One of the steps we are taking in transforming this guitar is lightening up the back to make it more active which will add more responsiveness. This increased flexibility in the back will lower the body resonance to add more depth. This is especially helpful for a player that, like me, picks with the flesh of his fingers. I'll be doing this by lowering the back braces a bit.
On another note, as fortune would have it I was recently at an antique shop and, of course, I checked to see if they had any woodworking tools (I call these rescue tools). They had a beautiful German made 3/4” chisel that was fashioned from a single piece of very nice stainless steel. I snapped it up and it took a wonderful edge.
An unusual feature is the blade is bent up a bit toward the cutting edge. Doing a little research I found that it was made as a medical tool. A “bone riser” for shaping bone.
Now I have to say I’d rather be behind it than under it!
In any case, the bend makes sense because I imagine this “shaping” would be done going down into an incision. Not terribly unlike my wanting to get down into the back braces of this guitar that has it’s sides attached.
