Remember the Harmony Sovereign? The neck was a converted Louisville slugger(you held the guitar so's you could read the label). The action was like an industrial strength cheese slicer(if you had really strong hands it was possible to play it above the 3rd fret, but the intonation was terrible). Student guitars are much better quality these days, but a good professional instrument is always the best choice. I've been recomending the Martin 15 series to all my students. The 12 fret OOO-15S is my personal favorite, though it is a little more expensive. But for a good beater to haul around some of the Asian knockoffs are pretty damn good.

Mark Ross