Yes I’ve heard the same thing from a shop and from santa cruz themselves… not in those specific words though. You could just call and ask Carolyn. I told them I read they were shifting away from stock models, raising prices, and including higher grade woods as stock basically. I forget what exactly the reply was, but I remember thinking “oh good I’m glad you’re stepping it up even further because I have no interest in ordering a base model guitar for that much money when just a little bit more buys more soundboard”