Posted by Tres Seaver on September 20, 2009 at 11:12pm
I decided to try leaving the top intact, as well as adding extra "scoop" to let it vibrate freely. (You can see that the neck is bowing here, too :( ).
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Soundholes on the top site have two notional advantages over the traditional holes on the face: they leave more "soundboard" to react to the strings, incidentally avoiding some potential "edge effect" damping around the holes, and they let me, the player, hear better. There doesn't seem to be any net loss on volume across the room (this box is pretty loud, according to my wife. ;)
On a traditional guitar, with more surface area on the soundboard, the central hole is less problematic. However, there are even high-end builders in that zone who move the soundhole "up" (think McPherson, etc.)
The side sound holes make a huge difference in volume to the player. I did that on my second build and it sounded way louder to me than before I drilled them out.
Yup, the side installed soundholes are a nice touch. As for the bowing problem, I'm having a little problem with that myself, but I'm working around it. Just plug it up or mic it up an' let her RIP!! Nice job!
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On a traditional guitar, with more surface area on the soundboard, the central hole is less problematic. However, there are even high-end builders in that zone who move the soundhole "up" (think McPherson, etc.)