Graham Greenbag
Well-known member
I had the chance to buy a good Uke with a sound hole in the upper bout but decided not to and to stay with the traditional style instead. The number of Ukes for sale with these player facing sound holes seems, to me, to be increasing. Is it just a fad or is, as I suspect is the case, there some value in having a top port. Perhaps it’s one of these things that’s good for some situations and less so others?
My UAS is under control at the moment (though I have positive thoughts about a couple of Sopranos and then there’s that nice Concert .......) so mine is just more of a general question than anything else. I do have a cheap Uke I could add a sound hole though to (????????) so maybe it’s not a completely academic question.
What do people think. Are sound ports a fad or a function?
My thanks to everyone who has supported this thread by adding their comments to it or even just reading it, the response has been absolutely fantastic.
It seems to me that the overwhelming body of opinion is that sound ports are much more of a useful functional feature than a fad so that has answered my initial question, thank you all. A few folk have reservations about them and particularly their appearance; to me that’s very understandable in that we get used to the way things normally look and anything new or different fails the common appearance test (if it looks right then it is, or it’s at least near enough correct). My own impression of them was something similar: they don’t look right but (questioning traditional build and traditional use) maybe they do help you hear yourself in group playing situations and maybe they do direct the sound more usefullly when playing for your own ears only rather than those of a group of listeners.
To my mind the overwhelmingly positive comments give rise to a couple of further questions:
- Is it best to place the sound hole on the top point (?) of the upper or the lower bout ?
- What size (diameter) relationship(s) between the main sound hole and the side sound port work best / work well / are usual?
With regard to the above two questions what do folk think / observe / use / build ????
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