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I'm working on one right now that is the size of a 335, just a little deeper and I expect with an arched soundboard inside that it will sound a whole lot like a quality archtop accoustically. The prime spruce tonewood makes a huge difference, but you can make your top out of some gorgeous Hardwood and it doesn't dampen the sound.

That right there is an idea that has some appeal for me. A 335 type guitar with a gorgeous curly koa top that also has a good, usable acoustic sound would be pretty cool. I used to have an all koa ES336 that sounded great plugged in, but as one would expect, it was nothing to write home about when unplugged.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

It's not really hard to believe at all, if you understand the physics. It is, in fact, easier to build a loud small guitar than a loud big one. What's hard is to make a loud small guitar that has a strong bass.

It's easy to get enthusiastic about something like this. As I've pointed out, this is not really a new idea, and you have to ask yourself why it has not caught on if it's all that good. Whenever I find myself getting carried away I think about what I call 'Feynman's Dictum' : "You are the easiest person for you to fool". It's good that you're here getting other opinions, and you need to keep doing that.

The title of this thread reminds me of what I thought was an incredible idea and design by Rusty Thornhill. His design did have an inner chambered soundboard and open all around the tapered sides at the back.
He purchased sound board products from me, I wanted to send him an extraordinary top and have him build me one. After several years of ill health, Rusty passed away a year or 2 ago.
Here is a link to a You tube demonstrating the instrument. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg0L0aA75nI

Numerous luthiers have used internal plates of one sort or another to give their instruments more interesting tone or help out with some problem... There was a lot of this sort of thing going on before WWII.... But the war did all that cool stuff in... Something about destroying 80% of the industrial capacity and a significant portion of the male population in the first world..... And it's taken us nearly 70 years to get back to where we left off on musical instruments.

For example - Rodriguez developed a "Camara" plate inside some of their classical guitars. It apparently gives the guitar somewhat of a "chambered" soundbox.

Clearly what makes mine unique is that the soundboard inside isn't sympathetic but the primary soundboard. It Seperates the appearance (and some function, like the electric) from the acoustic. It also makes the bass so much more powerful. I believe it's the tall bridge that does that.