re: Guitarists of the OT

Cheap guitars can be miserable. Bought my 8 y/o son a Squier Mini Strat to learn on. That thing is the biggest piece of shite. Takes forever to get in tune, then loses it in 2 minutes. The frets are so bad that without perfect finger pressure, you are bending the notes out of tune anyway on the rare occasion that you do have everything set up right.

Do you need to spend a ton, no. I have an Ibanez acoustic I got on sale years ago for $200. It's not something I'd go around showing off. But it stays in tune very well and is comfortable to play. It's the perfect couch guitar.

My advice is find a good local guitar store and talk with someone. Guitar Center can be horrible, especially when trying to get real advice. Also find the guitars aren't set up well. Whereas the more local shop I have purchased from was set up so well, I've brought guitars in and just paid them the $50 bucks to set the action, intonation, etc..