RE: reducing tail area
No guesswork on the CG for the smaller tail. None at all.
Take the measurements of the airplane to geistware.com and plug them in. Simple as that.
When you reduce the tail volume (area:moment) it reduces the CG range. You have less room to move it fore/aft. And when it shifts, the efficiency of the tail changes more. As does the ability of the tail to restore pitch.