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A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of electric guitar that originates from the 1930s. It has both a sound box and one or more electric pickups. This is not the same as an acoustic-electric guitar, which is an acoustic guitar with the addition of pickups or other means of amplification, added by either the manufacturer or the player. ==History== In the 1930s guitar players and manufacturers were attempting to increase the overall volume of the guitar, which had a hard time competing in loudness with other instruments—especially in large orchestras and jazz bands.〔Ingram, Adrian, A Concise History of the Electric Guitar, Melbay, 2001.〕 This led makers to try a series of designs that focused on amplifying a guitar electrically through a loudspeaker. In 1936, Gibson made their first production run of electric guitars. These guitars, known as ES-150s (Electric Spanish Series) were the first manufactured semi-acoustic guitars.〔Hunter, Dave, The Rough Guide to Guitar, Penguin Books, 2011.〕 Gibson based them on a standard production archtop, with f holes on the face of the guitar's soundbox. This model resembled traditional jazz guitars that were popular at the time. The soundbox on the guitar let limited sound emit from the hollow body of the guitar. These guitars, however, could be electrically amplified via a Charlie Christian pickup, a magnetic single-coil pickup that converted the energy of the vibrating strings into an electrical signal.〔 The clear sound of the pickups made the ES series immediately popular with jazz musicians.〔 The first semi-acoustic guitars are often thought of as an evolutionary step in the progression from acoustic guitars to full electric models. However, Gibson made the ES-150 several years after Rickenbacker made the first solid-body electric guitar. The ES series was merely an experiment the Gibson company used to test the potential success of electric guitars. The experiment was a successful financial venture, and the ES series is often referred to as the first successful electric guitar. The ES-150 was followed by the ES-250 a year later, in what became a long line of semi acoustics for the Gibson company.〔Miller, A.J., The Electric Guitar: A History of an American Icon, Baltimore, MD, Smithsonian Institution, 2004. 〕 In 1949 Gibson released two new models: the ES-175 and ES-5. These guitars came standard with built-in electric pickups and are widely considered the first fully electric semi-acoustic guitars.〔Martin A. Darryl, Innovation and the Development of the Modern Six-String, ''The Galpin Society Journal'' (Vol. 51), 1998.〕 Prior models were not built with pickups; rather, they came as attachments. As the production and popularity of solid body electric guitars increased, there was still a market of guitar players who wanted to have the traditional look associated with the semi-acoustic guitars of the 1930s but also wanted the versatility and comfort of new solid body guitars. Several models, including the ES-350T by Gibson, were made in the 1950s to accommodate this growing demand by including a more comfortable version of the archtop model.〔 Gibson and other makers followed these variations with an entirely new type of guitar that featured a block of solid wood between the front and back sections of the guitars cutaway. This guitar still functioned acoustically, but had a smaller resonant cavity inside, which makes less sound emit from the f holes. Gibson first manufactured this variant in 1958. It is commonly referred to as a semi-hollow body guitar, because of the smaller, less open body.〔 Rickenbacker also began making semi-acoustic guitars in 1958. When the company changed ownership in 1954, they hired German guitar crafter, Roger Rossmiesl. He developed the 330 series for Rickenbacker, which was a wide semi-acoustic that did not use a traditional f hole. Rather it used a sleeker dash hole on one side of the guitar, the other side had a large pickguard. This model boasted a modern design with a unique Fireglo finish. It quickly became one of Rickenbacker's most popular series and became a strong competitor to Gibson's models.〔Rogers, Dave, 1958 Rickenbacker 330, http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2009/Aug/1958_Rickenbacker_330.aspx, accessed 11 December 2011.〕 In addition to the main model variants of the guitar, Gibson made several small changes to the guitar, including a laminated top for the ES-175 model and mounted top pickups for general use on all their models, as opposed to Charlie Christian models from the 1930s.〔 While Gibson provided many of the innovations in semi-acoustic guitars from the 1930s to the 1950s, there were also various makes by other companies including a hollow archtop by Gretsch. The 6120 model by Gretsch became very popular as a rockabilly model despite having almost no technical differences from Gibson models.〔Carter, William, The Gibson Guitar Book: Seventy Years of Classic Guitar, New York, NY, Backbeatbooks, 2007.〕 Rickenbacker was also a prominent maker of the semi-hollow body guitar. Gibson, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, and other companies still make semi-acoustic and semi-hollow body guitars, making slight variations on their yearly designs. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Semi-acoustic guitar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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