i recently made a mistake building the top for an acoustic

[FRANK]

and I pushed the sound hole to far forward towards the neck joint, and said well ill glue it and try a different approach .What do you think about octave mandolins? has any one ever made this mistake and just went with it and continued there project ?

[FRANK]

so here is my delima i moved the hole up quite a bit what is the prognosis here i dont know i just made a mistake but will it be a good mistake can i turn this into a mandolin or strange 1 of a kind instrument any good ideas

[Tim Mace]

Steel strings I guess? I'd go with it so long as the fretboard/neckblock aren't a prob.Stephan Sobell made a guitzouk for Andy Irvine .Guitar body,8 strings,fixed bridge. Check it out on his site(Stephan).Great visuals & ideas. Or..........make another top.I'd prefer an Oval hole though for the mando.I'm sure mo'better suggestions will pop up!

[Rory]

I've been shifting soundholes around a lot to make things work for larger body tenor guitars, guitar body octave mandos & bouzoukis with shorter scales than a 6 string guitar. They've all worked out great. I'm sure someone will poo-poo on this, but I personally dont think there is any real magic in the soundhole location. Within reason, I think it can be shifted without any negative effect on tone, strength,etc.
If you knock the first fret off a standard 25.4" fretboard, you get about a 24" scale, which works nice for short bouzouki and long octave mando scale. If its really shifted forward, knock off another fret.
Attached a pic of a dreadnought body with 24" scale. On this one, the top of the soundhole is only about 3 1/4" from the upper bout. Also, If the geometry gets thrown off for a pin bridge, you can switch to a floating bridge/tailpiece config for more flexibility. I've done flat tops with floating bridge & the resultant tone is quite nice.
Rory

[FRANK]

well hellow there rory I realy do appreciate all you said cheers PHB have a pleasant afternoon