I remember back in my old Hi-Fi Stereo hobby days all the terminology and ideas that were used in describing stereo sounds. Some of those ideas and terms apply to acoustic guitars as well. In general like if you are comparing two guitars (A-B-ing), the louder guitar will sound better at first examination and also personal taste and style of playing always applies to any opinion.
Balance...
In a well balanced guitar, all the notes have equal
power. The guitar
will not be bass heavy, overly bright sounding or have too much
midrange.
Cutting
Power...
This is a hard one to describe. Cutting power is
the ability of a
guitar to be heard while playing with other instruments. This
is not
accomplished by volume alone but by being able to fit in and fill up
empty
spots. This term is usually used when describing a guitar in
a bluegrass
group. The flat picker will break into a lead and you can
hear every note
while others are playing.
Dynamic
Range...
The quality of a guitar to go from very soft to very loud
with minimal
effort.
Presence...
The best way to think of presence is "Surround Sound." When
you
play the guitar loud or soft, the complete quality sound of a fine
guitar is
definitely distinguishable from a poorly made guitar.
Separation...
When a guitar has good separation, you hear the individual
notes in a chord
very distinctly.
Sustain...
Sustain is the time a note keeps sounding with good tone
after you pick the
string. If the note fades out quickly, the guitar has poor
sustain.
Tone...
Your guitar has a fundamental frequency of vibration and overtones that
are
similar to all other acoustic guitars but it also has its own
combination of
tones depending on what it's made of and how it's built.
Technically, no
two acoustic guitars sound exactly the same even if they are the same
model and
manufacturer.
Volume...
Simply put, some guitars are louder than others. As mentioned
above, don't
make the mistake of thinking one guitar sounds better than an other
just because
it's louder. All things above need to be considered.
Bob, Gman ( o )==#