adorshki
Reverential Member
Don't mean to seem to be "splitting hairs" or denying the status of that Orpheum as a "prototype", but I'm sure that Orpheum was built to "First Article" standards, ie, it was always intended to be a fully realized and playable instrument, due to the need to evaluate for sound quality.Well, I also have the opposite example. My 12 string Orpheum which I bought from a normal Guild dealer after NAMM is the "prototype" of the few of them but not marked as such. It got a regular serial number. It was the first 12 string Orpheum designed (as verified by Guild at that time) and as it turned out great they didn't waste an extra prototype but showed it at NAMM 2014 as new model and sold it after Musikmesse in Frankfurt in April 2014. That Orpheum is as such "the prototype" of a new model as several were produced afterwards.
Ralf
Being "Custom Shop" pieces they were largely hand-built anyway so it's quite likely it was built using "regular Custom Shop production methods" and suspect the aesthetic treatment was lalreaqdy finalized as well.
The Custom Shop would have been where prototypes were built at the time, anyway, right?
I remember the blue rosette detail as being unique to the prototypes.
The difference is that no "prototype" of that type would have been necessary for a left-hand version of an existing production model as in the case of the subject piece F45ce"LH"; if they built it it was already built to first article standards as I assume that Orpheum was.
It IS possible I guess that if the first article F45ce was good enough they may have gone ahead and assigned it a regular s/n and let it out, but the production feasibility and aesthetic prototyping (if any) had already been done prior to that, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have let those out with warranties through dealers.
For balance I should point out there is a listing for "prototype" s/n's in the lists but it's unclear what they were assigned to.
I'm assume perhaps they were used on guitars which were built to production standards but not yet committed to production.
West R Lee had a Prestige Series (themselves one of the earliest variations on the F45ce platform, coincidentally enough) model which had one of those prototype s/n's, which he sold to SouthernGuild.
It's one of the reasons the s/n on the OP's guitar may tell us more than he realizes, still, I don't recall if West ever mentioned who he acquired the guitar from or if it was sold as "new with warranty". I don't think he was the original owner.
And a few years back we saw what was reported to be the first article Corona D55 on eBay.
IIRC that one didn't have an s/n and only the seller's backstory as to its provenance: given to a Corona employee as a token when Corona was closed, "IIRC".
And "IIRC" seller also thought it had great value as the prototype but market didn't support him.
To be fair the seller's story sounded very credible to me and guitar did appear to be a legitimate "first article" full production prototype, no visible flaws.
But lack of verifiable s/n diminished the value the seller thought was justified by the letter from the original owner.
In fact I also recall a 50th Anni D55 being offered a few years after that and THAT seller was also convinced it should be valued at least as much as the regular production run.
Again, lack of s/n made provenance unverifiable.
Anyway it's also obvious Guild treated prototypes in different ways over the course of production.
I DO think your Orpheum could carry some value enhancement for provability of being the genuine prototype and first production piece.
If not now then perhaps in a few years if they're perceived as being highly collectible to a wide audience..
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