Official Luthiers Forum!

I am working on a Black Limba grand auditorium with ziricote fingerboard, bridge, rosette, headplate, and back strap. I put in my first soundport. I was thinking about making a soundport insert out of ziricote to close the hole if I want to. I think I have seen this done here on the OLF. I was wondering what would be a good way to do this… Velcro? Does anyone have any thoughts or comments. Is this a cool idea or is it lame? I was also thinking of some sort of hinge design. I think I’ve seen this done. Has anybody done this? What do think? …Any photos of something like this?

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

I've recently talked with several of the first people to do soundports -- Laskin, de Jonge, Manzer -- and they all had sliding closures on the first instruments. John Monteleone, who came up with it independently, also did. As far as I know, none of them bother anymore as players don't generally want to close the 'port.

While the sliding port is the one I am most familiar with (and am playing around with myself) here is another option:

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241207

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

What might be the reason for keeping the option to close the sound port? Learning from luthiers, the creation of sound port hinges on augmentation of sonic properties especially for the player.

Years back, I have the chance to remove a spoiled onboard electronic control module from an acoustic guitar. A rectangular opening was left on the side of the guitar. Lo and behold, the player felt the differences in sonic properties and it was improvement to the player. The opening was left on the guitar since…

I have seen some guitars with sliding features to close and open the sound port. My best guess is the sound ports are left opened most of the time. To think of the closing feature as dust protection doesn't make a lot of sense as well. Dust can enter from the sound hole anyway.

Perhaps for training one's craftsmanship… the challenge in making a functional cover as well as one that is aesthetically pleasing should provide sufficient impetus to carry out this task.

Anyhow, best wishes to you in the event you have decide to take on the challenge. Keep us updated should you do. Cheers.

_________________
Regards
aDAM

Steve, I'm just finishing off one like that now. As much as anything, wanted to hear the actual differences plugging/unplugging the port. I'm hoping it will stay in place with some craft store foam cut slightly oversized.... let you know how it works out.

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

Having seen Marc Beneteau's inspired "stopper" I made this one for a recent commission:

_________________
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

I have sound ports in most of my builds and I would never close them. I often show people trying the guitars the difference in sound by covering the port with my hand while they are playing and they all prefer the port open. The closing of the port lowers the box resonance by around 3 hertz as measured with Audacity, the larger the port the more change, same effect as a larger sound hole.

_________________
Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Inserted magnets could work too, but I guess you should think about it before closing the box and put magnets inside.

_________________
Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

It sounds like most of the time folks feel like the guitar sounds better with the port open, so why close it? Based on what Fred says, it appears that the difference in resonance is 3 hertz, depending on the size of the hole. I'm not quite sure what a difference in 3 hertz sounds like... Would there be any value to an insert that would reduce the size of the hole...? ...that is, that there is another smaller hole in the insert...? Perhaps this would allow for optimizing the resonance.

NOTE: I did not compensate for the soundport by decreasing the diameter of the front sound hole...

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

My concept of a soundport was so that you could hear the guitar! If you put your ear to the side when you play, you get the concept. So, technically, the forward soundport is off. To hear the guitar better, you need it on the other side of the bend, which is not the best place to put it? Can you hear the guitar better with one of those forward facing soundports?

My 1st was on the slope towards the waist from the high point of the upper bout, my last was from the high point forward towards the neck block. Both work about the same for the player and both are brighter sounding open than closed.

_________________
Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866