Welcome to the boards, Bill. I know what you mean. I was hooked on Epiphone Masterbilts for a number of years. I had four of them - a mahogany, a maple, a rosewood, and a cedar-top 12-fret slot-head. All Chinese made. All solid wood. At least one of them was made in the Grand Reward factory (still got it), which is where the MIC Guilds are made, as I understand it. As you say, quality and playability were well above their pay grade. Then I got a few other Epiphone models. The prices were ridiculously good for such cool guitars.
At some point I figured if I sold off a number of the Epiphones, I could fund a made in Bozeman Gibson, maybe an iconic J-45. I actually had an order in on a new but rare sunburst walnut-backed J-15 with an abalone rosette.
A couple days before one of those J-15s became available, TX, great Guild finder extraordinaire, noted a super nice New Hartford made sunburst F-50R (with abalone rosette and DTAR dual source electronics) on reverb. I put in an offer for just a bit more than the cost of the new J-15, and it became mine. MINE. It'll never be not mine. Quality was better, with AAA spruce top, nitro finish, bling, just superb. Playability was better (although polishing the frets would probably give any guitar better playability). But then there's the tone. It's just better. Better balance across all strings, but mainly the low E string is much more present. Great big jumbo sound coming out of this guitar. I'm no longer looking for a Gibson 6-string. I'm selling off most of my Epiphones, which just aren't getting played anymore. I haven't played a lot of Martins or Gibsons for comparison, but I don't care. This F50R is the ultimate 6-string in my book. Oh, if I hit the powerball, I'd probably pick up a Gibson SJ-200 - they're stupid-expensive - but until then, I'm good.
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :tiger:
