Chapter 1: The Right Guitar
Whether the guitar you have is right for you or not will mean the difference between a good experience and a bad one. Just like a rear-wheel-drive convertible is a great first car if you happen to live in southern California but not a good idea in the Arctic Circle, you should identify what your specific needs are when choosing a guitar.
Conventional wisdom states that you buy an acoustic guitar to start on and then get an electric when you know what you're doing. This makes some sense because an acoustic guitar will encourage you to learn good technique; every nuance of sound is audible, so if you're not pressing the strings down hard enough or in the right place you will hear the difference. An electric guitar's magnetic pickups are less sensitive to aberrant noises so if your technique is bad it won't be quite as noticeable. However...... an acoustic guitar is not for everyone. When you start, you will not be good. If you live with other people and are the type of person for whom embarrassment will deter you from practicing, then keep in mind that there's little you can do to muffle the sound of an acoustic guitar. You could play more softly or stuff socks inside the soundhole, but it still might be audible to others. No one gets better if they don't practice, so if other people hearing you will stop you practicing, get an electric guitar and a small practice amplifier that has a headphone jack. If, on the other hand, you live alone or are not easily embarrassed, then an acoustic guitar is the best option for learning.
Within the two broad categories of "acoustic" and "electric" there are several sub-groups, but for now, let's just get a basic guitar in your hands. If you're going with an acoustic, then you have two choices: nylon and steel. If you're going with electric, then there are a few things to watch out for and I'll talk about those in a moment. While you can play any style of music on any style of guitar, I will mention which styles of guitar are usually used for which styles of music.
Nylon-String, (or "Classical") Acoustic Guitar
Common Uses: Classical Music, Flamenco
Pros: Rich, sweet tone. Crystal-clear notes when adjusted and played properly. Soft nylon strings don't hurt the fingers. Sensitivity to correct fingerings encourages good habits.
Cons (from a beginner's view): This style of guitar features a wider neck than most others and has strings higher up off of the neck than others. Both of these can prove challenging for the beginner, especially the small hands of a younger player. Also, with most other types of guitars, the playing surface of the neck (called the "fretboard") is curved to match the way our fingers curve towards our palms when our hands are relaxed. This curve (called "radius") allows the neck to fit more naturally in the hand and makes it easier to make certain types of chords called "barre chords" (Google that if you're curious, it's a bit beyond the scope of this website). Most nylon-stringed guitars will have a flat, non-radiused fretboard. Those chords are therefore a bit more difficult on most classical guitars due to the lack of radius.* Also, nylon strings stretch much more than steel strings do, so new strings take longer to "break-in".**
Special Notes:
*At the time of this writing, the Canadian company Godin makes some nylon string guitars that DO have a nice, comfortable radius to their fretboards. Not all of their nylon string guitars have this feature, though, so ask your local Godin dealer which ones are which.
**You cannot put steel strings on a classical guitar! Doing so will destroy the guitar because steel strings have more than double the tension of nylon strings. A nylon string guitar was never designed to handle that sort of pressure. Don't do it!
Steel String Acoustic Guitar
Common Uses: Folk, Country, Pop, Softer Rock, Ballads, most things really
Pros: Clear and loud. No amplifier is needed. Perfect for singing songs in the park on a summer day. Sensitivity to correct fingerings encourages good habits.
Cons: Typically has the thickest, stiffest strings of any guitar (other than a bass) and can hurt the fingers of a beginner (a repair tech such as yours truly can change that, though. More on that later.)
Special Note: You cannot put nylon strings on a steel-string guitar. The two types of strings require different styles of "bridge" (the part where the strings meet the body of the guitar). Putting nylon strings on a guitar designed for steel strings will result in an instrument that never quite sounds properly in tune anywhere but at the very lowest five or so notes on each string.
Solid-Body Electric Guitar
Common Uses: Anything.
Pros: Versatility. Contrary to popular belief, the electric guitar doesn't have to sound like Metallica. It can sound as pretty and melodic as you wish or as harsh and abrasive as you wish. It can sing or it can scream or anything in between, it all depends upon what happens to the electrical signal after it leaves the guitar and before it enters a speaker. Do a YouTube search for "clean amp demo" if you don't believe me. The sound palette of these guitars can be expanded with a dizzying array of components called "effects pedals" that can help you customize your sound. These types of guitars typically feature the lightest, easiest-to-play strings. Also, many amplifiers come with a headphone option that can make the guitar almost inaudible to anyone not in the same room with you.
Cons: Requires an amplifier, which can be quite costly and of course requires electricity. Forgiving nature of the pickups can lead to the development of poor technique, bad habits that you will later have to unlearn.
Special Note: Some solid body electrics come with what is called a "floating tremolo". You might know it as a "whammy bar". This is a metal arm on the body of the guitar attached to where the strings rest on the body and pulling up or pushing down on it raises or lowers the pitch of all 6 strings at once. Avoid this piece of equipment as a beginner. It greatly complicates tuning and restringing unless it's of a particular type that can be adjusted so that it's no longer "floating", i.e., no longer balanced between the tension of the strings and the tension of some springs in the back. If you're not sure, ask your salesperson whether or not the tremolo can be set "flat" or "dive-only". If it cannot, then as a beginner this is not the guitar for you.
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Hollow-Body Electric Guitar
Common Uses: Rock, Rockabilly, Jazz, Country
Pros: Very similar to the electric guitar, but the body being hollow gives the hollow-body greater sustain and a distinctive sound one usually associates with Rockabilly (although some bands do use the hollow-body to good effect in other genres). Unlike the solid-body, the hollow-body electric is very audible without the amplifier. It's not as loud or as clear "unplugged" as an acoustic, and is not meant to be played "unplugged", but it can be heard easily without additional equipment. It will sound better, though, if it's plugged in. The body being hollow is designed merely to add sustain and tone to the sound going to the amplifier, not to replace the amplifier.
Cons: Again, this guitar has some of the same caveats as the solid-body electric. Just bear in mind that any housemates will hear you when you play this guitar.
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