Different woods have different sounds.

Cheap and quality seem to vary quite dramatically.

A typical Sitka Spruce top is found on premium acoustic guitars that generally cost around $1k and up.

Certainly a laminate top will work against any resonance, you may prefer the sound of plastic? I don't know? Whatever floats your boat...

I think a decent instrument is the first step any musician should make before you even think about spending time with learning.

When I played keyboards in a band many years ago my guitarist loaned me his Alverez Guitar. It was a great acoustic to learn with. Later, I started off with a thin body Ovation guitar, that's because I was after an electric sound at the time.
That guitar was very uninspiring, and in a matter of years I traded it off.

First off, if you wish to be inspired then you should relish the sound of what your doing. Making a decision based on what sounds the best, coupled with a reasonable feel is a way to ensure that you will enjoy the sound and help you to maintain the beauty of the instrument.

Anything else seems pointless to me, but then again what the _ do I know anyway?

Here is my take on acoustic instruments.

Everybody wants to have a quality instrument. But did you realize that Yasha Heifitz the great violinist, made some test recordings many years ago. He played his Stradivarius a one million-dollar instrument. He played a high school $200 violin. He played on a plastic toy violin. Upon listening to the playbacks, nobody could identify the instruments correctly. It's the technique not the tool. The recording systems were identical.

SM58's sound as good as U87's
Mx. Remy Ann David

Wow..love the description above..thanks!!

So, in other words, just grab the guitar listen to the sound fr body & the preamp..if that is the sound you want, that's yours?! No matter how expensive or cheap, how branded or brandless it is? C'ld I do such conclusion? :P

Solid top guitars have become much more affordable in the past 10 years. It's not unusual to find solid top guitars for under $600. This may also be the reason why Sitka Spruce has been declared an endangered species. There are other woods that are becoming more popular now. Cedar is still a good option and provides a darker tone.

Ovations are horrible guitars until you spen well into the thousands. Their lower end models are just blah.

Rain Song surprisingly soung quite nice. Graphite may be the way to go. They even make graphite cellos now. Very expensive though.

Laminated tops are made of sandwiches of wood with grains going in several directions. This makes the wood stronger, so you can (if you wish) use a thinner top. It is also less likely to warp or crack. However, it has different elastic properties than solid wood, and that means a different overtone series. Laminate tops tend to be "darker" with fewer high overtones. Most acoustic players go for the brighter, clearer tones of a solid top. But in some styles of jazz laminate tops are preferred on acoustic/electric guitars.

Wow..what a wonderful replies and input from all of you..thanks!!

Seems,Solid Top giving you a Clean & Bright tone ya?! Then what about Solid Stika Spruce? How it sound like?

Nowadays ,there are a lot of Started Branded or New Brand around the market like Stagg from China, Fina from Taiwan..any idea about them?

1 more thing, electronic part-the Preamp on board! Pick up or Preamp like B.Band, Fishman or L.RBaggs are popular in the market..what do you think bout those Brandless which apply on those lower end guitar? Sound is Bad? Lag of Low and Hi tone?

What do you say?Stick on Branded?

I don't know a whole lot about the woods and such, but if you are planning on buying an acoustic, I would never buy one without playing it first. The bracing, woods, etc, all affect how it sounds. On an electric guitar, I believe that 99% of the sound is in the pickups, but you can't exactly start swapping out all the pieces of an acoustic like you can an electric. As far as electronics go, they hate me. They always break no matter how I treat them. So I always pay for the name brand so at least I know the warranty will be honored

While the pick up is certainly important the electronics pack is also key. A case in point. Quite a few years ago I bought a Crafter guitar simply because I really liked the sound of it. However when plugged in it was really quite nasty!

A few years later I was up in London (for various reasons) and went into a well respected store that had quite a few Crafters and I noticed that they all had a different electronics pack to mine and were by L.R. Baggs as opposed to the unnamed "Crafter" brand I had. I chatted with the proprietor for a while and concluded that it would be worth a try to replace the electronics.

I got hold of the new electronics and used the original pick up. Unfortunately the pick up caused overdrive of the electronics but the (undistorted) sound was just so much better! I managed to modify the new electronics to reduce the gain and now have a completely different -and much better - guitar when plugged in.

Good advice all around. Save your money. "stagg" is Tom Lee Music's house brand. Kwality with a capital K there. Yamaha make surprisingly good acoustics and are reasonably priced. I'm not a fan of Seagull or Simon and Patrick. Takamine's Jasmine series are very well built budget guitars.

LR Baggs make great electronics as do Fishman. That being said, a mic will always sound better.