Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi,

My first build is a single cutaway dreadnought style. I used flamed maple for the back and sides and european spruce for the top. It is just over a year old and though it has a very nice sound it seems to lack "low end" and volume. I have seen a few guitars here that have a 2nd sound hole in the "side" upper bout. What does adding or placing sound holes in different areas do? Would adding any of these smaller holes anywhere on my guitar help or hurt?

I realize that my choice of material may not have been the best choice for the tone I was looking for but I just LOVE the beauty of flamed (curly) maple and it "is" beautiful! Just courious if there is anything that can be done to help the "low end" with the existing guitar.

What is your opinion on wood choice for the best "low end" sounding guitar?

Thanks guys,

-Rick

My suggestion is to search the Archive for posts Alan Carruth has written on sound ports (side sound hole). he is pretty much our expert on this subject.

location and size will affect the tone the player hears and will change the main air frequency. Here again Alan has written a ton on this subject and the archive is full of his wisdom on this subject.

As far as helping bass on a flamed maple box, in very simple terms you can shave the bass side of the x brace, finger braces and tone bars a little bit at a time to open up the bass response. But I don’t recommend someone inexperience do this. Very little shaving is needed to have a major effect.

Thanks Michael, I quess i forget to search the forum before I post!! i get caught up in reading and just ask to quickly. I will check it out!

I will also look into shaving the braces as well. When you say the "bass side" would one start at the middle and work towards the bass side? or concentrate on the bass side ends first?

If the braces are scalloped work in the scallops just a small amount at a time. The point is to loosen up the bass side a tad. Not to make the top floppy on the base side. Over work it and you will loose treble, tone and volume

I am among those who think there is no bass side with regard to sound production. We think we have science on our side (all the laser holography photos of how guitar tops actually vibrate).

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Adding a 'port' on the side will raise the pitches of all, or most, of the air resonant modes. This will probably not help the bass.

I'm not a believer in 'bass' and 'treble' sides of the top either, except insofar as that's where the respective strings are tied down. In fact, low frequencies tend to be produced from the soundhole, and off the entire top, with higher pitches being more localized on smaller areas of the top, back, or sides. As Howard says, there's a ton of literature on this stuff.

One good way to get more bass out of a guitar is to tune the _back_. Often backs have a tap tone that is a musical third or more higher than that of the top. If you can shave the back braces to get the back's 'main tap tone' closer to the tap tone of the top the two will 'couple', and move more air through the soundhole at low frequencies. The nice thing about this is that it doesn't weaken the top any, as shaving top bracng will. It's also far more effective than you might think.

One trick here: what you will most likely perceive when you tap the top is a low pitched sound, somewhere near G on the low E string. That's actually the 'main air' resonance masking the top pitch. To hear the top more or less by itself you have to block off the soundhole when you tap on the bridge. Tap the back with the hole blocked, too, and see if you can get a clear impression of the pitch. It's pretty easy to drop the back pitch by lowering the two middle back braces in their centers. Shaving the ends is much less effective.

another way to coax more bass out of a guitar is to make the sound hole slightly smaller.

On one of my recent guitars (a thin bodied performance guitar) I decided to make 4 one inch holes instead of the normal single 4 inch hole. Man o man did that make for a strong bass sounding guitar!

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Reguards,

Ken H

Wow, that's only 1/4 as much hole. How did it compare otherwise?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

surprisingly, the guitar projected well. It was hard to believe that the guitar was only 2" thick. I was amazed at the full sound and I think the many who tried it out were also amazed at it.

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Reguards,

Ken H