More tuning and a fixture

I pulled the back off my tuning fixture and checked out the free plate modes. No it's not blasphemy to my tuning philosophy. I'm just trying to figure out how stiff the plate are supposed to be. As a self taught maker I don't have a teacher to tell me when the plate is too stiff, or when it is too flimsy. According to the generally accepted method of measuring plate stiffness, avg. of mode 2 and mode5 squared, times the weight, my back is right in the ballpark now. It feels much stiffer than any other back I've made. My teacher didn't stop me soon enough before! We'll see what kind of difference this makes.

I made up the board I plan to use as a tuning fixture, a bass bar gluing fixture, and a neck alignment/set up fixture. It has a centerline drawn on it for lining up the neck, from the heel to the scroll. The neck inside view can be set using the top of the board as a reference. The step is easily measured off the belly, the nut position should end up even with the bottom on the belly plate, and the eye of the scroll should be even with the top of the board. Now that I said this, I hope I'm right!