[tomsthumb]

Maybe if you have tons of disposable income, but you can get a damn good sounding acoustic guitar for under a grand that sounds better than most that cost twice that if you don't mind shopping around.

I've found a classical that sounded better than everything else in the (rather large) store. That one cost 600 while the cheapest competitor was 1700. This is taking string age, etc into account. Similar for acoustics if you add a few hundred to both ends. It really comes down to the luck of the draw on wood quality and combinations of different trees an instrument is made of.

Now, you can get an electric of craigslist for three hundred that'll play like butter after a competent setup with some 9 gauge strings on it. You do have to buy an amp, but if you don't want really nice metal distortion it shouldn't cost you too much. Distortion and effects can get costly.

And then, we could always talk about how if you really want to understand music you should just learn to play bass.....