A few comments...as the designer of the CR series...
The original body shape for the tenors...first just the 12 fret, and now including the 14 fret versions...was derived from the Howe-Orme "tenor mandola" of the mid 1890s. I collect the brand, and they made a full range of four "mando family" instruments, all "guitar shaped", all beautifully made. The Howe Ormes also inspired the cantilevered fingerboard extension; all the H-O guitars and many of the mando family instruments bear that feature, and it allows for more upper bout top vibration in the violin tradition.
The "micro jumbo" CR tenors and "nano jumbo" concerts...both 14 fret...were derived from the 1934 Gibson Super 400 archtop which itself came down directly from Orville Gibson who built some round hole archtops (18" across lower bout) in the 1890's with a very similar shape. Its proportins put the bridge right in the center of the big round lower bout.
We do adjust our top bracing to accommodate each type of wood we use. The stiffer tops get three fan braces; the more flexible ones get five, and we'll also splay the braces more or less parallel to the grain of the top to adjust the ratio of length-wise to cross-grain stiffness.
As many here know, it has always been my aim to make ukes that would be appealing to guitar players...my main clientele for many years...and so the larger neck and a deliberate attempt at a warmer sound that still has transparency in the upper end of the sound spectrum.
One cool thing that popped up over the past few years was designing the cedar topped, mahogany back and side pineapple soprano uke for my "Build a Uke in 4 days (3!)". Suddenly the more traditional sound was there...maybe a bit warmer as both cedar will do and pineapple shapes will do...but the point was that it was easy to get a more island-like sound. We may make some CR pineapples at some point.
Re. finishes...developing a good finishing system is one of the single most difficult tasks in all of lutherie. We do a hybrid finish...it starts with a couple of pre-sealer coats of a very thin epoxy, next is a catalyzed urethane adhesion enhancer, then a catalyzed polyester sanding sealer, and then that it topped with either super clear polyester to be rubbed out or a satin nitro lacquer. And all that is for the "natural" finishes...no stain in the wood or sprayed colors. And as a finisher (yes, I do 99% of the spraying here), it always comes back to proper prep of the bare wood; get that right, and the finish processes go smoothly (pun intended). I have not felt a need to go to UV curing...finish drying is not the bottle neck in my shop, and that's the real reason for UV.
Always lurking in the background for me is the desire to design and build instruments that I like and will play. I'm really a musician first and then a luthier in spite of the overwhelming tilt of hours to the building side. If I wouldn't play it, I won't build it.