Trying to get back on track here, not that I'm not super happy to see Gary's Taylor because I am and I love my Taylor as well. But now that we've fallen on "What year is your D25?" I've got to get us back on track. I love a good cutaway!! I do. And I love that asymmetrical look they give a guitar but I'll also be honest and say what a fuss I can be about a cutaway!! A cutaway has to be done right and look good. Taylor does beautiful cutaways. Guild has done some great cutaways and some not so great. And I pretty much hate all cutaways on dreads. They just look so awkward and wrong!! That square dread shape doesn't lend itself to a cutaway in my mind. As far as playing is concerned which is supposedly why they were created, for access, for all my love of a good cutaway, I only have one out of five guitars. I'd take a cutaway on either my Taylor or my Breedlove but when I purchased them it wasn't an option without going into huge expense. Lately, I started working on Joni Mitchell's "Taming The Tiger" which takes you on the regular to the 14th fret and 12th fret. I'm playing it on my Washburn which is my only cutaway and it's easy as can be, so it must work. I can get to 12 fairly okay without a cutaway because that's fairly common for me. Here's the Washburn which I think is a beautiful guitar with a very nice cutaway. And an oval soundhole which I love as well!!
As far as preference of style, I prefer a Venetian cutaway to the sharp Florentine cutaway, but the Florentines can be nice.
So my summary is "Yes, I love a good cutaway, but I'm a fuss and I'd rather have no cutaway than a bad one." I judge them mostly on a case by case basis.