[RP]

I've owned several H&Ds and have visited their shop (located about 25 miles from my front door) several times. I think you'll appreciate your new H&D more if you take it on its own terms rather than trying to compare it to more expensive models in their line-up. Circling back to your original question, I would think that largely hand-built guitars that use a small amount of automation are going to be more open to tonal variation, especially if you're talking about guitars from opposite ends of the price range...