Myself, I have two Lowdens, and the cutaway (010c) is deeper, fuller and louder than than the non-cutaway. I've also played small bodied guitars that have a bigger bodied and more resonant sound than big jumbos. It's all a mystery to me, and I'm no expert, but experience has taught me that anyone who tells you ... a. the type of wood b. cutaway or standard shape c. size of body ... is the determining factor in sound is just wrong: in other words, it cannot be just ONE of those things. The sound and tone of a guitar is complex mixture of all kinds of factors that make that individual sound. Oh, and the person who said that an acoustic sounds crap on the top frets because it doesn't resonate up there: buy a decent guitar and hear the difference.