I am now the proud owner of a Gibson Epiphone steel string guitar. (I suspect one should pay more attention to the "Epiphone" than the "Gibson" as far as price is concerned.) I am also the proud owner of four very sore left finger tips. I think I overdid it on the first day!

I took advice and had some of the guys in the store play the two instruments while I stood back and listened. (It is surprising how agile , but how blissfully unaware of tuning they are.) The steel one sounded better.

BTW slide playing doesn't sound bad on a classical guitar. There was a lot less spurious noise, and it seemed easier to do (probably the flat fretboard.) The only reservation I had was the how long the notes were sustained.

The talk about putting light steel strings on a classical was very helpful, and I stumbled upon the plan that Jon just suggested. I decided to put light strings on the steel one. I will go one step further. I get one free setup with the guitar, and I will have the mechanic make the action closer to go with the lighter strings. I have a feeling I will spend quite a bit of time with that setup and when I am ready for the world to hear me, I will put on heavier strings and a "bigger" action.

For the time being I will stay with it as is for about a week and just experiment with picking out tunes and chords. Now to find a teacher.......

Thank you all for sharing your experience. Now I think I will stop reading this thread before I see something like "The Epiphone! you got stuck with one of those? Why, back in...":-)

Bob, What do "model T" and "model G" mean?

Murray