Genesis of the term "F-hole".....

[nnickusa]

It was always my assumption that there was some musical basis for the term F-hole.

However, after much time, effort, dilligence and patient mangling, deforming and otherwise destroying the better part of 36 inches of otherwise offence-less BWB purfs in order to bind a simple F-HOLE, I have discovered that the real meaning of the term is linguistically dervied, in that there was a profusion of the use of the F-WORD during this rather unseemly process.

I tip my hat to those of you who pursue and excel at this process, however, I feel and am unanimous in this, that any and all future Holy Guitars that mayor may not be produced by me will feature an UNBOUND F'N-HOLE, which will be described as an acoustically superior method to create a guitar that will rock the ages......

My poor effort, without any refinement, tho I do have some textas to fix it up later....currently and justifiably swathed in the tape, which replicated the bandages that would have been applied to a human being in similar straits.....

[Mike Thomas]

Nick, I am sure that your dog is perfectly confident in your ability to bind an "f" hole.

[Nick]

Glad you persevered Nick. Binding of any "fiddly" shapes is an exercise in patience and I've hiffed more that one piece of purf in the bin. Perfectly invisible mitre at one end then I trim a fraction too much off of the other end and end up with a gap
All I can say is a sharp chisel makes the frustration level a little less, the chisel I have is only used for this task, nothing else. Oh and polish the back of the chisel and it will reflect the purf or binding so that you can 'see' the correct angle and mock joint. If you are doing a 90 degree joint then when the chisel is at 45 degress the reflection will look like you've formed the 90 degree angle.

[nnickusa]

Cheers, Nick....

I undid the bandages this morning, and it actually looks better than I thought it might, or had any right to expect. Enough so, that I'm in the process of binding the access panel on the back....

At least that's the plan....we'll see. I do have one tiny gap, that I ought to be able to fill.....

Oh, and Mike, my dog just wants food. But, boy does she love it when I rock up home of a night

[rocket]

IMG_0556.JPG (82 KiB) Viewed 6896 times

Hey Nick,, the material you use to bind the "F" hole has a lot to do with the frustration level, the plastic binding from Stumc is usually pretty pliable but timber binding is what gets the F's really flying but persistence usually pays off, here's one i prepared earlier using maple veneer.

Rod.

[Crafty Fox]

I've only done it once, on a Thinline Tele. I shaped the plastic with a heat gun and every time I got one end right I worked on the other end only to see the first end straighten itself out again.
It was a fight to the death but I won eventually and I'm pleased with it. I'll use timber binding next time and bend it on the iron.

[nnickusa]

Rod, my work and yours are two completely unrelated prospects. Here's mine.

You can see a gap or two, even with the simpler shape, but it'll work out well enough. Timber purfs, too....I've got some plastic, but can hardly keep a hold of it, much less do anything with it.....I'll keep trying until i get better. There is, after all, a first time for everything..

[P Bill]

After 35 years of doing tricky bits of woodwork, binding ff's on my first archie was one of the trickiest. After a few false starts using commercial BWB, I made up my own. It takes 4 pieces to do a trad ff, I made up 4 outside moulds and laminated. Quick and easy, still had to mitre with a chisel though.