For the last 10 years or so the only guitar I've owned is a Gibson Hummingbird which I've played to death. I'd love something new, but although I'm a fairly experienced guitarist, my knowledge is more-or-less limited to the one guitar I've owned.

I'd love finally to buy a second guitar, and I don't want it to be a step down from my Hummingbird so I went to my local store and tried a few Martin's because of the rave reviews they get. The problem is that none of them felt as playable as my Hummingbird.

I read that Martin's are produced with the action reasonably high in order to give the user chance to optimise it to their own preference, and as my Gibson has been professionally setup - I found it really difficult to find a Martin I liked because none of them felt as easy to play.

So if this is the case and all store Martin's have relatively high actions, how do you know when trying them which ones are the "dream to play" guitars that I hear so much about?

And as an aside, what level of Martin should I be looking at for a guitar on a par to my Hummingbird sound and quality wise?