Sound ports - My experiences

ToneControl

Well this has been a long time coming

I bought a classical with a sound port, very impressive, slightly boomy.


The extra hole lets some sound come up to your ears instead of all being fired out to the audience or the empty room

I tried an acoustic with one, also impressed.
I tried a small body with a large one made by an English luthier, impressive but it was a large hole and very boomy at some frequencies

ToneControl

Next I got Avalon to put a smaller port (oval shaped) into my Avalon A1-20
It did everything I wanted

Then my next guitar was custom-made by Avalon with a decorated soundport - a Triquetra:



This also sounded exactly the way I wanted

ToneControl

In a bold move, I decided to send all my Avalons to be ported

I had a delivery yesterday:

ToneControl

ToneControl

ToneControl

ToneControl

brucegill

They’ve done a lovely job! Hope your enjoying them all. 

mgaw

does it change the original sound?  

Revolting1

@ToneControl ;

Brave indeed,

Have you noticed any change in tone , projection  or volume from front soundhole in the ones modified?

Are you happy with them?

ToneControl

mgaw said:

does it change the original sound?  

not as far as I can tell, we've had a few people check. Previous posts on other forums say it leaves the sound out front unchanged, or slightly improves it

ToneControl

Revolting1 said:

@ToneControl ;

Brave indeed,

Have you noticed any change in tone , projection  or volume from front soundhole in the ones modified?

Are you happy with them?

no difference out front AFAIK

they sound way better as the player playing them
Unlike any other mod, you can do repeated A/B tests by putting something over the hole for a minute or two

ToneControl

brucegill said:

They’ve done a lovely job! Hope your enjoying them all. 

all great, very happy with this mod

mgaw

you like Avalon guitars then

ToneControl

mgaw said:

you like Avalon guitars then

yep
Boutique guitars, made in the UK and sold for much less than other brands at the same quality level

ToneControl

I'm really glad I made this decision, these guitars all sound so much better to me when I'm playing them now

DulcetJones

ToneControl said:

they sound way better as the player playing them

Whoa, I've been looking for something like that for a long time......,  but seriously, they look great.

ICBM

Excellent solution for all those electro-acoustics with obsolete preamps that can't be repaired or replaced when they die...



Seriously, it looks like they've done a very nice job of them. I'm still a little concerned by the lack of binding or other protection for the exposed edges of the hole, but time will tell (and most likely prove me wrong...).

And I really would consider it as a possibility for both fixing and potentially improving an old electro with a dead preamp.

ToneControl

ICBM said:

Excellent solution for all those electro-acoustics with obsolete preamps that can't be repaired or replaced when they die...



Seriously, it looks like they've done a very nice job of them. I'm still a little concerned by the lack of binding or other protection for the exposed edges of the hole, but time will tell (and most likely prove me wrong...).

And I really would consider it as a possibility for both fixing and potentially improving an old electro with a dead preamp.

the first photo is of a classical from Yulong Guo, Originally made with no other binding on the hole, he's been making these for years, and it's a pricey model, that's real marquetry around the sound hole, so he obviously was not short of time.

Avalon initially had the same concern, but went with the plain approach in the end for the conversions.

The new custom Avalon allowed me to get one made with the full-on approach

hollywoodrox

Felixstowe is pretty sound , Grimsby is interesting but full of psychopaths . Liverpool is really sound 

GTC

I've got one in my custom Brook Taw and agree it does provide an additional sound dimension for the player. Not so great that I would consider retrofitting other guitars though.