The oval hole versus f hole archtops
Since about 1935 Gibson started to change the design of a few archtops models from round or oval sound hole to f holes.
F holes, that is what the buyer would have. Because the high end archtop guitars and the famous players used f hole archtops.
Maybe more important is the cutting power and punchy tone of the f hole archtop which makes it easy to be heard in an acoustical setting.
The picture shows a prewar Gibson L50 from 1935, one of the first L50’s with f holes instead of the round sound hole.
