Ren Ferguson oversaw these beauties as well as the first Oxnard US guilds out of the factory. Since I own one of the latter I would have to say there is something there. I look forward to the day I come across one and can play it. I think they are beautifully designed and appointed.
It's a pretty safe bet to say there's no one on the planet that knows more about the design and construction of Gibson's iconic slope-shoulder dreads from the 40's, 50's, & 60's than Ren Ferguson. After putting together Gibson's Bozeman assembly line for guitars, he spent decades experimenting with & refining the production of this body style.
I happen to own a 2002 J-45 Rosewood (initially released in 1999) that is tonally one of the finest guitars I've ever had the good fortune to play. With this model, the J-45's classic design was primarily tweaked by changing the body to rosewood, and changing the fretboard & bridge to ebony. Many other variations were pursued over the years. When Ren came to Guild in 2012, another opportunity presented itself to further experiment with the J-45 platform, and the slope-shouldered Orpheum was born.
Unfortunately, the sale of Guild to Cordoba made for a short-lived Orpheum run. I think Ren put everything he had into making the move to Oxnard work - once again setting up a factory that would be capable of building world-class guitars. But I have to say, my armchair gut feeling is that thus far, Cordoba has somewhat squandered the opportunity Ren gave them. Clearly, this current chapter in the life of Guild is ongoing, but the past seven years of development seems to have been rather stifled by corporate decision makers.
