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I bent a set of Macassar ebony sides for an OM with a Venetian cutaway. Bent beautifully. Installed side braces, neck block, and tail block and realized . . . . Doh! The cutaway is on the left looking at the topside of the rims, which means it's left-handed. This was not meant to be a left-handed guitar.

Now, the simplest fix would be to remove the neck block and flip it over, making the existing back into the new top and vice-versa. Instant right-handed guitar. However, the sides have already been rough-profiled per the plans, so the wrong edge of the sides has a bottom profile in it. I'll have to flatten the old bottom profile and add that profile to the other edge. Make sense?

Now, for the question: am I going to lose too much depth? My math says I'm OK, but I haven't done this before. Here's how I figure it. Currently, I am about 4-1/2 inches at the tail block and 4-1/4 inches at the neck block, which gives me a little room to work with. I can flatten the existing back profile without touching the tail or neck --- basically I can just flatten out the middle. On the other surface, though, adding a new back profile will be a bit touchy. I figure I can remove about 1/4" at the tail block and another 1/4" at the neck to create a radius, and still leave myself 4-1/4" deep at the tail and 4" deep at the neck. Am I missing something?

The other alternative is to remove all the braces and blocks and re-bend the sides, but that's quite a bit of work if I can avoid it.

Kelby,
You should be fine. You can reshape it as well as you can for the appropriate radius corrections, then install your kerfing proud to make up for the difference to maintain your depth.
You'll have to take that material off of the sides anyway when you bind it. I was able to make up for almost a full centimeter with this method on my OM. It worked out very well.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Not you, me.      First, I make the sides backwards, then I don't even think about the fact that I can raise the lining above the sides to give myself more depth if necessary. In hindsight, it seems obvious, but since I didn't see it in the first place, you get credit for a genius solution!

That heart-sinking feeling of "oh my god, what have I done?" can block out even obvious solutions sometimes. I think it does, anyway...I mean, its never happened to me, of course .
Good luck.
-j.

_________________
“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

make a wedge guitar....

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Reminds me of the time I glued a heel block on top of a neck....realised something was wrong before the glue set luckily.