SD40R with off center soundhole...flaw or by design?

[swalmsle89]

Hi, i am curious if anyone knows if Larrivee soundholes are by design for some models off center from the centerline of the neck and body by design?  I have an SD40R which I picked up a couple years ago and only recently attempted to use a soundhole pickup to compleent my installed K&K pure mini, and only then noticed the off cetered-ness of the soundholE since any soundhole pickup would not install correctly or be able to center correctly.  Pictures show the bass string being 25.5mm from the sound hole, the treble string 21mm from the soundhole and the soundhole is off center relative to the body as well. The soundhole is 98mm (3 7/8") diameter.  I have been trying to test a soundhole pickup to overcome some nasty reverb I get on this guitar with the K&K in certain situations. Many thanks for input!

[fantex]

I have an SD-60. A quick measure and mine appears to be centered.

[B0WIE]

Measuring the strings is not a measure of the hole being centered. You'd want to run a string from the center of the nut to the bridge and measure the hole based off that. Also, if you want to measure the strings you need to measure at the core, not the outer edge of the string because they are not the same thickness.

If it is slightly off, I'd be surprised if it prevents a pickup from working correctly. The fields of pickup magnets aren't precise and, having done experiments with this, they really have to be far off to create an issue. A height adjustment typically overcomes a lateral discrepancy.

Hope that helps.

[swalmsle89]

Thanks for the input.   It is off center. The thickness difference in the strings is not enough to account for he lateral off centeredness (so this would add about 0.5mm  to the off centered ness).  Here is a picture of a straight line centered on the nut and bridge and the measurement from a mark to the sound hole edges is ~46mm and ~52mm.  The straight line test revealed another interesting problem....the end pin jack is not centered to the stringline between the nut and the bridge dead centers. If I straight line between a mark on the center of the neck at the nut and the bridge, I get the above measurement.  If I extend this string over the bottom to the endpin, and measure a straight line from the neck to the endpin, it is way off center  as well.  So this soundhole is definitely off center, albeit my measurments are not 100% accurate, they are good enough to tell.  I am curious if this is by design for this guitar (sd40, legacy) or not?  Regardless, a soundhole pickup will not stay on if I center the poles under the strings.. the poles are about 5 mm off center when the pickup is mounted center on the hole...there is not enough lateral forgiveness on the pickup for this, or any other pickup I have tried, to stay on when centering the poles. 

[B0WIE]

The bridge to neck relationship is the priority and, after the neck is set, the bridge is placed. The sound hole is centered with the top when the top is cut and braced but may not line up perfectly with the neck, depending what happens when the neck is set and the woods start to move as the build comes together. There isn't some direct effort to make the hole off center. Again, woods move and since the sound hole is always going to be close, it's not typically a big concern for a builder. At least, not enough to change the process. That said, I totally understand your confusion or possible frustration.

I don't think the alignment of the pickup will be an issue. Perfect alignment does not ensure a balanced tone and you can still have some strings come through stronger than others. If you feel that you need to adjust the balance between the bass and treble strings, rotate the pickup along the sound hole slightly to get the balance you are after. If those are hex pieces, you can also adjust them to help balance the sound.

If you do run into issues feel free to ask. Between rotation and pole piece adjustment, I don't personally think the hole alignment should be harming the sound quality at all. I've modified dozens of electrics and have found lateral pole piece alignment not to be nearly the concern one would expect. Especially not when you can adjust the pickups in other ways. The magnetic fields are very generous. That's why even Gibson admits it doesn't really matter if you use standard or Fender spaced pickups.

[Riverbend]

I wish I could say that I didn't bother checking my guitars after reading this...

[swalmsle89]

Thanks for your input! However given the soundhole being half a centimeter off axis and the end pin being over a centimeter off axis... That seems a bit too much for wood just moving a bit after assembly. Further looking into this it looks like the neck was attached off angle and off center at the block... I can't be 100% sure but will find out This is one of those things I never really checked when purchasing a guitar.. but only noticed after attempting to use a sound hole pickup on this guitar. All eight of my other acoustics dating back 50 years do not have this problem. They are all of various quality and build price, purchased used and new. This was purchased 'used' several years ago from a Larrivee dealer, so now I'm wondering if a B stock got slipped in under my nose?  For fun, I plan on having this guitar put through a computerized measuring device to get all the specs on it. I'll share it then ...it'll be fun.

[StringPicker6]

It could be B stock. Did you happen to get it from Dave's Guitars? They sell a lot of B stock. Perfectly good guitars, just something that made them less than perfect. 

[Pilgrim]

If a guitar is a factory B-Stock, I would expect it to be identified as such.

[swalmsle89]

I went back and looked at the original purchase, and yes it was Dave's and no it was not listed as B-stock. Listed as excellent condition.