The f-hole always - but always - bugs me.

Why are (most) guitar designers so insistent in using a centuries-old design on a modern instrument?  The video suggests that the design is to enhance the acoustic properties of the body, but the f-holes are in different places, and different sizes, so there's clearly *not* an optimum position for that acoustic-enhancement effect.

Which suggests that the insistence on the f-hole design (ie shape) is unnecessary too - the hole could be of any design.

Perhaps a design that suited the design of the guitar, rather than a design that looks like it's been nicked from a centuries-old violin, would actually look better, and sound no worse?

I used a Rickenbacker shape but the other way round on my first home build - quite a bit of sound comes out of the hole....

Also a simple shape to cut....

@frocesterbill

To my eye, Bill, your design is much more in-keeping with the shape of the body, than sticking a designed-in-the-16th-century f-hole in it!

It's a clean, modern instrument, and the design/shape of the hole is consistent with that.  An ornate curly f-hole wouldn't look right.  And, as you say, you still get a decent amount of sound from the hole, so there's no acoustic justification for the hole shape.

I confess to having guitar porn in the toilet. To my eye, some ƒs look good and lots are just weird. The best seem to have the top curl at the waist and the bottom curl at the widest point on the lower bout. Positioned halfway between bridge and binding and at an angle halfway between the centreline and the edge.

Gibson seems to do it well, but *whispers* I’m not so sure about Gretsch. D’Aquisto has a lot of interesting variations.

Guitar Porn

D'Aquisto - shows that there are other options that are, aesthetically, much nicer!

Ovation's sound holes are all refreshingly different - and better matched to their guitar bodies - too.

I've got an old Hamer that has a better approach as well ...

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... but most manufacturers seem to stick to the unimaginative and outdated (by a few centuries!) f-design ...

🙁

@tv1010101 That Hamer is an interesting thing!

@jamesbisset

Hamer DuoTone

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/hamer-duotone-1

It's a fairly unusual thing. 

A very handy guitar to have around - previous owner swapped the neck HB for a P90 (BKP MQ), the bridge is a tapped SD, plus it's got an under saddle piezo.

It's not my favourite semi Hamer, but the other one has got old-style f-holes!!