pict - "I'm a firm believer of ability making the musician rather than the instrument."

That's fine if you have the ability already, but for a beginner, a well-constructed guitar as opposed to a complete piece of crap, can only help to get you over the first hurdles. My mother's steel string is set up with horrible action. She never plays it. She lent it to me so that I could work out some chords to something I'd written. Do you think I ever play it? God, no!

The thing completely destroys my fingers in 43 seconds. Can I work anything out on it? No. Do I have the patience to play it for 43 seconds every day, and do I have the willpower to actually put it down after my fingers are dead? No.

Yeeeeooooooowwwwwwch!!!!!

I can't build callouses with that thing.

My mandolin is a beauty, especially since the action was fixed on it. My callouses are slowly building, and maybe three years from now, I will be able to play that guitar for more than a minute!!!

BTW, it's a Vanguard HGV-150. Whatever that means.

But I'm not actually a 'guitar player'.