While researching acoustic bass guitar body shapes (particularly those with offset sound holes) I made two unexpected discoveries.
I expected the bodies to be symmetrical, with the obviour extension of the cutaway.
The first asymmetrical exception was the Warwick Rockbass Alien, in which the "horn" of the cutaway extends downward. In the first images a flipped image is superimposed over the original, showing what I mean.
The second example was the Tacoma Thunderchief. The asymmetry here was more subtle, but also more bizarre. The second images is less clear, but confirms that
(a) there is no way to "line up" a flipped image of the original - the body is too asymmetrical
(b) the closest match is if the flipped image is rotated by 1 degree couter-clockwise. This implies that the axis of symmetry (for what it is worth) is NOT the string-midline.
I expected the bodies to be symmetrical, with the obviour extension of the cutaway.
The first asymmetrical exception was the Warwick Rockbass Alien, in which the "horn" of the cutaway extends downward. In the first images a flipped image is superimposed over the original, showing what I mean.
The second example was the Tacoma Thunderchief. The asymmetry here was more subtle, but also more bizarre. The second images is less clear, but confirms that
(a) there is no way to "line up" a flipped image of the original - the body is too asymmetrical
(b) the closest match is if the flipped image is rotated by 1 degree couter-clockwise. This implies that the axis of symmetry (for what it is worth) is NOT the string-midline.
