[bmelton]

I like this advice, but I don't necessarily believe that it has to be a high end guitar. My first real guitar was a Seagull Cedar Maritime, and it's basically what I taught myself on. I like it for a number of reasons, namely

- It's pretty cheap. The SWS models can get up there (and I've since picked one up) but you can get a decent Seagull for under $500, and it won't break the bank.

- Seagulls generally have wider nut widths, which gives a little more breathing room between the strings, and is great for finger style and the 'fat finger' feeling new guitarists have.

- They sound AMAZING. For my last guitar, I was dead set on buying a Taylor 514CE, but playing it side by side next to Martins and solid body Seagulls, I ended up getting another Seagull. Obviously, this is as subjective as the ongoing 'Martin vs Taylor' holy war, but I took a neutral party to blind listen to me playing so as to mitigate the confirmation bias, and they picked the Seagull too (though obviously, I was more keen on the Seagull architecture, which I'm sure did bias things).

All that aside, I don't think I got really serious about learning guitar until I ultimately picked myself up a Les Paul (per your advice) to effectively "get more skin in the game", as well as to know that whatever mistakes I made were mine, and couldn't be blamed on the guitar.

Also, in addition to justinguitar.com, I would add Marty Schwartz, who has a Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/guitarjamzdotcom.

He teaches a lot of beginner level, few-chord songs that people know and recognize, and even though I know that it's a Youtube video, and not interactive, the videos are recorded with a great deal of patience.

[spudlyo]

I'm also a big fan of Marty Schwartz's, and I've learned a lot of great Blues licks and soloing techniques from him. Most recently I've been working on combining major and minor pentatonic licks and runs into my improvisations, and I'm loving my progress. Thanks Marty!

I love YouTube, I really do, besides great resources like justinguitar and Mary Schwartz, there are a huge number of excellent backing tracks you can use improvise over, here are a few of my favorite favorites

Happy Blues in E (great for mixing major/minor pentatonic) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxo2bEX45KI

Acoustic Rock Style Backing Track - D Major http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohbtYFRe-xc

Marty teaching 'Fly me to the moon' (great jazz standard) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr3fa1NDVB4

[cpenner461]

Second the vote for Seagull. I'm pretty sure they're all made with solid tops, but are still affordable (last time I looked starting in the $300 range. I think you need a "good enough" guitar that will stay in tune properly and sound decent, but that doesn't need to be a $2000 guitar. There are a bunch of big brands that fit this, but I think the Seagulls are some of the ones that don't feel cheap while actually being affordable.

EDIT: for those not aware, a solid top is preferred to a plywood top for tonal quality. Most of the cheaper guitars use a plywood top. That said, a lot of plywood tops sound pretty good these days, but I tend to be a purist in these sorts of things so greatly prefer the solid tops. :)

[bmelton]

Completely agreed. My first acoustic was a "made in Cambodia" Fender that wasn't horrible, but really didn't compare well to pretty much any other guitar of any quality.

My second purchase was aiming for something with a solid top, and the tonal quality was apparent from the very first note I played.

My third purchase was aimed at getting a solid body guitar, which is trickier because there isn't necessarily a noticeable difference between a guitar with a laminate body and one with a solid body, though you can certainly find guitars that sound different, neither is clearly better (by sound) on a new guitar.

That said, as I'm told, the tone of a solid body guitar will age, like wine, and sound better and better over time, so long as it's taken care of. A laminate will, at best, stay the same, and more likely will dull over time.

This (and nostalgia, history, etc.) is the reason old, good guitars tend to fetch so much money, because they were likely made from great stock to begin with, and have since aged to sound even better. (I say with only anecdotal evidence).