Haven't had the pleasure of comparing solid vs. chambered bluesbirds or les pauls, but have some experience with other guitars.
IMO, yes you can hear the difference. I've owned/own two chambered teles, now own two other chambered guitars. One - the Soloway Swan - is a pretty classic chambering scheme, maple top over heavily chambered ash body. The other, an Airline Tuxedo, is actually a mostly hollow body, with no f holes.
Walter's description is right on. At times it does feel like a trade, sustain for resonance. In the case of the Tuxedo, sustain is notably less than my solid bodies. What you get back is an entirely different feel to the sound ... much more like a hollowbody archtop. The difference is usually not that dramatic. Comparing teles, for example: My G&L ASAT Classic is solid ash body, maple neck. A dense, really nice "push" to the sound when the volume is up. As affected by the 25.5 scale, it's a near perfect blend of sustain and resonance. Quite forceful. My orange partscaster has a chambered ash body, spruce top. Here some of the denseness is gone, traded for an airier type of sound. You can really hear that spruce top ... it's not just the chambering. No lack of sustain, but it is less forceful, more delicate somehow.
It's fun to listen, and to argue about this stuff.
MD