Go round a lot of guitar stores, try as many guitars as you can, buy the one that sounds the best to you? Preferably take a friend whos a player and get them to play so that you can hear them from out front - there's a world of difference between what the player hears and what his/her audience hears. Don't worry too much if the one that sounds best isn't the best with regards playability - a good tech/luthier can make any guitar play easily. And, to answer Al's comment about Martin playability, since the introduction of the Plek process a few years ago, the factory setup has improved dramatically (always assuming that the retailers store their guitars in properly climate-controlled conditions). The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.
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