take your pick
While there is plenty of variation in the sound of guitars available for sale, most of us tend to go with a guitar that we react to emotionally. There is no question that a nicely built instrument with a mirror finish can poke our pleasure center. It does mine, but part of that is being a craftsman and seeing clean work. Most guitars of every price range are built to look good, so that's probably not a big deal.
Everyone talks about sound when they are looking for a new guitar. But do we really know what we are listening to and for ? So many of us go around playing guitar after guitar on the theory that we'll know it when we hear it. It can be a long and fruitless search. It would help if we were able to identify what kind of sound we were looking (listening) for. It certainly helps the guitar maker who you may give the task of building an instrument for you.
Let's start by thinking of sound (tone) as a continuum, going from extreme bass to extreme treble. Like this:
Muddy and dull ------->>>>strong Bass ------------------>>>> balanced --------------------->>>> bright ------------------->>>>> screeching
Now it's likely that most musicians would say they want a balanced guitar. They want to hear every note clearly. I find that even though they say that, few actually will pick a well balanced guitar when given a real choice. One reason is that many of us have an emotional preference for a strong bass, re-enforced by recordings of instruments that have been artificially "enhanced" in the studio.
For whatever reason, the majority of guitars tend to be on the bassy side. This is largely by design as the familiar Torres fan bracing has the effect of damping the higher frequencies. So when we listen to most traditionally built classical guitars, we hear a lot of fundamental and not a lot of upper harmonics. What do I mean by that ? Every note played on a string is composed of harmonics. The lowest one being the first, or fundamental. There is a series of harmonics above the fundamental that define the tone of the note by the relative amplitude of each one. As the string vibrates it subdivides into progressively smaller vibrating sections, each smaller size section generates it's own higher pitch. Each harmonic in the series has progressively less energy to work with as the frequency increases. If we look back to our continuum, the least amount of audible harmonics would be on the far left, while an over abundance (as far as our taste goes) of very high harmonic content would be the far right. So we could rewrite the continuum as such:
Loud but dull ------->>>> strong Bass
------------------>>>> balanced
--------------------->>>> bright
------------------>>>>> harsh
Dominant Fundamental --------->>>>First 4 harmonics ------------>>>>> First 8 harmonics ------------->>>>> 12 + harmonics
The further to the left on the continuum, the louder the low end appears, but the high end is obviously lacking and upper notes don't carry.
The further to the right on the continuum, the louder the high end appears and every note gets "zing", but the bass notes lose the ability to carry.
There is a reason I segregated the harmonics as I have. The first 8 harmonics, when laid out and examined form a dominant 7th chord. In order they are the fundamental, Octave, 5th, Octave, 3rd, 5th, minor 7th, Octave in increasing pitch. Thus the first four harmonics are the fundamental, a couple octaves and a fifth. Everything enforces the fundamental. As the first 8 harmonics form a common chord, we hear a rich and full tone. The seventh harmonic is a bit off the real minor seventh pitch and the odd numbered harmonics above this are largely dissonant, thus giving us an uncomfortable feeling if we hear too much of them. In addition to the harsh character of the notes, you may have distinct wavering on a single note, a clue that too many harmonics are poking through. There are other reasons for this effect, but this can be one reason.
So next time you get in a room with a wide variety of guitars you can play, listen hard and see if you can categorize them given the above description. You probably won't have a full continuum to choose from, but hopefully you will have a context to file both the sounds of the instruments and your personal preference.