Asymmetric board shapes reduce acoustical short-circuiting by unbalancing antinodal regions

Evidence

The short-circuiting problem is helped by asymmetry of the sounding board and its modes. Short-circuiting is worst if adjacent nodes and antinodes on the same side of the board are making exactly equal but opposite vibrations. If, however, one antinodal region can be tucked into a small space, and another made quite large with large amplitude, the short-circuit effect is diminished. This can be encouraged by choosing soundboards with asymmetrical shapes, such as found on a grand piano. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1179

Categorization

• XREF: Explains the functional reason behind the grand piano’s iconic asymmetric shape - connects to instrument design knowledge. — connects to: Cabinet shape and driver placement materially govern diffraction distortion
• QUESTION: Does this asymmetry principle also explain why some guitar body shapes (e.g., cutaways, offset basses) sound different?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1179