On the top: the deformation happens pretty much around the sound hole mostly on the left hand side (looking from the front), but also on the lower side. It looks sort of like a swimming pool where the sound hole is the lowest point. I read articles about bracing and it seemed the biggest area to worry about was on top of the sound hole. There is only an inch or so between the sound hole and the wood I left for the neck pocket, I am getting zero deflection there. It's really strange where the deformation is happening as the bridge is sitting almost on top of the cross in the bridging, so this deformation appears to be twisting the bracing, which doesn't seem possible. Perhaps I should have left it full sized instead of scalloping and thinning it so aggressively. I tried it out with all four strings before I glued it up and I saw no movement, I thought I had it more than covered.
I had to detension the strings as it seemed every time I picked it up all four were off by a half tone - it wasn't just string stretching, it was top deforming causing it to go flat. Not good.
Last night I was looking at it and I thought of the easiest (though probably sonically worst) solution - just put a short piece of wood between the top and the back of the bass. I figured I can't really play it plugged in until I get my buffer made or the preamp comes in, so with this in place at least I could play it acoustically. I cut a piece of bracing that's just exactly the right size and put it in last night, it's just resting in there, no glue.
As expected it pretty much stopped the top from deflecting. I don't notice a big change to the sound acoustically, again this instrument is not that loud when not plugged in, it's louder than an electric bass, but not much louder. I figured I pretty much killed the vibration on the top and therefore I didn't expect anything to be coming out of the K&K system. I plugged it in to confirm that - it actually sounds more like an acoustic instrument when it's plugged in! I don't notice any difference in the volume it produces through the amp, but the tone is entirely different and better. It kind of sounds like I turned off the neck pickup, mwah is much improved.
I know in violins they have a sound post that they use to tune the sound, I guess that's kind of what this is. I need to move it back just a bit so it's not as visible from the front, but unless I see something else go wrong here, I think this is how I will solve my top problem. There is still a slight bit of deformation right in front of the bridge, but even that small amount should be reduced when I move the post back a bit.
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