Guitar Requirements

Well, I play a lot differently than you do CG.  I used to have a classical guitar, an old Yamaha  whose model I can't remember. I've since given that to my sister. I love the sound of the nylon strings, but since my preferred playing style relates to a lot more strumming than yours, the wide neck of the classicals wasn't working too well for me.  However, what I did like about classical guitars was the relatively flat neck profile (on the back where your thumb goes), and I think that's the thing I like best about my Guild D40. It has a flattish neck back that feels a lot like that old classical guitar I had, but the neck is narrow and more conducive to the quick strumming I do, but it's still wide enough to allow for fingerpicking. Now I've just said that what I liked about my Guild is a flattish neck, but oddly I played I think it was a Gretsch that had an almost pyramid shape to the neck. It wasn't a smooth radius, but had a distinct break in the curve at the high point. I really liked that too. My thumb has a tendency to wander, and having a point I can feel helps me to keep it positioned better.  So I can't say that I want this feel or that feel too easily, but when I hold the guitar and play it, I have to like what I feel.

In general, I like a solid top. I have a cedar top guitar which is the guitar I think I play most. It has mahogany back and sides. It's got an unusual body shape that Takamine had a name for and which I forget, but it's very, very, very comfortable to hold. That's the next most important thing to me - comfort in holding.

It's got to sound good. So many pretty guitars, or guitars that feel good don't sound like much to me. I like a steel stringed acoustic guitar to ring out and have a good bass resonance. On too many, the bass is muddy.

Lastly, I want a guitar that looks good. This is entirely subjective and changes guitar to guitar. Joey and Detman have acoustic guitars with stickers on them, and they just suit their personalities so well that they look good for them, but I don't intend to put any stickers on my guitars. My cases are a mess, but not on the guitar itself. I don't mind scratches and dings and wear. I don't put them there intentionally, but signs of use improve a guitar's appearance in my opinion - but oddly like the stickers I don't want to see that when I"m buying a guitar.

So I guess it comes down to these criteria for me: feel, sound, look.

I like the question also. Because we all have different taste.
I'm kind of picky in what I want. I'm driven by the quality so I tend to hit the big names . Not to say lower cost guitars haven't impressed me. And I have a wish list.
1). Neck profile. I like slim necks so all of mine have the same feel.
2) Solid wood
3) Sound.
After that  I like Ebony fret boards, Electronics on acoustics, Abalone inlays but not too much.
I don't like weird Pick guards or weird headstocks. Most colors are OK ,But not all.
I like the overall appearance to look balanced.

At a bare minimum I want a solid wood top but prefer solid wood all around. My first guitar (35 years ago) was all laminate. I was poor back then and couldn't afford an all wood guitar. Then again, I didn't really know the difference. At the time it was the best thing I had ever heard. A couple years later I traded a bicycle for an Alvarez 12 string. It has a solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides. The sound was so much fuller and cleaner but I attributed it to the extra strings. I later found out it was the solid wood that really made the difference.

I'm not too particular on nut width. I bounce back and forth between the 6 and 12 which of course have different widths. It just takes a few songs to adjust to the wider neck.

I'm not that picky about the fretboard material either. My 35 year old Epi with rosewood has minor depressions in the first 5 frets but doesn't create a problem yet. So rosewood works well enough for what I do.

Like Tyson, I don't like a flashy pickguard or mountains of fret inlay. But I have to admit, I want fret markers. I like the way some makers have started putting them on the edge instead of the face of the fretboard.

The neck shape I am particular about. I don't like the V shape at all. The U or D shape is tolerable but I prefer the softer, smoother curve of the C. It just fits my hand better.

Overall my main criteria is the feel of it in my hands and sound quality. Like TF said; big name brand does not necessarily mean the best guitar. I played a couple Martins and Taylors that just didn't fell comfortable and I've never come across a Gison that I would want to own. While my Alvarez, at a fraction of the cost, plays like a dream and I would take it over many models of the big names.

My requirements depend on how I plan to use it.  Sound used to be my primary focus but since I've gotten older and an beginning to have arthritis issues, neck shape and width are more important for playing ease and comfort.  For guitars I use to write songs or to play solo gigs I prefer 00/concert or 000/auditorium body sizes with  a shallow C shaped neck 1.75 inches wide. I like the sound of different wood combos.  Some of my acoustics are rosewood/sitka, rosewood/adirondack, mahogany/sitka, mahogany/cedar.  Solid wood tops/backs are preferred.  For guitars I use to play bluegrass with friends, a dreadnaught body shape has more "boom"  as long as the guitar has the right neck shape/width, but shoulder issues I've developed from my whitewater kayaking days makes the larger body shapes a little uncomfortable for me to play.

I don't buy expensive guitars as I'm not a very good picker and it would be like putting a $100 saddle on a $10 horse (to quote something I heard in a cowboy movie long ago).  I keep a couple decent ones for playing out and also some cheap ones to play around campfires when camping.

I recently bought a small all-laminate guitar to take along on overnight  and multi-day river trips.  The sound isn't great but the body size fits into a dry bag and the laminate hopefully will hold up better in the wet environment and the heat/humidity inside a dry bag while riding in a raft all day.

DE

That is incredibly awesome! Once I get the kayaks loaded down for a weekend fishing / camping trip with some buddies, I really don't know where a guitar would go. I've taken a mouth-organ (aka "harp") before, but I'm not very good with one so it doesn't last more than few minutes.