I was playing some geetars this weekend, a nice Taylor big bodied thing, and some Collings guitars.
Thing I notices about the Taylor, was that because of its body shape (big bottom, tight waste) I could feel the thing "choke up" when I pounded it. I could 'feel' the air not getting through. I would think a soundport in this style would help with the choke, and make it louder for sure.
Played a Collings near-dred, and standard Collings dred, and noticed you could really hammer the dred (as it was designed to do) and it would not 'choke' on the air, even the next smaller size was pretty good at not choking, and had a better overall tone. The dreds seem to be too thick in body almost. (a bit more mushy_
Just some geetar talk and insight into why the dred is 'square' lookin' IMO. Now I would put a port on a dred anyway, so I could hear the strings playin', but it don't seem to help none with the air flow.
Some people make the soundhole smaller on ported guitars, on Dreds, I can see this, on tight waisted guitars, it might not be needed....
