Doug has been urged to charge as much as $100 for his f-hole plugs, but he's a stand-up guy who doesn't want to gouge folks.  Every set is made by hand, and because every guitar's f-holes are slightly different, he does warn that  some hand-fitting is needed.  The material is very, very easy to handle, though, and an emory board is all that you need.

Doug has created a genuinely helpful and effective product, which he wants to price reasonably so we can all have it. Why spend, in some cases,thousands on an archtop and then ram packing foam in the f-holes?"

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"Not long ago, Lawson Stone introduced me (via email) to a gentleman in Kentucky by the name of Doug Turner who has come up with a very elegant and effective design for f-hole plugs/covers.  If anyone seeks to suppress feedback of their archtop, read on.

I made a tracing of my f-holes and sent it off to Doug and a few weeks later  a featherweight box came to my doorstep.  It took me just about an hour to sand and file with an emory board to do the final fitting and to get  those puppies to set right in there.  The floating pickup and pickguard was a little challenging, but what I did was to cut off the last quarter of the lower cover and notch out the tip for the wire to pass through.  I put this quarter of a cover in and then re-installed the pickguard right back over  it.  The pots snug up against the cover- a perfect fit, and with the covers not installed, that quarter of a cover is not even visible.

Very cool, from five feet away you are hard pressed to discern that they are even there.  I asked my drummer and bassist to look at my guitar and tell me if they could see anything different.  First they said new tailpiece? new pickup?  And finally, OH!!!  They are nearly invisible!

These things do an amazing job- 1000% better than balloons or other foam stuffing I've tried.  I think the secret is that they make an airtight seal which prevents the room sound from getting inside the guitar in the first place.  So, you wind up with the equivalent of a soundhole-less instrument, and man, it sure works!

There are still a couple of minor hot spots, but these only show up when really cranking much louder than I think I'll need to go, ever.  And these can still be controlled with muting just as I was controlling the feedback before, but now it's so much easier.  The best part is with more volume headroom, I can use a darker tone with no problem and I don't have to pick as hard to cut through- so the dynamic range is much improved as well."

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"Recently I've been subbing for a buddy of mine who plays guitar in a classic Chicago blues band.  Unfortunately, my trusty Stratocaster was in the shop getting a fret job, so I ended up having to use my DeVoe archtop (admittedly a nice problem to have).  While this guitar is a players dream, it is a seven string carved top and is prone to feedback at very high volumes.  Due to the Cramped rehearsal space I found myself playing FACING the drums, a bass rig, and two massive Marshall amps.  I was also flanked by a harmonica player going through an amp with a 4 x 10 cabinet, a keyboard player, and a vocalist.  This is one LOUD band - loud enough that the singer had to be careful positioning her mic as it kept feeding back all evening if she turned one way or another.  I was pretty much resigned to the fact that feedback from my guitar was inevitable.  However after popping in the Doug's Plugs and cranking my amp, I had no feedback whatsoever.  NONE.  For kicks I even used the low "A" (seventh string) usually a surefire way to produce feedback at ear-bleed volumes.  Again, no feedback.  I've used the plugs before in a setting with a loud band and the plugs worked flawlessly.  But standing face to face with a loud drummer, bass rig, and two Marshalls in the cramped quarters of a rehearsal space?  I thought they would limit the feedback, not eliminate it completely!  Thanks again for your product.  It really saved the day for me!"

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Note: Upright bass plugs are $75/pair because they require more materials and take longer to make.  Please contact Doug for more information.  Thanks!

I can't recommend Doug highly enough -- if his plugs can do this for a huge upright bass,  I can only imagine how well they work with the relatively smaller and narrow-bodied archtop guitar.