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Judging by the response, this is something Rob should look into. Maybe an optional arch for the body to bring it closer to the strings or something similar. I suspect that with the modern design of neck, joining to the body etc puts the fretboard up that much higher. But another factor would be incorporating the present day monorail bridges to accommodate the height difference as well...... Probably a lot more engineering and development required than it seems initially. Making the whole body thicker would create balance and weight issues. If you think about it, unless you just slap on a slab of something (which would probably look like shit), its a complete redesign.