Brian,

Its possible to make a guitar sound better by doing some work on the instrument. Many guitars are over braced and by removing some of the wood from the braces you can en liven the sound a bit. Remoe it from the correct place and you can make the trebles brighter, some place else and the bass sounds fuller. A slightly smaller mass in the bridge and the top vibrates cleaner and longer.

HOWEVER! remove too much material and the whole thing comes apart. But done well by a person skilled at "Voicing" a guitar and even a Martin can be made to sound good.

DonMeixner