Due to the style of box I am going to use I am beginning to consider sound holes in the rear of the box. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Will it work? What are the possible drawbacks, stumbling blocks, and flat-out road blocks? Thanks for any input you may contribute!
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By way of update: I made two license plate reso's this week. I did not wish to put holes, grommets or other penetrations in the plate. I had planned to put a soundport through the upper side of the box. Before I drilled the soundports, I strung up the guitars, and they both played quite well, with good sound, with neither soundports or sound holes. I was so pleased with the sound, I guess I will delay my soundport experiment until I produce a quiet or muted player. Tonight, this doesn't feel like a bad thing!
You can get these drawer pulls in a lot of different finishes at local builders supply stores. They are cheap and look very much like a sound director.
Thank all of you for your helpful suggestions and insights! I am starting the build this weekend and will post photos of the project upon completion. What a wonderful "nation" this is and what a great group of citizens I have found here!
Because I like to use antique cigar boxes, or even just their lids on contemporary boxes, I put my sound holes on the left and right long outer edges and keep the lid clean. Plenty of volume and the ones facing the player get the sound up to my (their) ears.
If you have a good box (knock on it) so the sound gets produced from the whole of the box put in vibration. I would begin with a sound hole on top of circa 3/4 of an inch; if you put two of them, put them near to each other, less than the diameter of them. A luthier in my town for regular guitars sometimes puts three of them, about 1/2, 2/3 and 3/4 of an inch, one near the other
The sound hole isn't kind of loudspeaker of a stringed instrument, it has other effects, as brought into the discussion by Jim Morris, big thanks to him:
http://taflab.berkeley.edu/acoustics-of-sound-holes-in-musical-inst...
I recently read a couple of articles regarding the use of an additional sound port or two on the top side of some acoustic guitars. As John stated, it allows the player to better hear what they are playing, especially in a noisy or acoustic- challenged room. Different luthiers use the upper or lower bout, with ports that are typically 1" or so in diameter, facing upward, or even angled toward the player. There still exists a fair amount of debate amongst them as to the actual value of said ports, but the true believers are pretty adamant. I am putting a top port, 1 1/2" diameter, into a 12" X 6" X 3" deep license plate reso that I don't want to pierce. I also recently built a similar license plate reso with no sound holes at all, and the sound was quite satisfactory for a personal player. Sounded fine in my garage. As far as a hole in the back - you might try your build with no hole, and add one later if your result is not what you desire. Keep us apprised.
I haven't cut holes in my license plate guitars, and have found their acoustic volume acceptable as well... I was thinking the sound was escaping by the top resonating... Let us know how those holes work out, I am very interested!
This is the standard arrangement for tahitian ukuleles. It can be used as a feature for shaping your sound by moving the instrument realive to your body to mute it or otherwise.
Same is true for some russian balalaikas with a sound hole near the neck. Same is true also for regular guitars: if you put a brass resonator against your body it sounds well, if you put it apart from your body it rings like a church bell.
The downside about being on the back is muting from the player's body, and even if held away from the body, the player will be altering the characteristic of the sound... I'd guess you'd lose a lot of treble that way.
How about sound holes on the edges? I have a request for a build with an extra sound hole on the top so the player can hear it better...
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