Creating Your Own "Side Sound Port"?

Bill Sheehan

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Hello friends, I have a little Eddy Finn "Pnut" soprano uke that features a side sound port in addition to the regular soundhole. I really like the look and feel of this little guy, but I'm left-handed and I flip my ukes over basically upside-down to play, and consequently the sound coming out of the side port is heading straight to the floor, rather than toward my face. I can tell that the side port is producing a good amount of sound, but I'm missing out on it. I was wondering if anyone has had occasion to create a side port "from scratch" on any of their ukes, and if there are any pitfalls to watch out for along the way? Thanks!
 
Thank you, Bill1 !! I will let you know if I decide to take a whack at it, and if so, how it goes! Just one question: do I understand correctly, pursuant to your items 4 and 5, that one possibility is to not actually drill out the entire "master" hole, but rather to just have it consist of a grid of smaller holes?
 
Bills, I applaud your spirit to do-it-yourself. Just be aware that apart from irreparable damage you might do to the wood (cracking) or the finish (splintering), there may also be an impact on sound, as more holes or bigger holes will change the resonance/pitch of an instrument's body. To my knowledge, luthiers fine-tune their instruments to a specific pitch, and drilling additional holes would throw the whole thing off. But I guess with an inexpensive instrument, you can just experiment and see if you like the result. I remember one fellow here who drilled a side sound port shaped like a tiger's paw into his Kanile'a and was happy with the result.
 
You may want to add a piece inside around the hole with the grain going the opposite direction of the side wood grain. Making a hole without reinforcement may cause the side to crack.
 
Thanks for those additional thoughts, Rakelele and Patrick! My level of craftsmanship is not particularly high (as perhaps evidenced by my earlier use of the expression "take a whack at it"), although I have done a fair amount of drilling in the course of switching out tuning machines, installing internal pickups, and the like, so I at least understand the importance of moving slowly and carefully. The very elongated body of the Eddy Finn PNUT gives it a fairly thin sound to begin with, kinda reminiscent of a scratchy old record (in a good way), so I guess drilling out a little bit more of the side wood surface (the side facing me) might not make a terrible amount of difference in the overall sound, and it may be worth it if I'm able to hear what I'm playing a little better as a result. I'll give it some more thought and let you know...
 
Okay, here it is just a few hours later, and now I'm beginning to wonder if the better course of action would be simply to cover up the existing (wrong-way-facing) side sound port. Just experimenting with it a little, it's pretty clear that a LOT of sound is escaping thru it, and that if cover it up neatly, the uke then sounds about as loud (and nice) as any decent soprano with strictly a traditional sound hole. So, maybe I should be looking at "plugging" or covering the factory sideport instead of drilling out additional holes and possibly just making it sound "tinnier". Would anyone have any thoughts on how best to "clam up" that side port?
 
Bill, you may be able to fashion a plug from a piece of rubber, so it goes in easily and stays. I'm referring to the type that covers guitar soundholes when amplified.
I had my luthier make a soundhole in my old Kala, but it wasn't my only uke, and it only cost me 40 bucks, another 40 bucks to do the port, I had 80.00 in the uke.
Later I sold it for 80.00.
It had no problems, but a professional did it.
Of course, I'm lousy at woodworking. Sounds like you may be pretty good at it. 2 or 3 small holes would be less risky than one large hole.
 
Hi Bill, I've put a sound port in an Enya HPL uke. It turned out fine. If you want to know how I did it, let me know. I can't remember the technical name of the type of giant bits I got and I'm at work right now. I could send you them if you want, but I got a set of them at Harbor Freight for about $10 because the quality for a one-use tool wasn't that important.

As for covering up, duct tape? Card stock cut to fit and held in place with duct tape? You could insert the duct tape from the inside, and decorate your card stock then stick it on top. I'm going to be thinking about that, I bet there's a better idea.

Teri
 
I like that little hole setup idea. Maybe I'll try that on a cookie tin banjo uke.
 
Thank you, Nickie, Teri, and Captain for those additional thoughts! And for your offer of assistance, Teri, that is so nice! I'm more inclined, at least for the time being, to just see about fashioning a plug or cover for the existing side port-- perhaps something along the lines that Teri mentioned, as that might be the quickest temporary
fix-- and give it a week or two to see how I like using the uke with just the main "regular" sound hole being operative. A couple of photos are included here. I like the idea of duct-taping a patch in there from the inside, with the adhesive surface of the tape exposed to the outside, and then simply sticking a precisely-fitted piece of card stock (or some other material) onto the adhesive from the outside...
IMG_20190104_214048.jpgIMG_20190104_214210.jpg
 
I have put in a sound port and just left the holes and not bothered to cut out the whole shape and it seemed to work. To avoid splintering, you drill pilot holes with a smaller bit first. I think I used a 4mm pilot and an 8mm final bit. The wood is thin enough so that you can use a gimlet or hand drill or you can just wrap the bit in tape and twist it, that way you have a lot of control, a lot more than if you use a power tool.
We are only looking at an Eddie Finn Pnut in this thread, not an 80 year old Martin. I would not recommend drilling your 80 year old Martin.

Thanks for that clarification, Bill1 !! It sounds like the approach you describe may be effective-- like you'd end up with something in the nature of a "grille" effect rather than one larger hole. And yes, the context is worth noting, and I agree that, although we always want to proceed with caution, it's not going to be the end of the world if I should happen to goof something up on my Pnut !! Honestly, though, as set up by Mike at Uke Republic, this uke has a truly nice feel and good intonation. In any event, I'll reflect on all this and see where it all goes. For starters I'm going to try some Martin M-600 strings on it and just see what I think...
 
I've cut holes in a number of my ukes to install preamps. I mask the area, draw the pattern then use a Dremel with a metal cutting bit to cut out the main part of the wood not getting near the lines, then use a barrel sanding bit to precisely remove the wood to the marked lines. The wood of a uke is plenty sturdy to hold up to that.

Where the sound hole is and how many; I had a custom tenor uke made from a design the builder had with no top sound hole, but had small sound holes all the way around the bouts, plus a larger one on the side as usual. I had him put the larger hole in the cutaway with an insert. It sounds really good according to my ear and what other people have told me.

Spalted done montage.jpg



8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

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Wow Mike, that is excellent work! Thank you for those thoughts and photos! In the meantime, I have gotten crazy and created a single "mini" port that will be facing up toward my chin (recall that I play left-handed), using the largest "stepless" drill bit that I have (the kind that's sort of funnel-shaped and gradually enlarges the hole as you go further in). I put masking tape on the drilling area first, and fortunately there was no splintering on the outside; there was a little "raggediness" on the inside after the drilling was done, but I was able to get rid of that with a little sandpaper (a tight squeeze navigating it thru the main soundhole!). And while I was at it, I went ahead and replaced the stock tuners with a set of the classical-looking Kmise brand tuners that I had laying around; they turned out to be a perfect fit, although it was necessary to drill new screw holes. There's nothing like a tricked-out Pnut. I'm hoping that my Martin M-600 strings will arrive in today's mail, so I can get the little guy up and running again. Here's a couple of pics of what it looks like now...
IMG_20190105_125138.jpgIMG_20190105_132956.jpg
 
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Good job, nicely done.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video

Thanks, Mike! I know you have to be thinking, "This guy is all excited because he drilled a hole..." :D But it does indeed make a difference, although not a radical difference, in my ability to hear what I'm playing. And the amazing thing is that, with the addition of the M-600 strings (which arrived in today's mail), this little Eddy Finn P-nut has taken on a whole new personality and now sounds incredibly similar to..................................... a Kala pocket uke. Hahahahaha! Oh well, I'm actually kinda fond of the way the Kala pocket ukes sound, in their clinkity-clink sort of way; and the Eddy Finn really does have a nice feel and weight to the neck, and is intonating very precisely, so all things considered I'd say I'm very happy with this little guy, as now "modded". Sure appreciating everyone's thoughts and encouragement, as is always the case around here!
 
That turned out great, Bill. And it's adorable looking, too. Crafty projects are so fun. Stepped bit, that's what I was trying to think of. That's what I used, too. If the hole is too small to sand, you could use a Dremel tool, or wrap sandpaper around a pencil.
 
Thanks, Teri! Those are great sanding tips too, for future reference. As it happened, I rolled up a piece of sandpaper really tightly in to a "tubular" shape, then inserted it partially into the newly-cut hole while holding it tight, and when I eased up on my grip, it "expanded" so as to touch up against the inner circumference of the hole, and smoothed it nicely as I rotated it back and forth. I have to admit, with its thin, ricky-ticky sound, this uke isn't going to win any awards for tone, but it's great for practicing without having to worry about being too loud for the folks on the other side of the wall; and as you said, it is in fact pretty adorable.
 
Okay, two additional holes later, I think the P-NUT project is officially "Finn"-ished! With a total of three penny-sized holes, I can hear what I'm playing much better.
I have put a set of Aquila Nylguts on it to smooth out the tone a little, and with the Kmise classical-style tuners, it's all set! Suddenly this is the uke I'm grabbing every time I sit down to play. Not a "cannon" by any stretch (kind of a "treble machine", actually), but great to just sit down and flail away on! I can't emphasize enough how nice the neck feels, and how good the intonation is. Mic'd up, I think it could provide an interesting old-fashioned tone for a small-venue situation.
IMG_20190108_141009.jpgIMG_20190109_094821.jpg
 
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Cool mod Bill!

When you said "take a whack at it" I thought of this, my sound-letter-outer. Of course, the one I use for delicate work on ukes has a Genuine Koa handle, not Hickory. ;) I'm a real craftsman too.

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Hahahahaha! Thanks, John! That is a sweet Stanley! That handle should open up nicely as the years go by... :D
 
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