I believe that the nose is lifting some more now, inducing an aerodynamic nose-up pitch that your friend needs to compensate with some down-elevator trim.
For static balance, that additional lift forward of the CG (due to fuse reshape and/or tuned pipe) cannot be detected.
In other words, it is like if your friend had moved the wings forward a little bit, resulting in the CG being a little more aft than before (reducing the stability margin and getting closer to a tail-heavy condition).
The peculiar thing is that the nose up will increase with the speed of the airplane; so, it may not be noticeable for landing.
Last edited by Lnewqban; 09-01-2013 at 02:34 PM.