A small tip: Make sure that the guitar you choose is tuned to standard pitch. A friend had been shopping for some time for a Martin. After going through a number of reputable and reasonable shops through several seasons, she excitedly called me to tell me that she had found the ideal Martin D28, with a wonderfully mellow tone that she had been looking for, and brought it right over to show me. When I strummed a G it sounded a little slack in pitch, so I proceeded to tune it up a bit. The closer I got to standard pitch, the more her face fell... The wonderfully mellow tone was due to it's being tuned three frets too low! She got a good guitar at a fair price, but she never felt the same about it since.