[John Quinn]

I am a Acoustic/Electric Hybrid Junky. For years I went on a quest to find the best USA make/model guitars out there. My main guitar for playing with my band is a Hybrid guitar w/stereo output. I always run the acoustic signal to an acoustic amp and then to the PA, and of course the electric pickups to my amp/rig. Here are my experiences. 1-3 are semi-hollow guitars that use traditional acoustic bridges.
1. USA Hamer Duotone Custom. For me, this is the best Hybrid acoustic/electric guitar available. It has a traditional acoustic bridge with exceptional electronics and onboard eq thru backplate. It also features a solid, arched spruce top for best acoustic tone. There are 2 separate outputs one for acoustic bridge and the other for the 2 Seymour Duncan humbuckers. This guitar has it all, it looks killer and plays/sounds excellent.
2. USA Carvin EA185. Basically does the same thing as the Hamer Duotone but at only 1/2 the cost. It also features a traditional acoustic bridge. The only thing I was not happy with is that the Acoustic and Electric outputs share the same active preamp. To me this hampered the acoustic output and made it muddy. The acoustic output had just 1 tone control. After owning 2 AE185's I custom ordered one with different electronics which made this model come alive. I had Carvin make the humbuckers passive with a push/pull on tone knob for single coil sounds, then put in the electronics from their AC175 which has a separate treble and bass control. This helped the AE185 sound much more acoustic.
3. Taylor T5. I am mentioning this model because it attempts to be a hybrid but for my personal application it failed. Don't get me wrong, the T5 is beautiful and plays and feels great. The build quality is exceptional. For me the sounds are not there. Also, you cannot get and electric sound and acoustic sound at the same time so not a true Hybrid. I did have one of my T5's modded with an active under saddle pickup and separate output which did make it sound more acoustic, but the electric tones do not have what I needed.
I will add more to this thread with solid guitars with steel/piezo bridges.