Hans basically already confirmed it was a "legitimate" factory built guitar because he has the production records and can ID the s/n, he just couldn't say why it had the rosette and p/g.
That's how it goes, but the telling detail to me was SA Music's note about the rosette itself, that possibly Guild would have made the segments a bit less square and better fitted, which was where I originally mentioned "coarse".
Nope, "Special Order" covered both instruments that were specially ordered by a customer like the Merle Travis or Tommy Smothers' D50's with F50 necks which ultimately became the D55,
AND instruments that had to be ordered because they weren't made for production, as was the case with the D55 for the first 6 years and the F412/512 Customs. Typically though the customer orders were labeled "Special" like Smothers' D50's whereas "Special order standard models" were just labeled with their model number, like D55's from '68 to '74..
A well-reasoned presentation, and given the way Guild operated it's possible. Marc Dronge, son of Guild founder Al Dronge, took a "prototype" rosewood bodied F30 to Paul Simon in 1967 and Simon loved it. Thus was born the F30R and the Paul Simon signature edition. The Greco connection is also telling. There's those rectangular MOP blocks like the MerleTravis which is what originally made me open-minded about it, at least.
You mentioned you just wanted to be able to present as accurate a history as possible to it's next person.
D) I think that description is truthful as you can make it. I'd be much more sympathetic to a seller who took pains to make its cloudy provenance clear than the typical "all original" descriptions which are lacking in any source/provenance references.
The additional history regarding the original owner helps me understand just how something like that could have happened, although I doubt highly Guild shipped to somebody else to "finish". On the other hand offering an on-hand piece that was a little "different" was well within the realm of possibility.
Also just remembered, have you looked at the finish under a blacklight? That might tell a story. NCL fluoresces sickly green(!) under blacklight, and a refin might show up as a slightly different shade. And the "ambering" mentioned sounds like the normal by-product of aging and primarily UV exposure. My D25 looks like it has an Amber finish, started off as a "Natural". Even makes the slightly-wider-than the bridge racing stripe down the middle of the top look downright light maple-syrup colored. I love it to death.