. Just my experience with those two particular guitars running through a Fender Super Champ XD. I was playing both lead and rhythm guitar parts. The Thinline might have fared better with a little more wattage and a 12" speaker, but the solid body pine carried the day on that gig, at least to my ears. YMMV.
3:30 you're killing it today
best video
BAD MONKEY!!!
Man, thaaanks to take all that time and effort into this. I get right my guessing. I do listen to the more oommph on the solidbody. STill doesn't kind of convince me to compensate the lack of that in the other two by tweaking an eq in an amp or pedal. I do prefer the oomph is there "naturally". But anyway the harminics in the thinline are very very nice.
If pushed, I'd pick the chambered (A), but I agree there's not much in it, the loss of volume on the Thinline being the most noticeable difference. The weight difference on the chambered is probably the main reason to go for it, rather than any tonal differences, but it's still the same conclusion. Thanks for doing this Aaron - a lot of effort on your part. 😎
Great video Aaron. I'd suggest another topic: hardtail Strat x decked Vibrato bridge Strat x Floating Vibrato Strat. (all from the same piece of lumber, same pickups, etc etc). I always wanted to hear how much of a difference (if any) the back cavity and springs make.
Good idea but you can't get the same body specs with a true hardtail against the decked or floating trem routed bodies... but comparing the last two would be cool.
@@bloozedaddy That's exactly why the comparison. Obviously the weight won't be the same, no cavity on the back, no springs... Often people claim that a "hardtail-string through body Strat has a sort of Tele-esque character" - let's see if it does change that much compared to the 2 other configurations.
@@iagobroxado Well I have a 1981 hardtail...and a 2007 tremelo Highway One and a 1992 telecaster and I can say the strats sound like strats and the tele sounds like a tele :-) I'd be more interested in the blocked vs the hardtail or blocked vs non-blocked sonic differences.
@@iagobroxado "Often people claim that a "hardtail-string through body Strat has a sort of Tele-esque character" Of course it does. Body shape is not a huge factor in electric guitar tone.
That's a GREAT idea... I'd also like to see a Tele with an LP-style bridge, to see how close to that sound you could get with a Tele. I'd love to have a tele where I could get that LP bite, and clarity from the bridge, then have a classic tele sound in the neck. You'd be able to cover almost any territory that involves a guitar hero with a guitar like that.
brilliant video!
The only one I could pick out with my eyes closed was the thinline. The others may as well have been identical for all the difference I could hear. Thanks for the videos and making a significant dent in the tonewood debate!
I guessed all three, and thought that the differences are similar in every test. I own Warmoth (and other) solid and chambered body guitars, and I prefer the solid bodies. I've had problems with the chambered bodies sounding too thin.
Anyway, thanks for the meticulous and well-conducted test. You and Warmoth contribute a lot to knowledge of the guitar.
Great video
Me would just have all 3 and ask my back on a daily basis on which one to take ...
They all sound great
OMG, I thought the chambered was the solid 😮 On the cleans the Thinline really drops all bass, but it makes no difference once the dirt comes on. Amazing comparison, Aaron ❤
I got them right! What you described as a volume drop in the thinline, I perceived as slightly more transparent. I agree there wasn't that much difference tonally between the three. As for the chambered vs the solid, I think I preferred the chambered. It had a slightly more "balanced" tone to me vs the solid body. Still, all three were very close.
I have a Strat body (chambered) on order and I’m going nuts waiting!
I got A and C totally backwards from start to finish. LOL. Great effort clearly went into the video!
Nice comparison with a clear result, normal ist big souding, thin is... thin sounding. Chambered something between. Cheers and greetings form germany!
Nice video - thanks for that heroic effort! I did get it right. To me, the solid sounded a bit more focused and punchy, the thinline a bit more resonant airy, the chambered in between. But as you said - it is so close that it is not really wirth obsessing over (IMHO)
Huge effort. For the music I play, I would stick to the solid body. I've always wanted a thinline but you confirmed my suspicions about it. It was by no means bad but that volume dip was obvious. At least to me. It wouldn't sit well with my other guitars. Yes, I can change amp settings but I play live all the time and that just doesn't work real world for me. Thanks for this video though!
Nice work Aaron ! I inverted A and C. I thought A was the nicest sounding to my ear, so yes: Chambered is my preference !
I liked A, C and then B. Although I preferred B with the just chords
I did get it right (and I didn't cheat), the thinline was obvious, but the other two... I felt C was brighter and I associated that with a solid body... At first I liked that the best, but further in the test I started liking A the best. I'm surprised, I kinda thought I would like the thinline best or the solid, a chambered would be my last choice, but here it's my favorite. Cool test. Big thanks for doing it.
Got it right! Thought I would like the thinline the mostest, actually preferred the chambered.
Nice work! I couldn't tell a difference between any of them.
They sounded the same to me. If there was a difference Is wasn’t enough for me to worry about.
@@Mark70609 Perhaps acoustic there is a diff. If you're in the same room live with it making sound in real life while carefully listening like a mofo... Then you might notice some SLIGHT diffs lol. Also string gauge matters for that sort of acoustic thing. 9s are easier to bend than 11s but 11s are a tiny bit louder acoustically speaking. Bigger the string, bigger the sound.
No one should really care all that much about these minor deets. Pickups, amp, effects, and player skill/style matter the absolute most. Then small crap like tuners, bridges, terms, strings, finishes, neck/body/wood type/shape/size etc etc...
A and C for me. I have a Chambered Mahogany body with Padouk cap. Very punchy lows and crisp highs. Nice weight benefit too.
Neat video, I thought the C sounded best. Thanks!
I love these experiments. And I have discovered that, at least under my particular hearing conditions (little Yamaha HS5 monitors and Tannoy TS8 subwoofer) I prefer chambered body sound by far! (I was convinced that A was the solid one). Chambered body sounds more defined, full and sustained.
Great video! I could hear right away that the chambered body sounds a lot like the thinline, and the solid is pretty different. All sound good though.
I listened to this video when it first came out and could not hear a substantial difference between the solid body and the chambered body. However, listening to it now I thought body A was the solid body because it had a little bit more Bass to it. And body C was the chambered body because I felt it had some high-pitched overtones that may have been coming from the chambers. Although I got the bodies wrong I still here overtones on body C that I didn't hear on body A. Good video. Thanks for doing it.
Its a good video. I picked the solid one as being 'C', because it sounds a tiny bit brighter in the top end as it should be *if the wood is identical*.
Interesting question. I didn't try to figure out which. I just went through this trial thinking of purchasing a Thin line Tele and found it had a center block making it a little too heavy for me. I purchased a Gretsch 5422 6 string hollow body and am happy I did. At this time I have 3 Gretschs at home and one at church and my Epiphone Dot (335?) is getting too heavy and will soon be upgraded to the new 5422 hollow body. As I get older weight is a significant factor.
Thanks for the video, very useful as usual! So, I got it right, but the interesting thing is that I have exactly the same feedback about the sound differences, so why is this important? Well, considering that I have watched the video on my mobile and no earphones, this means that despite the limitations and quality loss of the source, the correct audio information are still distinguishable, and maybe we can trust videos like this a bit more!
I agree with your observations. Sometimes I preferred B and sometimes C, but A was never my favorite. The differences were small, and as you concluded, they could all be dialed in easily enough to sound nearly identical. I'd pick the one that played the best, had the least neck dive, and was the lightest. I suspect that would be B.
Its the attack of the note that changes on all of them. I'm surprised that people think they sound the same. The thinline and chamber almost have a piezo sponginess sound to the attack of the note. Pretty easy to hear which one was the solid body
I like A, maybe one day i will buy this. Thanks!
I did get it "right", and yes, it definitely would affect my purchasing. I've been thinking about getting a thinline for a long time now, ever since seeing and hearing Bob Metzger with Leonard Cohen (man, they had great sound on that tour). But you weren't kidding about the additional authority on the bass end of the solid. I could hear it even through my phone's loudspeaker, and even more clearly through headphones. In comparison, the thinline, and to a lesser extent, the chambered, sounded ... ummm, thin. Metzler sounded sublime, there's no doubt about that. But head-to-head, the solid sounded significantly better to my ears than the others.
Since I now have several Warmoth builds, I do like the feel of my chambered strat body on my 12 string build. I just built a Gecko Medium 5 bass and do wish that it offered a chambered body option. Otherwise I love the bass! I'm an older player and of course, old musicians don't retire they just get lighter gear.
I knew right off the bat the difference between the solid and the chambered, but only because I have 2 Warmoth tele bodies (one of each). To me, there was a significant difference between the bodies. The Thinline seemed to have more mins than the other two, and gave it a great full sound on the clean examples. However, when overdriven, I noticed that it didn't have the same presence as the others. The Solid had more OOMPH! It seems to be louder or more present than the other two. Maybe its the extra vibrating mass. I don't know, just spit-balling here. The Chambered seemed to be somewhere in the middle of the selection. More presence than the Thinline, but not as loud/present as the Solid. If I have my choice between the examples you've given us, I'd choose the Solid for overdriven tones, and the Thinline for the clean stuff. But if I can only choose one of the three, I'll likely go with the Chambered. Fortunately for us, we can keep building 'em, because you guys will make more! I guess a Thinline is in my future.
Thanks so much for the vids, Aaron! I'm sure we all know how much work it is to put together and then tear down and rebuild the various guitars, get them set up, and then record your examples and try to play each musical example with the same attack and feel. It's a real art and takes a great deal of dedication. Can't wait until the next vid!
What a tremendous work!...I think that there are very subtles differences, to my ears, mostly among Thinline and Solid body..Thinline losses some brightness at the treble side and maybe sound more tonally "equilibrated" and "Open" on chords...but Losses some loudness too, more pronounced on the bass side...And I think Thinline emphasizes the percussive character of the Chiken Picking technique...Differences between solid and chambered are not so obvious to me..
I loved A, the chambered, thought it had both great bass and treble. B, the thinline lost the bass but otherwise sounded nearly the same. C, the solid body was closer to A, chambered, but not quite as full. The neck position had the least difference between guitars, while in bridge mode, the difference was more obvious. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.
I read your comment after mine and definitely agree! That’s probably why I love the tone of my weight-relieved LP standard from 2013! This video adds to facts when debating about guitar body resonance and its effect on the plugged-in guitar tone!
I guessed right!, I prefer the chambered for hoy it sounds. The low end and high end are like compressed, without edges. Thanks for al these videos, they are very useful and informative
Nice video A-Aron. Moral of the Story....pick the body you like... the sonic differences are miniscule. I could tell C was the solid body but you're correct that the slightest of amp or pedal tweaks would've achieved neutrality. The pickups /bridge /nut/electronics are 95+% of the sound. 🤘