Where does the sound come from on your acoustic guitar?

[sunjamr]

Does it mostly come out the hole? From the face? From the back? Well, it depends on which note you are playing. Here’s a map of the sound hotspots for different notes on the face of a guitar. I’m not sure how much sound comes out the hole relative to the face and back, but it must be pretty significant. As I bring my ear closer to the sound hole, there’s definitely a lot of sound coming out of it. There have been several acoustic guitar models built with no sound hole, and the rumor is that they sound very dull, with poor bass tone. I have a Tahitian ukulele which is made from a solid piece of wood, with a small sound hole in the middle of the back. It sounds quite loud, but very tinny.

Sunjamr Steve

[GnLguy]

Interesting post Steve

Paul Reed Smith makes great acoustic guitars and his design philosophy is to make the back of the guitar as stiff as possible. He said that he “wants to lock it down” so that the sound coming off of the top will bounce off of the back like sound hitting a brick wall.
In the first video, Paul hits a chord and tries to kill the sound with his arm on the top and it just keeps ringing.
In the videos that I posted, Paul explains much of his thoughts on design.
To me, he is to this generation of guitar builders what Leo Fender and Les Paul were to the early years of electric guitar

[sunjamr]

My university physics prof (and fellow guitar enthusiast) said it would be best if we could clamp the head of the guitar in a vice, so that all the string energy was delivered to the bridge. So it seems like good logic to also want a very solid back. Maybe the roundish molded fiberglass backs on the Ovation guitars are a step in the right direction.

Sunjamr Steve

[Mark P]

Interesting stuff. Thanks of posting.

I’m thinking of getting my guitar painted like image j for a psychedelic look. 🙂

Mark P

[sunjamr]

Good idea! What’s interesting is that you can see for the low notes, there are only two large hotspots, one on each side of the hole. Then the higher the notes, the more hotspots start to appear, and on image J sound is just popping out all over the place.

Sunjamr Steve

[Andy N]

That’s very interesting. It highlights the fact that just about anything and everything that can vibrate on a guitar is going to have an impact on how it sounds. And no wonder acoustics all sound different! My experience with recording via mics suggests a fair amount of bass frequencies come out the sound hole as mics pointing straight at it give boomy recordings.
WRT to the back, I was always struck by how much the back of my old Yamaha used to vibrate. You could feel it in your body when playing. There was alot of energy there for sure.

[6stringer Pete]

I’ve got a 60 year old Cats Eye acoustic. I put 7’s electric on it and it still sounds so solid. Also easy on the fingers too.

The melody of the notes is what expresses the art of music . 🙂 6stringerPete

It really is all about ”melody”. The melody comes from a language from our heart. Our heart is the muscle in music harmony. The melody is the sweetness that it pumps into our musical thoughts on the fretboard. 🙂 6 stringer Pete

Pete
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