Update: I called my local Guitar Center (Madison, WI) to see what the status was. My thinking was "they placed the order for me, so maybe they'll have a better idea". Anyhow, they said the status shows "Shipped". I told them what the rep from Guitarcenter.com told me, and he said "I'll call them and talk to them about it, and I'll call you back". So he did, and he was told to "refresh his screen", which he did, and then it said "backordered" for him too.
I asked why the Guitarcenter.com website says "in stock & ready to ship" then... to which he said "I asked them that, and I was told that there's only one, and it's a broken demo unit from the launch that they haven't taken out of the system yet".
I was told that the 12/18 ship date is accurate for Guitar Center though. Take all that for what it's worth.