Because they can be difficult to cut, and ancient luthiers desire to be family friendly, instead AF the natural description of f#$%&&ING holes, they became "f" holes. Of course that is my opinion, I may be wrong.
More seriously, they can allow much more vibration on the front, especially if neary in line with the bridge. The shape is just artistic application of a musical score symbol.
This is all very interesting to us sound hole nerds. I still put f holes in many builds but only because they look cool and are traditional. I like the simplicity of straight skinny holes better,and they sound just as good.But folks who buy my stuff, especially on fiddles, really prefer the f holes. On many cigar box instruments they are, as Ron says, decorative since so many of us use pickups of one kind or another but if the instrument is designed to be acoustic this stuff is pretty important.
I re call someone ,some time back,[Ithink it was Phrygian Kid],posting about f holes and similar having a greater effect,when placed closer to sound board edges,or thickenings,as it tends to 'release' the soundboard to flex to a greater degree,my experience has certainly been when i oversize sound hoes,I seem to lose a bit of treble,and tone generally lowers a fair bit
I read. A lot. And have a scientific background. And have been plucking, bending and slapping stringed instruments for almost 40 years. And have built a very few ( with more in pieces on the bench -which is in complete disarray due to being in the middle of moving house). And am still learning. This was good shtuff, brdfrd.
Looking at the pictures of where the RED areas are (higher air velocity through the sound holes) it seems kinda like putting a nozzle on the end of a garden hose; shrink the opening and the water comes out faster.
Furthering the metaphor, the "flat fan" setting on a garden nozzle is like the F hole, smaller opening makes the water come out with more velocity than the bare end of the hose, but not as much water comes out, and the wide slit allows more water than the pinhole jet setting, just not quite as much velocity. sort of a best compromise between amount and speed.
Maybe the other benefit of a long slot is the top is free-er to move between the slots, it might move more air as well. If it was just about the length of the perimeter, a long squiggly slot would be better, and who knows, maybe it is. Or even several narrow parallel slots? It seems the ends with the ball shape may also help balance the frequencies, but all of this is armchair engineering I admit. Maybe they just looked cool.
Nope, there's frequency engineering involved. Admittedly, it took a couple hundred years of trial and error, but the Cremonese violin masters knew what they were doing. Another thing, if you look at a violin: the top is curved. The edges of the f hole are not in a flat plane; one side is higher than the other. The edges of the f hole vibrate, very similar to the way your vocal cords do.
Several parallel slots is precisely what Godin Guitars does in the left upper bout of their acoustic and acoustic-electric tops. Tonally, they're different than a standard round hole acoustic.
Kigar > Ron "Oily" SpragueMarch 30, 2016 at 9:18pm
I didn't mean they didn't have engineering involved, I meant my speculation didn't! Violins make amazing amounts of sound for their size, they must have known what worked and what didn't.
Replies
Because they can be difficult to cut, and ancient luthiers desire to be family friendly, instead AF the natural description of f#$%&&ING holes, they became "f" holes. Of course that is my opinion, I may be wrong.
More seriously, they can allow much more vibration on the front, especially if neary in line with the bridge. The shape is just artistic application of a musical score symbol.
This is all very interesting to us sound hole nerds. I still put f holes in many builds but only because they look cool and are traditional. I like the simplicity of straight skinny holes better,and they sound just as good.But folks who buy my stuff, especially on fiddles, really prefer the f holes. On many cigar box instruments they are, as Ron says, decorative since so many of us use pickups of one kind or another but if the instrument is designed to be acoustic this stuff is pretty important.
I re call someone ,some time back,[Ithink it was Phrygian Kid],posting about f holes and similar having a greater effect,when placed closer to sound board edges,or thickenings,as it tends to 'release' the soundboard to flex to a greater degree,my experience has certainly been when i oversize sound hoes,I seem to lose a bit of treble,and tone generally lowers a fair bit
Glad to see this resonated with folks--sorry, I couldn't resist--a lot of good discussion going on.
Ron "Oily" Sprague, you're a font of information, sir.
Looking at the pictures of where the RED areas are (higher air velocity through the sound holes) it seems kinda like putting a nozzle on the end of a garden hose; shrink the opening and the water comes out faster.
Furthering the metaphor, the "flat fan" setting on a garden nozzle is like the F hole, smaller opening makes the water come out with more velocity than the bare end of the hose, but not as much water comes out, and the wide slit allows more water than the pinhole jet setting, just not quite as much velocity. sort of a best compromise between amount and speed.
Maybe the other benefit of a long slot is the top is free-er to move between the slots, it might move more air as well. If it was just about the length of the perimeter, a long squiggly slot would be better, and who knows, maybe it is. Or even several narrow parallel slots? It seems the ends with the ball shape may also help balance the frequencies, but all of this is armchair engineering I admit. Maybe they just looked cool.
Several parallel slots is precisely what Godin Guitars does in the left upper bout of their acoustic and acoustic-electric tops. Tonally, they're different than a standard round hole acoustic.
I didn't mean they didn't have engineering involved, I meant my speculation didn't! Violins make amazing amounts of sound for their size, they must have known what worked and what didn't.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next