Let's Cut Holes in a Guitar

One of my new favorite things related to guitars is sound ports. A sound port is a small(ish) hole cut in the top side of the guitar which allows the sound to project up to the ears of the guitarist. On a typical acoustic guitar, the richest sound is projected out from the front of the guitar from the sound hole. This means that the guitarist never really hears what the guitar actually sounds like.

A sound port is a fairly simple modification that can add a little volume to the guitar and completely change the experience of the person playing the guitar. But, you have to cut a hole in your guitar.

As I am pulling stuff together for my guitar build, I thought this little project would be fun to do and try out my new work table. This is not a project that I would recommend for someone's first guitar mod. Although it is fairly easy to do, it does take a little know-how and patience to keep the guitar looking good. I have cut a sound port in one of my guitars with a hand drill and a hole saw. Although it turned out OK, there are better ways to get a more desirable look.

For this one, I wanted to put an oval sound port in my Ibanez parlor. I love this guitar and I knew a sound port would allow me to hear more of the guitar's sweet tone.

First, I designed the oval that I wanted in Adobe Illustrator (there all kinds of free drawing and illustration apps available now) and printed it out on a regular piece of paper. I then taped this template to the top side of the guitar. I should have marked the center line on the guitar side and also put horizontal and vertical center lines on the oval template to line it up better. I just "eyeballed" it.

Next, I got out the handy-dandy Dremel. Although there are different bits you could use for this, I chose the multi-purpose, spiral cutter. The spiral cut bits like to jump and skip if you try to remove too much material too quickly. A wrong move or just a half-second of distraction can be disastrous so you should really practice with this thing first. I should have used the cutting guide attachment, but didn't think of it till I was almost done.

I started about a 1/2 inch below the inside template line, then just cut out the inside of the template giving me plenty of room to sand the hole down to its final shape. Next I put the sanding bit on the Dremel and worked the edge smooth back to the template.

As you can see I have stuffed shop towels into the body behind the hole to keep all the saw dust from falling into the body.

I then hand sanded with a piece of 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a wooden dowel to finish up and get everything smooth.

At this point, you could stain the natural wood that is showing to match the back or you can leave it natural. I decided to leave it natural since it matches the binding on the guitar and gives a nice looking contrast. I sealed the bare wood by carefully applying a couple of light coats of Tru-Oil.

The port on this guitar gave me a little more volume and really brought the bass up. I loved this guitar to begin with but the sound port really added to the joy of playing it.

I think I will cut one in my nylon string classical next.