I don't have a whole lot to say about guitar types since I've never been interested in electric and have never played one, but, from my perpective, I think it would be more important to find a good teacher who can offer your son a lot in whatever genre of guitar interests him.

I did take lessons but I use almost none of what I learned. I didn't know enough about guitar to know what it was I wanted to play (well, I knew, but didn't know where to start). I could already read music since I was raised on piano. I had a good teacher but we were a poor match--he liked jazz and I was mooning over Norman Blake. The only thing I learned from him that still applies is the concept of chord melody.

We also butted heads because he insisted on bar chords and I couldn't do them. I have small hands (I'm a girl) and I was using my mother's Guild F-30, which is a lovely little guitar and terrific for picking, but has high action and, even with medium-light strings, high tension (I like high action). He pestered me until I handed him the guitar and said, "Here, you do it," and it turned out that he couldn't play bar chords on it, either. My hands don't fit around the neck of a classical guitar so that was the end of that.

I'm still not a great guitarist but at least I've been able to teach myself, or learn informally from others, the kinds of things I wanted to learn earlier. I wish now that I had the time/money to take flat-pick lessons. Sigh. Maybe when I'm out of school again.