A sound hole is an opening in the body of a stringed

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

, usually the upper sound board. Sound holes have different shapes: * Round in flat-top

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s and traditional bowl-back

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

s; * F-holes in instruments from the

violin family The violin family of musical instruments was developed in Italy in the 16th century. At the time the name of this family of instruments was viole da braccio which was used to distinguish them from the viol family (viole ''da gamba''). The standa ...

, archtop mandolins and in

archtop guitar An archtop guitar is a hollow acoustic guitar, acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar, semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with jazz guitar, jazz, blues, and rockabilly players. Typic ...

s; * C-holes in

viola da gamba The viola da gamba (), or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin family, violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bow (m ...

s and occasionally double-basses and

guitars The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

Rosette Rosette is the French diminutive of ''rose''. It may refer to: Flower shaped designs * Rosette (award), a mark awarded by an organisation * Rosette (design), a small flower design *hence, various flower-shaped or rotational symmetric forms: ** R ...

s in

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

s and sometimes

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

s; * D-holes in bowed lyras. Some instruments come in more than one style (

s may have F-holes, round or oval holes). A round or oval hole or a rosette is usually a single one, under the strings. C-holes, D-holes and F-holes are usually made in pairs placed symmetrically on both sides of the strings. Most hollowbody and semi-hollow

electric guitars Electric Guitars were an English band formed early in 1980 by Neil Davenport (vocals, lyrics) and Richard Hall (bass, vocals) who were both studying English at Bristol University. The band soon increased to a five-man line-up, with Andy Sander ...

also have F-holes. Though sound holes help

acoustic instrument Acoustic music is music that solely or primarily uses instruments that produce sound through acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means. While all music was once acoustic, the retronym "acoustic music" appeared after the ad ...

s project sound more efficiently, sound does not emanate solely from the sound hole. Sound emanates from the

surface area The surface area (symbol ''A'') of a solid object is a measure of the total area that the surface of the object occupies. The mathematical definition of surface area in the presence of curved surfaces is considerably more involved than the d ...

of the sounding boards, with sound holes providing an opening into the resonant chamber formed by the body, letting the sounding boards vibrate more freely, and letting vibrating air inside the instrument travel outside the instrument. The F-holes in the violin family instruments also serve the purpose of enabling a

luthier A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments. Etymology The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be ...

to use specialized tools to adjust the sound post inside the instrument. In 2015, researchers at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, in collaboration with

violin makers A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments. Etymology The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be u ...

North Bennet Street School North Bennet Street School (NBSS) is a private vocational school in Boston, Massachusetts. NBSS offers nine full-time programs, including bookbinding, cabinet and furniture making, carpentry, jewelry making and repair, locksmithing and security t ...

, published an analysis that charted the evolution and improvements in effectiveness of violin F-hole design over time. One of the conclusions of this paper was that acoustic conductance (air flow) is proportional to the length of the perimeter of the sound hole and not the area. They proved this mathematically, and showed how it drove the evolution of shape of the F-holes in the violin family. The highest air flow in a violin's F-hole are the places at the top and bottom where the points nearly touch the other side. The effect is analogous to putting one's thumb over the end of a hose to accelerate the water coming out. By this measure, the open round hole of a flat-top acoustic guitar is not very effective.

Alternative sound hole designs

Some

Ovation The ovation ( from ''ovare'': to rejoice) was a lesser form of the Roman triumph. Ovations were granted when war was not declared between enemies on the level of nations or states; when an enemy was considered basely inferior (e.g., slaves, pira ...

stringed instruments feature a particularly unique sound hole architecture with multiple smaller sound holes that, being combined with a

composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic material ...

bowl back body, are said to produce a clear and bright sound.

Tacoma Guitars Tacoma Guitars was an American manufacturing company of musical instruments. It was founded in 1991 as a division of South Korean company Young Chang. Instruments were manufactured in Tacoma, Washington. The company and brand name were later acq ...

has developed a unique "paisley" sound hole placed on the left side of the upper bout of their "Wing Series" guitars. This is a relatively low-stress area that requires less bracing to support the hole. A few hollowbody or semi-hollow

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

s, such as the

Fender Telecaster Thinline The Fender Telecaster Thinline is a semi-hollow guitar made by the Fender company. It is a Telecaster with body cavities. Designed by German luthier Roger Rossmeisl in 1968, it was introduced in 1969 and updated in 1972 by replacing the standa ...

and the

Gibson ES-120T Gibson, Gibson's or Gibsons may refer to: Business * Gibson Appliance, a former American refrigerator manufacturer * Gibson (guitar company), an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Greetings, ...

, have one f-hole instead of two, usually on the bass side. B&G Guitars, a private build guitar company from Tel Aviv, Israel, uses their signature "backwards" sound holes on their guitars. Holes not positioned on the top of an

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

are called soundports. They are usually supplementary to a main sound hole, and are located on an instrument's side facing upward in playing position, allowing players to monitor their own sound.

Gallery

File:Gibson L-5 CES.jpg, F-holes on a

Gibson L-5 The Gibson L-5 is a hollow body guitar first produced in 1923 by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan. One of the first guitars to feature F-holes, the L-5 was designed under the direction of acoustical engineer and desi ...

File:Fender 72 Telecaster Thinline.png, Single F-Hole on a

guitar File:Ovation.jpg, Leaf sound hole in an Ovation Adamas guitar File:Pattern on Acoustic Guitar.JPG, Many acoustic guitars incorporate rosette patterns around the sound hole. File:Guitares type Selmer Maccaferri.jpg,

Maccaferri guitar The Selmer guitar — often called a Selmer-Maccaferri or just Maccaferri by English speakers, as early British advertising stressed the designer rather than manufacturer — is an unusual Steel-string guitar, acoustic guitar best know ...

s have D or oval shaped sound holes. File:Cc guitar acoustic electric calligraphy series dragon.jpg, Unique Sound Hole with

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only on ...

龙 Radical 212, 龍, 龙, or 竜 meaning "dragon", is one of the two of the 214 Kangxi radicals that are composed of 16 strokes. The character arose as a stylized drawing of a Chinese dragon, and refers to a version of the dragon in each East Asi ...

by Cc Guita

File:GambeUilderks.png, C-holes on a

viol The viola da gamba (), or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin family, violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bow (m ...

File:Mongolian_horsehair-horsehead_fiddles_WOMADelaide_festival_Adelaide_AUSTRALIA_March_2012.jpg, Two

Morin Khuur The ''morin khuur'' (), also known as the horsehead fiddle, is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument. It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people, and is considered a symbol of the nation of Mongolia. ...

s with two F-holes

References

External links

Stringworks U
- brief explanation of the effects of sound holes, with a closeup diagram of an F-shaped soundhole {{Authority control String instrument construction Guitar parts and accessories Holes