The Semi-Hollowbody Guitar was developed by Gibson Guitars.The Semi-Hollowbody Guitar resulted from Gibson Guitars' efforts in seeking to diversify the product line. Gibson also sought to conquer feedback problems of its Archtop line. The Semi-Hollow instrument had an arched top with a body thickness that was thinner than the Full Archtop and thus delivered less air from the sound chamber and less feedback. Nevertheless, the open sound chambers added some acoustic quality back to the sound mix. A solid block of tone-wood through the middle of the body and attached to the top and back provided more control of vibration and feedback similar to the solidbody. This instrument was a perfect compromise between the large open and acoustically expressive Full Archtop and the thin, but powerful sounding, Solidbody. It filled a comfortable niche not addressed fully by either of the other two designs and found favor with quite a few Blues Artists. The most popular model of semi-hollow is the Gibson ES-335. It is a high end instrument now built in Memphis, Tennessee about 2 blocks south of legendary Beale Street. Gibson's subsidiary, Epiphone, imports the Epiphone Dot and Epiphone Dot Deluxe which is built to the ES-335 specification. Ibanez has a semi-hollow line currently designated the ArtCore AS-73 and AS-83 models. Yamaha has a very good semi-hollow model designated the SA-2200. Other high-end models are available from Eastman and Stromberg.
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