I don't expect the tone to be any different, to be honest, . I've heard that a more solid or heavier tailpiece give you more sustain, but the sustain on my Eastman with the stamped tailpiece is great already. The only tone change I'd expect, if I'm being honest, would be negative simply from my error.
As for forging it, The forging would probably honestly just be the major bends and any engraving I felt like doing. I might could make a chisel for scooping out metal to be used for the hooks to put the strings on but that may be beyond my skill. A pretty copper wire inlay might look nice, but that is definitely beyond my skill at the moment. I think that a hammered finish with maybe a simple pattern or engraving would look the best because it would capture the "forged" nature of it while looking good and not being super hard to pull off!
Bookmarks