If you are contemplating learning the guitar, (or if you know someone who wants to) the challenge of settling on what guitar to start with can often stop you in your tracks, and cause you to quit before you start.

Let me simplify your options, so you don't spend countless hours in a sea of strings.

This is a great all around beginner guitar. It sounds great, and stays in tune just fine. If you're looking for a cheap place to start, you're not going to beat this price for the quality, hands down.

This guitar is also a great option. It has more of an artsy look to it, with the sunburst body, and the curved head. It looks less generic than the Rogue. Whether it sounds better or plays better than the Rogue is relative to personal opinion. So the main difference you're getting with this guitar is the physical style.

This guitar is 3/4 the size of a normal guitar. It's especially great for young learners and teenagers, but honestly, it works great as a beginner guitar for anyone, especially if you're concerned about finger pain. Many aspiring guitarists have given up because of the pain in their fingers caused by the strings. A classical guitar is a great solution to ease your fingers into their new lifestyle. A classical has nylon strings which are much easier on your fingers than the steal strings on a normal guitar. Though it won't have the same "big body" sound that you can get from the normal acoustic, it will still get the job done for any genre of music you want to play. The normal price brand new on this guitar runs about $115. But you can find them used on Amazon for well below $100.

Hopefully these options have proven to you how affordable learning the guitar can be. It doesn't take much to get started. And if you end up falling in love with it, you can always upgrade to better quality in the future.

However, the fact of the matter is, you never have to upgrade if you don't want. If your plan is to play the guitar as a hobby, then these guitars will do the job like any other.