What to look for in an acoustic guitar

Guitars with a solid wood top of either spruce ,cedar or mahogany will produce a full tonal quality.
Spruce tends to produce more tone color and has a bright clear sound, whereas cedar and mahogany tend to be warm and rich in tone. Most guitar tops are spruce because of its versatile tone range. Beware of Guitars with plywood tops. They are less expensive, but produce a shallow and weak tone, and don't play as well as solid wood instruments.

The woods generally used for back and sides of guitars are rosewood, mahogany, or maple. Many guitars with solid tops will have laminated backs and sides of one of these three woods. As in tops of guitars the back and side woods have distinct tonal qualities. Rosewood is generally preferred because of the rich overtones and sustain it produces as well as its beautiful and colorful appearance. Mahogany and Maple, also beautiful woods produce a bright and crisp tone. Solid wood back and sides of guitars along with a quality solid top is the optimum combination for the body of an acoustic guitar.

The best wood for a fingerboard is ebony. Many good guitars will also use rosewood or maple for their fingerboards. Necks are usually made of mahogany, maple or cedar.

Guitar action refers to the distance the strings are to the fingerboard . High action means the saddle on the bridge is set high, thus the strings are further to the fingerboard then if the saddle were set low. High action produces a stronger tone then low action, but also requires stronger fingers.