Aah, back to the list: sorry folks! I've been looking for an excuse to add an extra shiny brass stop button, here's the newest candidate : a slideable rose cover-upper...blind tests galore coming up ; ) Truly though I have been wishing to be able to give a scientifically and aurally correct answer to the punters for years to their sempiternel Q: 'whats the hole for and why does it have bits of lace stuck in it?'' sic 
I tell them... wait for it..."its of no big importance given the other apertures possible such as belly rail gap, (and I thank you for the explanations given here) and that it is mostlydue to a continuation of an esthetique, (pretty much unchangeable by a mere journeyman woodworker given the conservative penchants of art,) this esthetique being the pre-existing lute and rennaissance guitars where, if I correctly recall the speech of makers of these, have a function: ie the very little apertures left in the parchment somehow 'filter'  the basses and thus balance the sound in favour of those hard to get clear bright ringing trebles on relatively low tension gut string instruments. Just a relic then, first (?) altered by Ruckers and his lead roses. And just as my tabor needs a small hole in the side:  for if there was no hole at all, then a possible airtight cavity, - that is until the bottom boards crack - would restrain piston like motion of the s/b by not allowing ingres/egress of air to equalize interior pressure. Go on; have a laugh...

Thomas Murach

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