# Solid or chambered?????????????????????



## Warren (Mar 2, 2007)

I've decided on almost everything for a guitar I'm having made. But, the high Canadian $ has me thinking that I should put a few more bucks in my American $ account and have the body chambered. Both styles have their benefits. Solid maybe a little more durable, slightly different sound, hollow is lighter. Here's the spec so far.

Charlie hunter style 8 string, made by Wes Lambe, mahogany body, maple top, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, Lollar P90 pickups for the guitar strings, Bartolini 8s pickup for the Bass.

Please, any thoughts?


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## Guest (Nov 7, 2007)

Tough choice for sure.
I like chambered. You can hear it
better when you're noodlin' on the
couch unplugged.


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## Guest (Nov 7, 2007)

Hey Warren
Can't say that I've ever seen one of these let alone heard one. I did have a peek on the Novax site just to have a look.
Chambered is a grand more and 2 lbs. lighter. Their description is "slightly rounder in tone ". 
As always I guess it comes down to if the extra expense is really worth it to you.
I've been playing a doubleneck quite a bit lately so I voted chambered just from a weight perspective........but thats a lot of scratch to save 2 lbs.
Since that was probably no help at all......I'll just hope you put some pics up when you get it .....very interesting to say the least.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Chambered. Weight and tone being the deciding factors for me. Being independently poor, I don't care about the extra expense, LOL!

Peace, Mooh.


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## torndownunit (May 14, 2006)

Both my Reverends are chambered. Chambered guitars with Filtertron or P-90 pickups are damn cool sounding. It's a hard tone to describe, but it's fantastic.


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

My Heatley Tradition is chambered and the tone is great and as laristotle said in his post, it makes for a nicer unplugged sound.

That being said, the weight reduction was the big factor for me too.


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## Maxer (Apr 20, 2007)

A bit of an either-or question when in my view it's great to have both types. I like the airy punch that you get in a chambered guitar even when you're playing it unplugged - I have a Godin Radiator that's quite lively that way. But that said, there's a lot of cool tone residing in a thick solid body guitar that's not puntuated with chambers, particularly if it's one monolithic slab of gorgeous tonewood.

In other words, I can't decide. So I didn't cast a vote one way or the other.


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## Warren (Mar 2, 2007)

*And the decision is solid!*

I'll post some pictures if I get them & can figure out how. Thanks everyone.


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## fretman57 (Nov 9, 2007)

*Chambered Fan*

I always wanted to add a Les Paul to my collection and I did so when I bought a chambered one. I love it's light weight and it's wonderful tone plugged or unplugged. Still a hardcore Hardtail Strat and Tele Man however!

Scotty

No Fret Music 
Ponoka, Alberta
:smilie_flagge17:sdsre:food-smiley-004:


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## droptop88 (Aug 25, 2006)

Yep, sure is nice to have both available. I've used both types extensively, but for live playing I'd have to say solid. Can't say that I've ever noticed a difference in durability, but IME a chambered guitar produces a very slightly attenuated midrange, while emphasizing lows and highs. Not as "hard" sounding as an equivalent solidbody - dont know how else to put it. I found overdriven single note lines on a chambered guitar sing amazingly sweetly, but found I had to watch the bottom end - can get somewhat indistinct when overdriven if I wasn't careful! The clean sounds I got using a chambered guitar were always excellent. I've since switched to a solidbody for live playing and find it cuts through the mix when needed much better than a chambered guitar. My .02:smile:


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

It depends on what you're going for.

I have an older solid Les Paul, and a solid Iceman, so for variety I might choose the chambered.

I've played chambered, and it feels weird to me, when it's a Les Paul, because I'm used to more weight to them.

If it's not a Ls Paul, it wouldn't feel as weird.

If I was ever replacing my Les Paul, I'd want a solid body, not chambered.

So it all depends what you're going for.
A chambered guitar would be somewhere in between a solid and a semi hollow--except a smaller body--so it might actually weigh less than the semi.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

I had to vote chambered after stringing up my build and hearing it!


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## Hypno Toad (Aug 1, 2009)

I can never decide between the two.

I think a compromise between both would be good, small chambers so you can still have heavy contouring. I like the chambered sound and light weight, but I don't like how it makes construction difficult 


I love the slightly boxy effect you get with overdrive when you have chambers, sounds delicious.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

$1000.00 is a lot to pay to have it chambered but you do end up with slightly better tone.


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## Phlegethon (Dec 18, 2009)

considering the particulars of this application (8 string guitar) a solid body would be the better choice. both chambered and solid bodies have their benefits, but in this case the potential drawbacks could present someone who would want something similar with potential problems. . . nothing that's a guitar killer though. my concern would be the potential imbalance and ensuing neck heaviness that can accompany an imbalanced guitar. I know that if I was the owner of something like this I wouldn't like it neck diving on me at all. . . .it's hard to deal with my bass when I play as it is (bass is balanced, but the body's light and the neck's influence can be felt) and I wouldn't want to deal with a guitar that wants to touch the floor with its headstock


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## Sparrow Guitars (Mar 17, 2009)

Don't gimmie no holes!


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## Zman (Nov 20, 2010)

I have both a Chambered LP and a regular. I really like the tone of both. They have their own merits. I love the weight of the chambered, but I really like the lovely mellow tone from the Solid body. I also have a Fender Esprit with the chambered body and that is not light at all. I can't imagine if that guitar was not chambered.
I also owned a Chambered les Paul Studio that I really liked but I have a couple of 490/498 guitars so I traded it for a DSL100
So If I was to buy again it would definitely be a chambered guitar.


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## Morkolo (Dec 9, 2010)

I liken it to Easter, I only want the solid chocolate.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

I tend to prefer guitars with some weight to them. I have no problems holding up a solid bodied guitar for a 50 minute set and most lighter bodied guitars I've picked up seem to be poorly balanced.

How much it weighs doesn't matter much to me, but balance is VERY important. Having said that, my idea of a well balanced guitar is one with which the neck rises when I take my hands off. Neck dive or even neutral balance is clumsy and awkward feeling to me.


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## Cort Strummer (Feb 16, 2009)

I dont know if it counts because it has a Floyd with a FU big block, but I prefer my G&L Invader (3 piece solid) over my Cort Pageli which was a chambered stop-tail.


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## krall (Apr 19, 2009)

Morkolo said:


> I liken it to Easter, I only want the solid chocolate.


My thoughts exactly.


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

I'm not a Les Paul guy, having played only Fenders all my life, but I recently bought an LP for some versatility and while deciding between a Studio, Traditional or Standard, I didn't really give solid versus chambered much thought. I played a number of Studio, trad and standard guitars that all sound wonderful. In the end I went with the Traditional for the neck profile and the pickups that were in it. So in the survey I chose solid but its not really why I chose the Traditional.


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## ThePass (Aug 10, 2007)

Having both a chambered Les Paul Studio and a Solid Les Paul Traditional...................


I'd go solid. If I'm gonna pay Gibson prices, I wanna feel Gibson weight, all gig long.


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