Did Guild make a rosewood archback?
Yes but it is one of their rarest configurations.
Finally came to the conclusion that it must have filled a very specific sonic niche with a pretty limited audience.
The DCE-5 was a rosewood arched back dreadnought of mid-late '90's vintage:
http://www.westerlyguildguitars.com/guitars/dce5.html
They even made some
arched F50R's in the mid-late '60's.
Chazmo's "Cap" was one of 'em:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...come-quot-Cap-quot-to-the-Chazmo-family/page3
Interesting detail on those was the centerstrip.
Somebody noted in a different thread that it must have indicated 2 halves glued on edge and then put in the press but I think it more likely that it would have been far easier to simply use 2 halves for the outer layer and put the strip between 'em and
then press it into shape.
The laminations had at least 3 layers, using an economy "filler wood" like larch or alder for the center layer.
The rosewood and maple (and later mahogany for the 'hog body archbacks) sheets themselves came from a furniture veneer maker.
That would also explain how they achieved this effect:
"I spoke with Hans about this guitar earlier, and he thinks it's likely to be a Brazilian laminate. I agree. His book actually mentions some experimentation like this by the Hoboken folks.
The interior and exterior of the rosewood in this guitar are perfectly matched (grain, knots, etc.), which I find very impressive..
The veneer sheets were planed successively from a flitch so any 2 consecutive sheets had nearly identical grain patterns.
In fact I didn't realize my D25 had a laminated back until I noticed they'd goofed and glued the sheets 180 degrees reversed from each other shortly after I bought it.
(I was kinda green about guitars and Guild back then.)
But it didn't bother me, the light went on and I thought "Aha! Besides the sound enhancement, laminations are stronger than simple solid sheets, and reversing the grain makes it even stronger!"
Only after I joined here did one of the old Westerly hands reveal it technically would have been considered a cosmetic flaw.
Seems to me there's one more model I'm blanking on at the moment....oh yea, the F5ce Grand Auditorium body (F40 16" lower bout outline):
http://www.westerlyguildguitars.com/guitars/f5ce.html
I've got a burst JF30-12 made in Corona in 2002. It is spectacular! Yes, the back is laminate maple, but don't be confused -- It is in a different league from other laminate-backed guitars. The back is one piece, arched, and most importantly, braceless. Other brands boast of "scalloped bracing" to reduce the dampening effect of the structural bracing.
That only applies to tops and Guild used it on high-end models too.
Tops produce more than 95% of a guitar's voice and do so by resonating, so yes bracing is very important on a top and it's the "secret sauce" of many makers.
It's
laminated tops that generated the myth of laminate being "inferior construction".
Those tend to dampen off tone like higher harmonics although even some of those have a lot of respect, like the "Red label" Yamahas.
Backs are relatively sonically inert, their primary role is as reflectors but as such the body/tonewood does color the sound.
Rosewood tends to emphasize bass, 'hog pushes the midrange and contrary to popular belief maple does not push the trebles, but rather, tends to reflect all freqs evenly.
It's the physical characteristic of human hearing that makes it sound "jangly" to us:
Treble freqs sound louder to us than bass freqs of equal volume.
(Explains why sub-woofers are so popular).
But it also makes maple record the "truest":
It sounds the most like the actual guitar and doesn't suffer from imbalance of a particular frequency range.
Note that some JF30-12s have an ebony fretboard, and some do not. I have to disagree with dapmdave -- the JF30-12 has essentially the same specs as Guild's F412, but without some of the bling. So the sonic output must be pretty similar.
That's gonna depend on the bracing and topwood quality and to a slight degree the fretboard wood like you mentioned, and even the given build periods.
But I know where Dave's coming from and comparing a JF30-12 from say the late '90's to an F412 from the late '60s' isn't really an apples-to-apples comparisons like say "What's the difference between a Granny Smith and a Mackintosh?"
BACK TO THE ORIGINAL QUESTION:
And finally, for the OP (Welcome aboard, Tomvwash!) re taming maple's jangly rep and 12-ers in particular, strings actually have a surprisingly large impact on a guitar's voice.
This one has some good insights, note posts 21 and 22 in particular:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?172146-D-Addario-extra-light-strings-on-F512/page3