Thanks Jim for the link about acoustic of sound holes, I played violin in my youth and I could never believe that the sound comes out of the f-holes as you feel that the whole body vibrates. My brother did some big acoustic archtops for music in the streets and ended up with a half round sound hole, which is now proved to be slightly better than a round one. Thanks!
Hey Jim, I've got a Rebob (sp?) started using a tambourine. I,ve added a fingerboard to the neck dowel. We'll see if it holds together tomorrow and I!ll post photos. It looks rather cute, I must say. It's a two string.
Thanks for that info Moritz. I've also made several acoustic instruments with no sound hole that sound quite good. Fairly quiet but with a nice tone like this one.
There exist some traditional instruments with the sound hole on the side, some russian balalaikas (triangle) and turkish baglama (round), both with the sound hole near the neck, probably to give the player the opportunity to close the sound hole pressing the instruments against itself, to change the tonality. From a luthier I learned that a smaller sound hole accentuates the basses, a bigger one the mids an heights, but I didn't test this yet on a cbg.
Thanks Jim. I have new respect for the f hole. It's position (so close to the bridge) and fussy shape has always made me shy of them. I'm fixing an old German violin for a friend. It has practicly no kerfing inside. Just the thinnest strips no thicker than the thin walls. The neck and tail block are tiny things. It was falling apart so the top came off easily. I've reset the neck but i'll add some more brace work befor closing it up. It weighs nothing. Bet it sounded good befor it fell apart. Thanks again for the research.
Verrry interesting points Dave. I read a scholarly article about how f holes came about on instruments 400 years ago. I'll see if I can locate it since I think you'd appreciate.
I put sound holes often on the sides. The one on the left side is the monitor hole. For the player to hear. One on the right side to be a sound hole and an access hole to get at the soundpost or peizo pickup. Sometimes I have holes on top and both sides. The larger the holes, the louder the instrument. To many and too big will weaken the instrument. So one must find the biggest and strongest size. Location is important too. To close to the bridge will weaken the top and get rid of part of the soundboard so I stay away from the bridge and tail block with the sound holes. Shape of the holes is very important. I think f holes are rather weak for the soundboard. I think round or oval to be best for strength and can be the biggest.
Comments
Acoustic instruments present a whole different challenge from amplified. It's fun to experiment with all the variables!
Thanks Jim for the link about acoustic of sound holes, I played violin in my youth and I could never believe that the sound comes out of the f-holes as you feel that the whole body vibrates. My brother did some big acoustic archtops for music in the streets and ended up with a half round sound hole, which is now proved to be slightly better than a round one. Thanks!
Cool Dave. Look forward to seeing it.
Thanks for that info Moritz. I've also made several acoustic instruments with no sound hole that sound quite good. Fairly quiet but with a nice tone like this one.
There exist some traditional instruments with the sound hole on the side, some russian balalaikas (triangle) and turkish baglama (round), both with the sound hole near the neck, probably to give the player the opportunity to close the sound hole pressing the instruments against itself, to change the tonality. From a luthier I learned that a smaller sound hole accentuates the basses, a bigger one the mids an heights, but I didn't test this yet on a cbg.
http://taflab.berkeley.edu/acoustics-of-sound-holes-in-musical-inst...
Hey Dave, here's one of the articles. Only a true sound hole nerd will find this interesting. I know I did!
Verrry interesting points Dave. I read a scholarly article about how f holes came about on instruments 400 years ago. I'll see if I can locate it since I think you'd appreciate.
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