Easier to select a wife from random stranger advice then find an acoustic instrument
easy to wax elegiac, verbose concerning subjectively elegant preferences. (e.g. rosewood sitka wide radius neck) Plus nearly every player I know with more then two guitars has personal tales of accidental discoveries of makes and models entirely out of their typical comfort zone. (One of my favorite finds was a Yairi (Alvarez, now owned by LOUD) dreadnought picked up a decade ago from a broker who knew what she had but also knew she could not sell it for what it was worth . . . not perfect guitar for every situation but a great, great performance flat top. At that time Alvarez was not even on any list of 'brands' to audition and my price point was three to four times what I paid for it (spent the rest of the budget on other gear in couple of weeks after that purchase) Any mass produced instrument line is going to be littered with simply are not what you hope. While some of these can become playable with work, some will always be expensive wall hangings (from which your grandkids can recoup expense after your death). Which is the problem buying by brand, problem buying new mass produced. Your price point is a bit low for custom instruments but with build time and incremental payments you might think about exploring the possibility.
If Moose Head refers to a location I wouldn't even want to hazard a guess as to whether it was Halifax, Maine, Pennsylvania, or Colorado (and for all I know there's one in Australia). But if it is the proverbial ninety miles from anywhere (Ah, I see you're 390 and ninety miles from anywhere) (both my first (2) acoustics and first electric were mail order (which of course dates me) . . . then sampling enough guitar variations: wood, neck radius, basic body shape and size . . . being more important then brand; is problematic. If there are guitar shows within reasonable traveling distance, even if you don't buy they can place enough variety in a small space to be worth an eight or ten hour (plus driving) effort. A tuner, hand held recorder and digital camera are useful accessories.
While standard advice for 'strummers' tends to default to dreadnoughts I would suggest if your primary focus is recording, particularly home recording that you investigate some of the concert, 0M, 0, 00 styles. Finding a guitar designed and set up for recording can be a revelation, smaller bout, lighter bracing. I'm old enough, started at this long enough ago that I just can't get enthusiastic about the new kiln force dried models, but have a Taylor Koa wood that I'm actually pretty OK with, particularly for some recording tasks.
Martin D-28 and Gibson J-45 are pretty easy to recommend as reference instruments. It is not that they represent (between them) the range of acoustic rhythm sound but there are enough excellent examples of each (as well as a lot individual ones that either require significant work or are just dogs) that it would be surprising if you didn't have recordings of each that didn't suggest target at which you are aiming.
In addition to universally recognized retail brands I would list several vendors that consistently produce interesting instruments. While I don't think that any Santa Cruz model would top my list of all time 'best' instruments I'd be hard pressed to think of a single one I've played that I didn't like. They tend to be known as Martin clones and while I think part of their hubris is to think they've picked up where Martin left off I would not consider Santa Cruz to be replacement for either my D-28 or D-35 and except for maybe some signature models they have sounds that are individual and distinct from most playable Martins. Gut reaction is find them to be a bit over priced but generally speaking if and when I have the funds I've not regretted the purchase. They currently fill my small body niche. The one that surprised me was a Tony Rice model that I picked up purely because of the price (anticipating a D-28 ish clone) expecting to flip and profit from a fairly quick resale. It turned out to sound just like itself and while there are sessions where I've brought it out first where it turned out to . . . not the right choice . . . there are also sessions where I can't imagine getting the sounds I did with any other instrument. For recording I'm pretty OK with Santa Cruz . . . but as with any good guitar I'd doubt I would recommend buying one without auditioning it first. Santa Cruz are good enough that even a serious dud could be improved by some relatively costly Luther work (if a simple set up didn't 'fix' the issues) . . . but if your intention is to pick up just one guitar this (fixing an almost right instrument) is not a rat hole you want to investigate
Other brands easily worth checking out Bourgious, Breedlove, Collins, Larrivee. Along with Santa Cruz these tend to be, in terms of marketing, the next rank of playable usable suspects meaning they're still relatively easy to locate
A web site to explore used models, pictures and prices is
here
For 31 years I've found their pricing (even after you've negotiated whatever discounts and deals you can) to be a bit (10-20%) more then I'm comfortable with (as a someone who uses, abuses guitars by playing them and is not a 'collector'). They also tended to be very opinionated, not all that unusual, but even with all the evidence to the contrary displayed about them, institutionally they seemed to present attitude that their establishment was font of all significant informed wisdom. How much internet has influenced policies practices and inventory couldn't say (been 6-7 yr. since I had any direct dealings) but in the old days they had extensive inventory and their pricing (in my opinion) used to provide a high water bench mark.
Another web location with extensive inventory is
Here
standard disclaimer: have no vested interest in either location . . . presented as a source of info about models and prices without any recommendation regarding business practices (certainly as much as buying a used car caveat emptor rules the vintage guitar world)
good luck
