I also should add that I am pretty picky when it comes to an acoustic guitar. When I was auditioning acoustics I played just about everything in all the local stores. I found that to my ears the best sounding acoustics had a Cedar top and Rosewood back and sides. But there were some of the Washburns that had other woods like Walnut and Hickory that sounded quite nice as well but the necks on the Washburn acoustics just didn't feel good to my hand. This really bothered my because I wanted to like the Washburn acoustics enough to actaully buy one. They sounded great and were not too expensive and a couple had some of the built in effects. I wanted an acoustic that sounded decent and looked great so it would be a "stage" instrument. I love my Takamine I bought in Japan but that guitar is basically irreplaceble and I can't bring myself to bring it to gigs. It means too much to me and I cannot put it out where it could get damaged in any way. I also wanted a cutaway as well so I could play at any position on the neck.

Keep us updated on your progress in looking fo an exotic acoustic/electric. I plan on getting one myself eventually.

$295?? Definitely worthy of consideration. I haven't touched a Hofner in 20 years.

Lacewood is lovely stuff, but I've never had opportunity to use it in a guitar.

About the Washburn neck: would it be cost-effective for you to find one that's got everytjing else you like, then have a luthier reshape the profile? As long as you're not planning to use monstrous-heavy strings, there's plenty of margin over-engineered into a modern guitar using traditional dimensions. (As I've got no problems with the relatively tiny spacings of mandolin courses, I've thought of having a guitar made with a substantially narrower neck.) It'd probably change the overall tone a bit, decoupling the head somewhat, but taking off some wood shouldn't make a major negative difference.