www.KitGuitarsForum.com

Okay, ready? Here comes my dumb question....

How do you find the center of your sound hole on
your newly joined soundboard? Is there an easy way
to do this on a dread every time?

Yes easy
I use the fretboard , after all you may use 18 to 20 frets . Then what I like is about 1/8 inch below the fretboard to be the top of the sound hole . Diameter of the hole divide by 2 .
If you are using martin design the center of a l dred hole is 5 7/8 to 6 inched from the neck join.
Hope this helps

tippie53 wrote:Yes easy
I use the fretboard , after all you may use 18 to 20 frets . Then what I like is about 1/8 inch below the fretboard to be the top of the sound hole . Diameter of the hole divide by 2 .
If you are using martin design the center of a l dred hole is 5 7/8 to 6 inched from the neck join.
Hope this helps

Hi John,

I should have been more specific. I'm going to be joining my top and
then I thought I should find the sound hole center and do the rosette?
So, I'm nowhere near the neck or fretboard yet...

Thanks, Mark

Do you draw a profile on you top to start? Like below. I'm getting ready to install the rosette later today, it will have a 5mm abalone ring with a 1.2 mm b/w/b purfling line on the inside and outside. The very inner ring is the sound hole, the next two rings are the area to be routed for the rosette. In the one pick it looks a little lopsided by it isn't, it's just the angle I took the pic. You can locate you profile in a number of ways. I just pic where i think everything will look good. If you don't have a profile you can use your mold to draw it in and then use the FB blank like John said. The 14th fret is at the body join.

Ben-Had wrote:Do you draw a profile on you top to start? Like below. I'm getting ready to install the rosette later today, it will have a 5mm abalone ring with a 1.2 mm b/w/b purfling line on the inside and outside. The very inner ring is the sound hole, the next two rings are the area to be routed for the rosette. In the one pick it looks a little lopsided by it isn't, it's just the angle I took the pic. You can locate you profile in a number of ways. I just pic where i think everything will look good. If you don't have a profile you can use your mold to draw it in and then use the FB blank like John said. The 14th fret is at the body join.

Thanks, Tim

So, you can just eyeball it? There's no standard measurement? Can I use the
pre-war bracing "map" that Blues Creek offers for bracing pattern and just pencil
in the middle point?

Thanks, Mark

Well, I wouldn't say you can just eyeball the sound hole location or the profile. When I'm deciding where I want my profile the neck and tail blocks need to be centered with the center line of the two top halves, from there I decide up or down that line where I like it best. Then the sound hole needs to be centered on that center line also and a proper distance from the fret board end and the proper diameter.

No eyeball I like Ben Hads post
here is a basic procedure

You start with the fretboard , At least scale length. Then you need to know 12 fret or 14 fret body.
Like BenHad make a rough tracing and allow for fudge room. So a few questions
A what scale length
B what back shape
C how many frets
D sound hole diam

with this information you can plot the center

Once you know the position of the fretboard on the body by the fret designation , you know where the end of your fretboard should be. If you are used a 19 of 20 fret neck you can figure out that . Then I like to allow about 1/8 in from the end of fretboard to the top of the sound hole , so you divide the diameter by 2 and add that to the end of the fret board and add 1/8 inch.
The more room you allow on the top before trimming the more fudge room you have. In most cases a standard 14 fret body with 20 frets you should be about 6 in for the 25.4 scale and 5 13/16 for a 24.9 scale.

tippie53 wrote:No eyeball I like Ben Hads post
here is a basic procedure

You start with the fretboard , At least scale length. Then you need to know 12 fret or 14 fret body.
Like BenHad make a rough tracing and allow for fudge room. So a few questions
A what scale length
B what back shape
C how many frets
D sound hole diam

with this information you can plot the center

Once you know the position of the fretboard on the body by the fret designation , you know where the end of your fretboard should be. If you are used a 19 of 20 fret neck you can figure out that . Then I like to allow about 1/8 in from the end of fretboard to the top of the sound hole , so you divide the diameter by 2 and add that to the end of the fret board and add 1/8 inch.
The more room you allow on the top before trimming the more fudge room you have. In most cases a standard 14 fret body with 20 frets you should be about 6 in for the 25.4 scale and 5 13/16 for a 24.9 scale.

The guitar is going to be 25.4 scale, 14 fret body with 20 frets. I'm trying to emulate the
2012 D18 as close as I can. Is there a standard diameter for sound holes?

Thank you John and Tim!

I think a Dreadnaught has a 4" soundhole.

Left to right, the sound hole is one the centerline. Traditionally, the upper quandrant of the soundhole is positioned on the location of the next fret. So if the neck joins the body at the 14th fret, and the fretboard has 19 frets, the upper quandrant of the soundhole would be positioned at the 20th fret. So using a 25.34" scale length, if you know the distance from the 14th fret to the 20th fret, add 2" (radius of the soundhole) and you know how far to measure down from the neck end of the upper bout and make a mark on the centerline. The intersection of this line and the centerlind is the center of the soundhole.

actually the sound hole ala Martin is 1/8 in off the end of the fretboard , the inner ring of the rosette is to just touch the fretboard.
use 5 15/16