I've been playing the guitar for nearly fifty years, and part of that time I was making a living at it.

My first guitar was a Regal that I paid $9.95 for (new) in 1952. Total of $15.00, complete with a fiberboard case, a copy of Guckert's Chords for Guitar without Notes or Teacher and a Nick Manoloff "Chord Wheel." The action was soft, the frets were fairly accurate, the intonation was okay, and it sounded like an apple-crate. A year and a half later I was playing a Martin 00-28-G classic. I sold the Regal to a friend for $5.00. Last I heard, he also had a Martin classic and was taking classic guitar lessons. I have five guitars now. One of them is a Flamenco guitar made in Madrid in 1961 that is worth so much that I'm afraid to take it out of the house.

It's nice to start out with a really fine guitar, but if you are at all interested in learning to play (folk, classic, whatever), you don't need a pricey guitar to start with. If it's a guitar you can afford, and if:-- 1) it can be tuned accurately, and 2) the action is soft enough so that it won't destroy your fingetips, it will serve.

Don Firth