I've been playing semi-pro for quite a while, and In My Opinion, this is just as likely to fail as help. Also, I've never owned a guitar that cost more than 700 (except my Tom Anderson Tele which I inherited). And I have a lot of guitars and play quite a bit.
I've seen guys do that -- buy a really expensive Taylor or Larivee or some Guitar Center Shiny and then stare at it with guilt for the next five years, unable to part with it and admit defeat, nor pick it up and practice because it reminds them how much time they've wasted not working with this beautiful neglected instrument.
My advice: buy a serviceable, good acoustic. Find a real musician friend if you have one, a real guitar nut and take him/her to the pawn shops, and as a last resort even Guitar Center (LAST resort) and have him pick something out for you. And stay under 600 bucks for the love of God.
Then a year or two later, when you've decided that you love this guitar thing and want to get serious, you'll spend that 2K+ far, far better -- you'll know to avoid the glossy Taylor-ish nonsense and get a nice LG-1 or LG-2 (I've seen 60s models pop up at pawns shops for < 1500$, seriously twice in the last year) or a nice 70s Martin with creamy-sparkly high ends, warm and well-defined lows, and a gorgeous, aged-in finish that you will sit and stare at with pride for the next 25 years.
If you're the type that needs to blow money to feel motivated, sure, you can do better, but there's a lot to be said for learning to sound good on a shitty instrument before you are good enough that spending more will actually make you sound better. That's how most pros start out...
Also, you're going to sound like shit if you're forced to play a cheap, badly setup guitar. (oh-this-guitar-sucks-so-i-cant-play is a terrible excuse, trust me.)
Another reason why I think this is a bad idea - you have no idea what kind of guitar you want when you're starting out. You dont know what wood you want, if you want humbuckers or single coils, floating or fixed bridge. You don't want to buy a 5000$ custom shop Les Paul and realize you're not comfortable playing it.
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.....
Just because you pay a guitar more money than the other one, it doesn't mean the expensive one would sound better than the cheaper one and most importantly it doesn't mean you'd be comfortable playing it.
However, if you don't have an option to try different guitars, Fender is the way to go. Their Standard Mexican made model Strats are not that expensive, in my opinion.
Spend $400 and you can get a really nice guitar. Totally sufficient for anything you need as a beginner.
Take the other $1600 and book yourself lessons for the next 18 months. That qualifies as the same "cost commitment", but actually adds value.
But I noticed that I still loved to listen to the folk/blue grass/blues acoustic guitar and would spend literally hours on youtube watching people play. So I kind of always had an idea in the back of my mind what kind of guitar I'd like to play.
3 months ago I ended up buying a slightly used Martin dred. It was a difficult decision, because I remembered that I'd already given up once. But it turned out to be the most gratifying purchase I made in my life - I love it and it's hard to put down. I've made more progress in 3 months than I had in 3 years the last time I had a guitar.
So, what I'm trying to say, knowing what you want is probably essential before buying a high end guitar, but you certainly don't have to be an advanced player to make the most out of it. Also, by all means try a lot of guitars, if you can. You may decide that that Takamine sitting in front of the shop is more to you liking than the beautiful Guild hanging in the back under the ceiling.
- 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.
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
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. :)
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).
- you make a big investment (upwards of $2000) and it motivates you not to give up
- it sounds good, it looks good, it even smells good (rosewood, mahogany, spruce, ebony - that kind of thing). If you're into guitars (or simply beautiful things) it's hard to put down and you find yourself spending more time with it than you'd initially planned. And that's the single best thing for getting better at it :)
- you get no excuse (like, "it's not the real thing, it sucks, that's why it doesn't sound right even after many hours of practice"); it helps to remove doubts and concentrate on practicing
- if nothing else, it will make a decent long-term investment (high-end guitars tend to depreciate in the first years after the purchase and appreciate afterward). Some people even claim that it's a better investment than real estate, but I don't know about that
Ask somebody to play it for you, ask their opinion of how easy it is to play, have it set up by a good guitar technician... And keep on picking :)
Also, somebody mentioned justinguitar.com; it is a great site; the guy is a great teacher and a wonderful guitar player. It's got a bunch of theory lessons, but also lessons where Justin picks apart famous guitar songs and teaches you to play them in a "dumb" way - some might say it's cheating, but it surely helps to keep the fire burning when you can learn a tune or two without pulling your hair out trying to transcribe without the required experience (it's very hard, although that's what every guitar player should try to learn eventually).