Orville Gibson's original idea was to build a mandolin built like a violin, largely to make it stronger.
That included the "f-holes" seen on all violin family instruments.
his early carved top and back mandolins were stringer and louder than the classical design.
The Guitars were something of an afterthought (the earliest Gibson guitars did have central round or oval soundholes, , I believe the f-hole versions occurred around 1922.
As is the different tonal differences between the A-4 and the A-5 mandolins, the F-hole guitars had a sharper more trebly tone and projected more markedly than round hole instruments.
They have proven ideal as rhythm instruments, especially in jazz and dance bands as the music changed from dixieland to swing and tenor banjo players had to learn to play guitars.
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Silly Moustache,
Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer.
I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom!
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