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Does box ornamentation effect resonance?

Hi guys,

I'm starting a new build, and was thinking of going to town and add brass corners and grommets. The question I have is, does the clutter glued, screwed or bolted to the lid of a box cause a noticeable change in the box's volume?

Also, I get the idea of a sound hole allowing the sound to escape from the box, but any cutting to the box's lid would cause the quality of the resonance to dip. Is there an optimum sound hole size to get the best of both worlds?

(I've added a photo of the box I'll be using, just for a point of reference.)

Cheers

Hedley

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Permalink Reply by Thomas "Duck" Petry on August 23, 2012 at 3:00am

I'm not an engineer, basically an old school garage hotrodder who worked in machine shops and as an aircraft mechanic restoring old "stick and tissue" birds for the last 20 plus years of my working life.

This stuff is a fun hobby for my retirement years and I agree with the Zen concept. I try to build each box differently and let the personality come out in the process, adding whatever artistic touches my warped mind discovers along the way. They all sound different and that's part of what makes them fun. Maybe someday I'll be able to pick well, but for now I have friends who can so I can hear the potential.

"The guitar plays. I just get the chance to hold the tools and allow it to take shape." I think you have summed up the process pretty well Ed.

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on August 22, 2012 at 6:48pm

http://clas.mq.edu.au/acoustics/frequency/resonance.html

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on August 22, 2012 at 6:54pm

Gas filled CBG's ........Cool idea!!!!!!

"The sole practical exception to this is heliox (oxygen/helium mixtures) used by deep sea divers. Heliox mixtures significantly change the speed of sound relative to normal air. Heliox causes an increase in the speed of sound which results in an increase in resonance frequencies for given resonance wavelengths (equivalent to effect of increasing string tension or reducing string mass for string vibration). Click here to hear a sample of diver's speech under the influence of heliox."

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on August 22, 2012 at 7:07pm

http://www.classicalguitars.ca/resonances.htm

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on August 22, 2012 at 7:09pm

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on August 22, 2012 at 7:21pm

Double top!!!....You will like this idea:

http://www.classicalguitars.ca/doubletops.htm

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on August 22, 2012 at 7:24pm

"Construction of a double-top involves two thin "skins" of wood separated by a core of an aerospace material called "honeycomb". Honeycomb is well-named, with a hexagonal cell structure that in thicker cross sections looks very like the honeycomb in a beehive. Density is very low, since there is considerably more open space than cell wall, and just like in a beehive, the hexagonal structure is very strong.

As for the skins, to date I have used spruce, cedar, and
redwood. All work extremely well, as do combinations of two species, one
for the inner skin and another for the outer. Typically I use cedar for the
inner skin because of its light weight, and I've achieved particularly fine
results with either spruce or redwood as the outer surface of the guitar.
Interestingly, in these combination double-tops, it is the species of wood of
the outer skin that appears to determine much of the character of the sound we
hear. Spruce outer skins give the separation,clarity, and bell-like quality we
usually associate with spruce guitars, while redwood outer skins give the
warmer, darker, more romantic sound traditionally associated with cedar tops"

Clever Bloke that Fritz Meuler