If the "Memoir" series is inspired by the Orpheum line (which it obviously is), considered by many to be Guild's best of the best, I find it odd that Guild would chose to build them oversees rather than in the USA. I would have thought they would want to associate Orpheum's established reputation for excellence to their top tier line. But what do I know...
Apparently they want the
MIC models to bask in the halo of the Orpheum rep.
I can understand that, but something else just occurred to me:
Perhaps there's a clue in the fact that the "Memoir" series
aren't called Orpheums?
I'm suspecting it may have to do with the expense of building them in the US to the quality point expected, for the anticipated low volume of sales.
Maybe just not in the cards for Oxnard's production capacity, "yet"?
I
am gratified to see they've finally got the F55 and F512 Maples ready to go out the door.
It does make more sense to me to get these rolling as I suspect they'll see return on investment through sales more quickly than they would with US-built Orpheums, at this point.
Make sure Oxnard's viable then start making the "outliers" in terms of volume.
The big shocker to me was the D260.
Ebony body?
There's gotta be a reason it hasn't been a major body tonewood historically.
Curiosity drove my search for opinions and I found this thread:
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=665192
Which yielded post #9:
"Contrary to the other posts in this thread I have seen and played guitars made out of ebony (acoustic guitars) and they've sounded great. It's expensive as hell and heavy too; it results in an almost piercingly rich tone. "
Huh.
Ok I'm guessing expense has been lowered due to the use of the figured wood that literally used to get left on the forest floor; and thank you Bob Taylor for investing in the resource back in 2011:
https://www.taylorguitars.com/about/sustainable-ebony