How does soundhole size affects tone? PTII

[Fernando Esteves]

Hello!
I was searching in the archives about soundhole size and found this nice thread:
https://www.mimf.com/library/How_Does_S ... -2007.html

But I've a question that is not answered there (a stupid one, for sure):
How much can I change the size of the soundhole with no change on the tone/sound?

OR how much it need to be changed to start making difference?

[Alan Carruth]

That depends on how sensitive/critical you are. It's easy to make the hole smaller, and a few experiments along those lines can go a long way toward giving you a feel for this.

Get some foam core poster board and cut a circle out of it that will just fit the sound hole of any guitar you have. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it you can get a friction fit that saves you from having to tape it in. Cut a larger circle of card stock a bit bigger and glue that to the foam board circle; this keeps it from falling in, and trim it to go around the fingerboard. Now cut a hole on the insert, and stick it into the guitar. It's easy to make a whole family of these with holes ranging from just a little smaller than the original to nearly nothing, and check out the effect. Bigger holes have the opposite effect. Have fun.