Quote Originally Posted by Tio Kimo View Post
If I'm not mistaken, the original poster is an absolute beginner guitarist, and the pragmatist in me just can't encourage him to spend more than a couple hundred bucks on his very first guitar. Ok...lets say a few hundred bucks...
This is all reasonable and nicely articulated. But as BS says, it's not too common to take that measured approach when it comes to guitar forums. I swear I've tried to give similar advice before and have actually been reprimanded for it.

More than anything though, I think a lot of people don't want to bother with the journey. They like the image of playing guitar and don't care about the details of how different woods sound in an acoustic. People buy what they want.

I hope the OP takes your advice and buys something under $300 to start. Getting a solid guitar is an important part of learning, but I'd want to know what I wanted before I shelled out the cash.

Update: looks like I was writing this while the OP was updating. That seems like it will serve you well while you get oriented.