Archtop Guitar: A Dilemma

As I prepared to begin carving the top of this guitar I found myself facing a dilemma, mainly because I don't know whether I'll repeat the exercise. Ideally, for a project such as this one, I'd own a range of gouges and a convex-bottomed plane or two, but I questioned whether their purchase could be justified given that I can't be sure that the cost would be spread across more than one archtop instrument. Nevertheless, in a moment of weakness, and with the prospect of carving a back from a dense hardwood, I gave in to temptation and purchased a small convex-soled plane while resisting the urge to buy other desirable tools. Fortunately, I also own a couple of small gouges, so I'm not entirely floundering.With the success of this guitar far from guaranteed at this stage, I guess I'll eventually deem it a worthwhile effort and be encouraged to expand my arsenal of carving tools in order to build more of them, or I'll think of it as an interesting diversion but stick with the flat top…