The Affordable Semi/hollowbody Thread

OilCityPickups

Top fret access on all fully hollow guitars is iffy ... you learn to cope ... anyway there's no money up the dusty end

Catthan

i really love my Ibanez artcore AS83 smth I got a couple of weeks ago used for £200.

It feels very nice and the fit and finish is very impressive considering the price.

The electronics pro'ly need swapping but it's the best budget gtr I've owned.

ThePrettyDamned

Top fret access is never good on hollow guitars. But that's besides the point, it was cool!

Chuck a couple of cow t rons in it and your laughing. It was supposedly identical to another guitar from the same factory that retailed for much, much more.

dogload

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Top fret access on all fully hollow guitars is iffy ... you learn to cope ... anyway there's no money up the dusty end

Aye, true. I can manage on a Casino, but the Rockingham looked like I would have had to work too hard. Once upon a time I wouldn't have bothered, but for some reason I find myself having to use those 'private regions' of the fretboard!

Van_Hayden

Somebody bid this higher so I'm not tempted....

http://bit.ly/13S9rnS

Jetfire

Just rebuming as I love teh semizors

Deadman

My Casino. Just been playing at actually:

Gru

For low cost, the Aria TA50 can be picked up for about £200, the Cort Source for around £330. Even that's a fair difference in price.

I am a massive fan of Jazz boxes, although didn't imagine I would be, however owning Strat and Tele styles has not satisfied my guitar desire.

Tempted with a TA50 myself.

jmaster

NPP;26692" said:

Aria archtop now with Oil City Mighty Nineties. 

How are you finding the p90s in your archtop? I've been thinking about putting some in my ibanez. Do you get feedback issues?

JayGee

jmaster said:

NPP;26692" said:

Aria archtop now with Oil City Mighty Nineties. 

How are you finding the p90s in your archtop? I've been thinking about putting some in my ibanez. Do you get feedback issues?

If it helps I've got a Peerless Gigmaster SC archtop with dogear P90s and regularly gig it with a somewhat raucous punk band - it's very easy to get feedback but, unless you're using utterly ludicrous stage volumes it's generally  the good, (more or less) controllable kind from the structure of the guitar resonating rather than the bad uncontrollable kind from microphony in the pickups...

dogload

I had my Peerless Songbird Casino-a-like at band practice last night. It is (of course) fully holloow with P90s and it worked beautifully.

It feeds back very musically- I use a large array of fuzz and distortion tones as well as compression at various points in the set and it is completely controllable using the volume knobs. I play quite loud (Carlsbro 2x12) and with all the pedals it is still very usable. In fact I was a bit surprised at how controllable it was!

Definitely not a microphonic pickup feedback, as you can feel the whole guitar vibrate. No whisling or squealing.

Jalapeno

I used to have an Ibanez AS80 - it was a fantastic guitar (I should never have sold it, but it was the 80s, and pointy GAS had to be assuaged ! )

I now have a Gibson ES335 60s Reissue, in Blond.  It needed a really good setup & fret dress, but now plays perfectly (it was a bit of a journey though).

OilCityPickups

The  P90 (Mighty Ninety) in my ivory Ibanez semi gets used for 'I Fought The Law' in our band ... and while you have to be 'aware' and I always turn down between numbers ... I play fu--ing loud, and I don't have much of a problem. I do Link Wray's Rumble stupidly loud, and trem the feedback in and out for effect ... similarly with Dick Dale's Nitro.

GazLion

Mega old thread bump. Enjoyed reading through this as I missed it first time. I'm currently looking for a full hollow p90 guitar.

Obvious choice would be the casino, which I've tried the MIC version, but not the MIK, which people seem to prefer. Is it worth picking up a 2nd hand MIK?

Although, i've got my 30th coming up soon so was thinking about perhaps an excuse for a bigger purchase. Peerless Songbird, or the Casino Elitist look nice. Both seem high end but the Elitist still quite a bit more expensive. Anyone played both to compare quality? No where seems to stock either round my way, so a trip to Coda will be in order at some point

stickyfiddle

GazLion said:

Mega old thread bump. Enjoyed reading through this as I missed it first time. I'm currently looking for a full hollow p90 guitar.

Obvious choice would be the casino, which I've tried the MIC version, but not the MIK, which people seem to prefer. Is it worth picking up a 2nd hand MIK?

Although, i've got my 30th coming up soon so was thinking about perhaps an excuse for a bigger purchase. Peerless Songbird, or the Casino Elitist look nice. Both seem high end but the Elitist still quite a bit more expensive. Anyone played both to compare quality? No where seems to stock either round my way, so a trip to Coda will be in order at some point

Don't worry too much about MIK/MIC - it's a myth put about by American forum-dwelling owners of MIKs when the first MICs arrived scared theirs would drop in value now the price of a new one dropped a bit. 

Just get your hands on lots of Casinos and jump when you find a really good one. Elitists are properly excellent and definitely the way to go if you can stretch to one. I just wish they made them in red!

Deadman

Some of the new ones are MIK anyway. Mine (couple of posts back) was. The guy who bought it was a Casino lover and he said it was just as good or better than the 'revered' 90's ones. I couldn't get on with it unfortunately. P90's aren't for me. Looked stunning though.

Dominic

overlooked but exceptional

Hagstrom Viking Rextone

ICBM

BarleyCheech said:

A huge +1 for the Casino. They're not just for Beatles covers! With a bit of tap dancing I can skip between Young-esque screaming fuzz to a mellow jazz sound that's great for comping and back again.

Exactly. Since the Gibson ES-330 is the same thing really, it's also both the Jesus And Mary Chain guitar (they used one on most of the studio stuff, although generally not live when they were still smashing things up) and the Lloyd Cole guitar from the first few years. Hence, I want one…

dindude said:

Hopefully this qualifies, it was £800. I love my Midtown, it has tone for days.

Wow. *Finally* Gibson do something that isn't just a re-hash of an old design, has a combination of classic features that don't normally go together, and with all the bits in all the right places! That's really nice.

Ah…

I take it you put the mini-humbuckers in though? And please tell me they didn't spoil it with a back control cavity cover… or I may have to retract what I just said .

GazLion

The casino I played the other day had its bridge set up like this -

http://imgur.com/xMhaJxf

Does that look correct with the posts being at different heights?

ennspek

Dominic said:

overlooked but exceptional

Hagstrom Viking Rextone

Wis'd