[GaultierRedon14]

Wow, thank you all for your thoughtful replies. I really appreciate it. The specific comments about Pernambuco are very helpful. I,too, imagined that there may be some notable similarities between Pernambuco and Maple. I really do like the idea of the clarity of Pernambuco, but with something extra that Maple may be lacking due to its higher damping. Tim let me play a couple of Maple-backed guitars and they both sounded wonderful--one was all torrefied with a torrefied Sitka top, and the other was not torrefied with a German top. Both sounded great--which leads me to suspect that I'd appreciate the Pernambuco as much or more for the noted clarity.
I also got to play their Memphis guitar with Gabon Ebony/Carpathian--again, outstanding tone! This was my first experience with an Ebony-backed guitar, and from recordings, I'd imagined the trebles to have a bit of a hard/steely edge to them, but the Memphis guitar had none of that-it was extremely powerful, clear, yet warm enough--not a hint of harshness to my ear. This left a good impression of what the Ebony family of woods (like Malaysian Blackwood) have to offer.
Perhaps not surprisingly, after listening to that charming recording provided by ChuckS, I did notice some tonal similarities between his Pernambuco guitar and my Hippner classical guitar which has Pernambuco back/sides. Besides the clarity, there seems to be a sprite, bouncy quality to the attack and sustain-I guess that's the effect of the low damping? Whatever it is, it does sound "musical" and lively, and that it would be very responsive and expressive from the perspective of the player. That seems to be the case with my P classical guitar

Again, thank you all for your comments!