[davidroberts]

Definitely not a classical guitar unless you intend to play classical only. It's a whole different style of play, and you'll have to relearn everything if you change over to a steel string acoustic or electric. The fretboard is much wider and the nylon strings are stretchy and play differently.

I suggest going for a moderately-priced decent-quality imported steel-string acoustic like a Yamaha or Sigma (low-end line of the Martin Company, made in Korea).

It's good to start with acoustic even if you plan on mainly playing electric. It's the common denominator of the guitar world, and you'll be so glad you can just pick one up and play something cool on it at will.

You might want to consider starting with lighter gauge strings than the ones that come of the guitar while you are developing calluses and learning bar chords.

[pytrin]

I'm sorry, but that's complete BS. Playing any type of guitar does not limit you to a specific style of play - you can play any style you want on any type of guitar. Some advanced techniques and progressions (i.e, solos or conversly fingerstyle) will be more comfortable on specific guitar types, but there's no technical limitation from playing anything on every guitar type. Those distinctions are mostly meaningless to beginners who will be mostly playing simple chords and melodies (to which I would say, a classical guitar is the most comfortable form factor).

[oblique63]

I don't know who's downvoting you, but this is right. You're inspiration is the only thing that determines what will come out of any instrument.

I love my Cordoba classical guitar, but I never actually play classical stuff on it. Hell, I usually end up playing crazy metal on it most of the time. I just really like how it sounds, so I experiment with it. It is more intuitive to play fingerstyle on it given the soft strings and the string spacing, but I could still maneuver a fat 2mm pick on it just fine...

[reidrac]

You're partially right. For a beginner a classical guitar is definitely better (more space in the neck to put the fingers, the nylon strings in 1-3 are easier/less painful for untrained fingers, no need to plug it in an amp, etc), but the guitar type will limit you in certain styles (try playing a solo at some speed on a classic guitar getting to the 14th fret).

Sure, I learnt to play guitar with a classical guitar and I totally recommend it for a beginner, but there are obvious things like my Fendler Telecaster not having a tremolo bar: I can't use it :) Definitely you can play any style with it, but it really shines when jamming some blues with the neck pick.