The semi-hollow guitars may look exactly like the full-hollow versions, but in my opinion, they sound and behave more like a solid-body guitar. If you want to enjoy the magic of the Gibson ES line, Epiphones, or Gretsch guitars– I say go “full-hollow”.

My second piece of advice would be to find the best amp and guitar you can afford. Once you do, stick to them. These are the most basic elements and the most important. No effects or strings can cover up for a lousy guitar or a bad amp. They are usually the most expensive elements but once you are satisfy with those, It’s time to play!

The Telecaster Deluxe comes with Fender’s Wide Range Humbuckers These are different from Gibson’s Humbuckers. They are Huge in size and tone wise are brighter, clearer and less aggressive. The guitar also comes with 1 Meg pots which contribute to the brightness of these pickups. I think they are great pickups and offer excellent tone quality, however, they are still Humbuckers.

I just found a great sample resource from reading a post on the electric-guitar-review.com site. it contains sound samples of top 24 amps. It was recorded by a german on-line retailer and the information is very useful. (It’s kind of what we are doing at http://www.tonepedia.com Enjoy:
http://proguitar.de