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Anyone know how to do this? I’m waiting on guitars 2&3 right now so I’ve haven’t had time to do an arm bevel yet. I’ve watched videos of how Kent Everett does it, but it seems this is done a different way. The bevel wood would seemingly need to be thinner.

That's the Ryan's "flutes". He has heavily invested in CNC work.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I wonder if having your arm on the arm bevel would greatly reduce the effect...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Also my first thought.

Might not suit anyone who plays in classical position.

Makes sense. I have a CNC, but don't know how that's done.

Maybe severals laminations can be cut and molded/glued together? I believe the Kent Everette method would leave too thick of a block of wood to work. I can't see inside the Ryan sound port, but I believe it would need a uniform and thin arm bevel to look right.

The holes sit far enough forward that the left arm doesn't block them. I took a look at three videos of Ryan guitars with those holes being played, including one in classical position, and the holes were clear of the players' left arms.

Has anyone here played one? I wonder how the "flute" holes compare to more standard sound ports in the upper bout on other guitars in terms of sound.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Being further from the main sound hole they would raise the 'air' pitch more for a given hole area. Also they would 'hear' different internal resonances than the main hole, so the sound at the ports would be less like what people in the audience hear.

Structurally it's plausible that he has cross braces in the bevel between the ports, and those could plug into liners along the top and bottom edges. I've never seen one 'live', so I can't say for sure.

Kevin Ryan posted a short clip on Instagram of himself filing the holes. You can see how thick the wood is under the bevel.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0WttTfyYce/?hl=en

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter