[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Acoustician

They sure look intriguing ... but then you wonder: if the strings are here, why is the soundhole there? How does the sound project if there's a disconnect between points A and B? Or am I missing something?:

Hi Acoustician...
As an amateur recordist I can assure you that we never mic the ''sound hole'' which does have some sound emanating from it, but not the quality of sound one would want to capture.

The entire body of the guitar radiates sound, and the area around the bridge and 'south' of there to the heel of the guitar is very loud compared to the soundhole.

Played a dreadnaught guitar built with side-located sound holes, with no soundhole on the face. It was just as loud sitting across from it as a standard dreadnaught. It was much louder from the player's perspective.

A suspicion I have is since the strings are 'centered' on the body, so was the soundhole (they were putting them there in the 1600s and filling them with decorations thereby blocking sound if this is the source of the sound). Early builders understood that sound didn't just come from the port on the face.