hi Jannie,
i hope that you get a chance to read this before 'writing this thread off', which i felt was an excellent question
imho, a BTO, in many cases, is a 'pre-sold' guitar & granted there are some dealers that special order
'non-standard' or custom spec guitars, i believe that the 'risk' is that with all the options available,
a person could find a BTO guitar that has all the features that one desires, including tone & playbility
if they are able to play the guitar first-hand, except for 'one' (i.e binding, rosette, fretmarkers, etc),
which could make that particular guitar a 'dealer-breaker' & then in turn might take the BTO route
if they were willing to take a chance on purchasing a guitar that would be sight unseen (& also unplayed) -
there are some dealers that i've seen that will charge more than MAP, when a guitar has a single
'non-standard' option on it & in the past, i've seen it happen, even when the option was a 'no-upcharge'
if the guitar is pre-sold, in most cases, the guitar should spend little time at a dealer before it is either
shipped to the customer or is picked from the , which may or may not be the case with a 'in-stock' model,
so in terms of having an investment 'tied-up' in a guitar, i would figure an older stock model might be more likely
to be discounted more, but a BTO model should be discounted the same rate as a current year in-stock model, imho
the standard 12 fret models are currently cedar/mahogany (added this year) & sitka/rosewood &
i am not certain that there are 'modify-a-model' top-swap options allowed on these 2 guitars
(i.e. sitka or engelmann/mahogany or cedar or engelmann/rosewood) & if i am interpreting what
i've read in the latest Wood & Steel correctly, 'top-swaps' on 12 frets (& baritones) are BTO only -
that being said, if these 2 guitars were put into the standard line, i believe they would be considered
GC5ce & GC8ce 12 fret models, as the aesthetic appointments are the closest to the GC5/8 models
if BTO orders for cedar/rosewood (GC7) & sitka/maple (GC6) 12 frets were to reach the point to
where the 12 fret models were completely phased-in, perhaps even having the same appointments as
the acoustic electric models (5/6/7/8/912ce-12 fret), then a likely progression might be a 412ce-12 fret,
followed by a 312ce-12 fret, as this has happened with the grand symphony body quite recently, with the
416ce added in 11, along with the 316ce, 356ce & 456ce models this year ... pure speculation on my part
going by what the current model line is, & again i am basing this on past & current & it is pure speculation,
as there would be little difference in price between a 416ce, no ES & a GS4, 316ce, no ES & a GS3,
i believe there would need to be a great deal of interest in non-cutaway GS sapele & ovangkol
models before those were added, as there have been few non-cutaway GS4 models (07 GS4eLTD)
in the past, compared to a very large number of 416ceLTDs (09 Spring & Fall, 10 & 11 Spring & 11 Fall)
thusly, depending on the interest in a 412ce-12 fret & 312ce-12 fret, the GC3-12 fret & GC4-12 fret could
be phased in at that time, however the price difference between them would likely be quite small as well
