The assertion that these carvings are about tone is absurd. This is simply decoration masquerading as lutherie. You've got a bunch of Balinese who have bas relief carving as a craft heritage, and they're carving spruce tops. It's not about anything other than a visual marketing hook. It it were about tone, you'd see consistency and you'd not see representational "art".
All that such carving can to is to reduce the stiffness without reducing equivalent mass by the same percentage; this is simple physics. That carving will, in most cases, reduce the resonant frequencies of the top modes without helping strength in the least. Let's see what happens to these guitars over five or ten years. They better have a two year warranty...
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Rick Turner
Luthier
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