Who made you want to play an f-hole guitar?

[Gibsongrrl 0]

Brian Setzer!

[PapaBlues 0]

There have been many - but mostly ALVIN LEE

I'm glad there's someone else out there who mentioned the late great Alvin Lee!

Larry"Mr 335" Carlton can play something sweet.

[2PoFoAGibSon 1]

[brundaddy 56]

I will always regret being broke when Stradlin's black 175 was for sale at Norm's ... and 2 years later his white 175 was for sale at Ed Roman's.

[cody78 118]

I will always regret being broke when Stradlin's black 175 was for sale at Norm's ... and 2 years later his white 175 was for sale at Ed Roman's.

 

Wow, I didn't know he sold them. Now they would be cool to own for sure! I wonder how much they sold for at the time? It's funny how Slash has all his signature models, yet Izzy has kind of been forgotton. Ok he was a rhythm guitarist, but I bet there would be a market for his white 175... and after all he was the primary writer for Guns N' Roses and when he left they were never the same.

[ErickC 0]

I can't think of anyone, sorry. My best friend's dad has an ES-125* that he never plays, and I thought it looked cool and clunky and awkward as all hell, which are all things I like in a guitar, so I decided I'd own one someday. I came to discover that they're absolutely fantastic and neither awkward nor clunky when I decided to buy one. Probably not the best reason to buy a $2000 guitar. It worked out well enough, anyway.

 

*It may not have been an ES-125. I only saw it once. I concluded it was a 125 ex-post-facto.

[Californiaman 384]

I can't believe I forgot Ted Nugent and his penchant for Gibson Byrdlands

His live performances during the late '70s and early '80s were epic.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U2HaAlBctw

[tlwwalker 21]

No one, really.

 

I spent 30 years beating on an acoustic Washburn 6 string dreadnaught. When I started playing electric, the feel of the size of the body of a semihollow is what drew me in. First the Ibanez AF75 , then the Ibanez AS83. Those are gone now that I have the ES-335. Very versatile, too.

[brundaddy 56]

Wow, I didn't know he sold them. Now they would be cool to own for sure! I wonder how much they sold for at the time? It's funny how Slash has all his signature models, yet Izzy has kind of been forgotton. Ok he was a rhythm guitarist, but I bet there would be a market for his white 175... and after all he was the primary writer for Guns N' Roses and when he left they were never the same.

 

They were priced at normal market value. IIRC the black one was stamped "NOT FOR RESALE" on the back side of the headstock, and the white one had chafe marks between the fretboard and neck pickup from when he used a rope to attach his guitar strap.

 

I really regret not buying them with a credit card.

[Drog 43]

Rik Emmett

 

 

[zurdo 8]

F hole guitars are many, mostly the F hole is decorative, in my case what really made me get rid of my ES-335 and go full hollow F hole was Pat Metheny when he showed up in 1978 at a class-seminar in G.I.T. with a Gibson ES-150 DCN. That was it for me. No more ES-335 since.

 

The ES-150 DC (N or W) should have been named the ES-375 DC, (Double Venetian Cutaway), because it is essentially a ES-335 shape but with the thicknes or depth of a ES-175.

[Chris Blaze 0]

Not just any f-hole guitar, but ES-335 in general--Marty McFly during the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance and Eric Johnson during Red House on the G3 tour with Satriani and Vai.

 

 

[Drog 43]

Not just any f-hole guitar, but ES-335 in general--Marty McFly during the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance

 

Ha, ha, Marty McFly arrives in 2015, keep an eye out!

[doublescale1 0]

Chuck Berry & Freddie King made the first strong impression w/F-hole guitars for me.

[burchster 2]

BB King

Chuck Berry

But my all time favorite

Leon Rhodes

[fromnabulax 2]

This guy:

 

 

The King of the Cowboys himself, Roy Rogers.

[PacificaChris 0]

Learned to play on an Epiphone Century but moved into a 335 because of Bob Weir (Guild), Dave Edmunds (first Love Sculpture album), & Boz Scaggs. It's long gone but I just got a Memphis Custom so I'll be getting reacquainted with that sound.

[Mickthemiller 5]

They were all F holes when I was a lad in the 50s - all made in Holland or Germany or Romania etc - Cheap plywood with necks like bows. But I love 'em still and I now have a Loar LH600 - nostalgia eh!

[DaveB100 0]

In the 60's with Howard Roberts...H.R. is a dirty guitar player!

[Kaiser Bill 42]

At first Howard Roberts...later Larry Carlton and some local players. My first Gibson was a '56 Es125T...it had "F" holes.

[merciful-evans 955]

No one.

 

I stepped forward and volunteered.

 

Well...

Barney Kessel might have nudged me a bit?

[Larsongs 221]

Chuck Berry, Eedie Cochran, Scotty Moore, Lennon, Harrison, McCartney, Kieth Richards & Eric Clapton are the first to come to my mind.

 

Lucky

[arlum 0]

Over the years there have been too many players and too many songs leading me in this direction to begin trying to name them all. I think just using bookends will do.

 

My earliest memory of a player with an f-hole would be finding myself as a child watching a country music program with the cameras eye focused on Chet Atkins. This probably occurred in the late '50s.

 

Jump forward to some time in the '90s when I was researching a song by Eric Johnson entitled "Cliffs of Dover". From the first time I'd heard this song I'd thought of it as one of the finest examples of guitar tone and guitar playing I'd ever heard. Nearly everything I could find on Eric listed him as a Stratocaster player. I found an interview in a magazine where Eric talked about his guitar and guitar tones and learned that he also owned and used Gibson guitars but that they were mostly used in his studio. My love of the f-hole guitar was sealed when Eric commented that, although he usually played "Cliffs of Dover" live with one of his two favorite '56 / '57 Strats, the tone he was able to capture when he played "Cliffs of Dover" in the recording studio and the take released on his following studio album was played on a Gibson 335.

[joevacc 0]

Over the years there have been too many players and too many songs leading me in this direction to begin trying to name them all. I think just using bookends will do.

 

My earliest memory of a player with an f-hole would be finding myself as a child watching a country music program with the cameras eye focused on Chet Atkins. This probably occurred in the late '50s.

 

Jump forward to some time in the '90s when I was researching a song by Eric Johnson entitled "Cliffs of Dover". From the first time I'd heard this song I'd thought of it as one of the finest examples of guitar tone and guitar playing I'd ever heard. Nearly everything I could find on Eric listed him as a Stratocaster player. I found an interview in a magazine where Eric talked about his guitar and guitar tones and learned that he also owned and used Gibson guitars but that they were mostly used in his studio. My love of the f-hole guitar was sealed when Eric commented that, although he usually played "Cliffs of Dover" live with one of his two favorite '56 / '57 Strats, the tone he was able to capture when he played "Cliffs of Dover" in the recording studio and the take released on his following studio album was played on a Gibson 335.

 

Thanks for the tidbit!

 

That is really interesting to me. My first guitar "Hero" was actually Chet Atkins. It wasn't until the early '70's that I started playing guitar but even though the popular bands of the time did have some great musicians (some that are just getting getting their due now) it was Chet Atkins that made my head turn sideways and take notice. His playing looked effortless. He was on TV with everyone that could play guitar well and they all seemed to bow down to him.

In the '90's I too was an Eric Johnson devotee and although I didn't aspire to sound like him I loved what he was doing at the time. The fact that he played 'Cliffs Of Dover' on a 335 blows me away. I am going to listen to that song in a whole new light. I played a "modern" sounding Strat for nearly 20 years before I got my first ƒ-hole guitar. There is no looking back now my 335 is going to be my #1 for the foreseeable future,

[jmendoza 0]

Eddie Durham, Charlie Christian, and Wes Montgomery.

I also liked Ritchie Valens white Harmony archtop.