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Hiya gang -
Just wondering if anyone can point me to info (or opinions, those are always welcomed too!) regarding alternative sound hole location. I was looking at Sheldon Schwartz's "Oracle" on his site http://www.schwartzguitars.com/oracle.htm, a very unique guitar to say the least, featuring three soundholes on the top of the upper bout. Freeing up the real estate on the soundboard where you'd usully find a big hole sounds like a logical idea...more surface area to vibrate in front of the bridge and all. Thoughts?

Thanks!
Jon

Well - the upper bout is relatively dead on most instruments because it is braced to the hilt to act as a buffer zone/barrier to stop the neck/fingerboard extension from imploding into the guitar body under string tension. As Monty Python would say - "A statement of the bleeding obvious". Put in some flying buttress braces that take the neck load into the sides, have the neck free-floating over the body and brace the upper bout for sound then there is a Lazarus effect - not dead anymore

Most things "hung" from the soundhole usually connect it from side to side so you could argue this helps sound transmission there.

Freeing the upper bout is about sound subtleties but small things can have a big impact. You get more of the overall top responding - which I suspect adds to the lower bout responsiveness, and the upper bout adds in to the harmonic complexities of the instrument in my humble - and limited - experience - I've only made 30 or so like this.

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Get the first 'Big Red Book' with William Allen's article on the 'Basics of Air Resonance'. You'll be glad you did.

I'll note that all through history people have been experimenting with different soundhole locations, side holes, and so on. Generally speaking these things have been fads, of relatively short duration, and then they went back to the 'standard' layout. It seems to me that if you want to make something that sounds like a guiter, you need to make something that looks like one. This is not to say that other sorts of sounds are not good, but just that they are not as 'guitarlike' as a standard guitar. By all means try stuff, but don't be surprised if it's not all that easy to make improvements.