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Sound holes or not sound holes in a electric cbg?

This is my first dog bowl guitar and I plugged it in. In this cbg Good idea or not I used a springs around the bowl and on the bottom spacer I hollowed that out and stuck on spring, My question is, if your making a electric cbg, should it have sound holes, just asking respectfully…..Show you some pictures of my first dog bowl which I need to a strap buttons and bring down some strings on the nut end and burn dot markers, it’s bad…your bad….stay cool…

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on September 4, 2022 at 6:06pm

Hi, Nice looking CBG Howard. If you are not using the guitar acoustically you can go without soundholes.

If using a magnetic pickup they sense the vibrations of the strings, so the body can be solid, or hollow with no soundholes, you will get good output.
If using a piezo transducer, meant to amplify acoustic sound, they react to the timber vibration, or whatever they are attached to. They will also work in a body with no soundholes.

However, if a good acoustic-only sound is sought then soundholes release the soundwaves and other frequencies that would be trapped in the body.
Hope this helps.
Taff

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Permalink Reply by Howard Craypool on September 5, 2022 at 5:15am

Thank you Taffy Evans for your comments, do you think on a dog bowl with a piezo pick up under the bowl, sound holes are needed, just asking respectfully, thanks

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Permalink Reply by Howard Craypool on September 6, 2022 at 3:34am

Thank you Taffy Evans for your response. On my first cbg, I put black window screen to cover my sound holes, but later removed it thinking it would restrict some sound, on this cbg, I covered the holes with metal, but have a piezo pick up under the bowl, sounds good when plugged in. Thank for your response…

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on September 5, 2022 at 1:19pm

Hi, I understand that 30% of the sound we hear comes from out of the sound hole. If playing acoustically, unplugged, with no soundhole you are potentially missing 30% of the sound that is generated by the strings.

That's assuming that the box or guitar is constructed in a way that produces a decent acoustic sound to start with.

A piezo pickup's output, when used, would override any natural acoustic sound from the instrument's soundholes, so I feel soundholes in that case are not needed.

Soundholes in instruments are a big subject, far more involved than the simple instruments we focus on here. The best way to learn, I think, is to try it for yourself as we all build differently and get different results. So what I suggest for my builds may not work for you.
Good luck Taff