Official Luthiers Forum!

I've heard the argument that putting sound holes in the upper bout instead of the traditional location provides a larger area for sound board resonance. The downside I see is that one has to use a dove tail neck connection and possibly greater difficulties doing repairs to the bridge down the road. I see that Grimes, Krusa, Fleishman, etc. use upper bout sound holes. Can somebody talk me out of going down this slippery slope?

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

You could always add an access port in the tail end .. so you could still do a bolt on neck, plus have complete access to the braicng and bridge area.

Or, simply a small hole for an end pin would allow access for a bolt tighening tool - Bill Moll has such a device for bolt on arch top necks.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Socket-head screws to put on the neck and one of these puppies to tighten 'em.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Don't build a guitar without knowing how you are going to glue the bridge on.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Or, speaking from experience, how your going to get your spreader out after you have attached the top and back!!

Don't think of using a dovetail as a downside though. It might be a fun diversion and I won't say what I think is the up side, we've already been there.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Howard, I thought I'd use a vacuum clamp for the bridge.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

thats how my good ol' friend Boaz Elkayam does it.
check out his site http://www.claritanegra.com for a killer uke

That Clarita Negra ukulele is nice.

I didn't see a photo of the top bracing or any mention of it. However, the bridge and layout look a lot like many Kasha braced instruments that I have seen. I wonder if the bracing was Kasha, fan, or other?

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Rich,

You didn’t say how you attach your necks now. Do you use a bolt on? Of course with the low string pull on the ukulele we can attach the neck just about any way we want including a simple butt joint.

I too have been intrigued by the dual sound hole at the top of the sound board. There will be one or more in my future. I’m thinking that the 2 pukas can be squeezed in on either side of a Spanish heel. My thoughts are that with this type of neck and I may not even need bracing on the upper bout. Put two small pukas on top and then tune with a sound port and your ready to go. I don’t see any problems doing this on ukuleles at all. Like you said it opens up more of the top to vibrations.

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Rich, you should also think about making the guitar repairable. I think many or most of those who build that way use a bottom access panel. You can get in that way to bolt the neck and glue the bridge, too.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

This is for a guitar - not a uke. I was going to use a dovetail connection to the body so I wouldn't need to get access through the sound hole. I've actually sent an email to Steve Grimes asking him how he attaches the neck and how he gets access to the electronics. We'll see if I get an answer.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Rich,

Forget my pervious posting since I thought the instrument was another ukulele.

Congrats on extending you building skills to guitars. I too have used what I have learned from ukulele building and am working on a guitar build. In fact, I now have another guitar build planned once I can finish about 4 more ukulele builds.

Best of luck and have fun

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Adding electronics to a guitar with non-traditional sound holes can be done, even without the port at the heel.
It took me all day one day, but I put a B-Band A-11 UST pickup in this guitar and the body is only 2" thick.



I wouldnt think adding the neck would be a big issue either as Bob Garish discribed above.

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Reguards,

Ken H

Thanks for the tips! I'm still on the fence on this one.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

I love to build guitars with soundholes like that. I use the access panel, and I also have a tool that will reach through an endpin hole to turn neck bolts. It's nothing but a 1/4" metal rod with a T-handle on one end, and an allen wrench welded on the other. It's long enough to turn the bolts from outside the guitar at the endpin. This guitar uses the adjustable neck joint, the same tool adjusts it.
The access panel also allows me to use tools for clamping the bridge.
I don't think that moving the hole out of the center will afford you any great tonal advantage unless you re-brace the guitar to take advantage of the new territory, the place where the hole used to be placed. I've had good luck with a sort of "A"-brace, something like the older Tacoma guitars used.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Mark, Grimes uses a double X bracing pattern. I think even his steel strings are 12 frets to body so the bridge patch is lower on the body hence he must move the big X down some. Have you experienced in sonic improvement with your upper bout sound holes over conventional guitars?

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Hey Bob, where'dja get that monkey? I've been looking fer one of those.

A supplier and model number would be great!

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

I can't really answer that. In order to answer it, I'd need to build two guitars, exactly the same but for the bracing and soundholes. I have not done that, and I don't plan to. I just build these the best I can, using what I know to pull what I can out of them. I've been quite pleased with the sound so far.
You can see the small photo that I use as my avatar, it's a guitar that is very similar to the one with two soundholes. They do sound very different, I can say that. No one is better than the other, just different.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

No idea, but I'm betting that it was either at a Home Depot or at Busy Bee (our Grizzly-equivalent)

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Mark can you brace the two holer lighter?

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA