Ah, that was pretty simple.
At lunchtime I made a quick trip to a local music store. A nice music store. I learned a few things:
The lady who greeted me knew nothing about guitars.
The kid she asked to help me wasn’t on the clock yet, so he told her where the “cheaper” guitars were.
I picked a nice $800 number from the “cheap” rack and decided perhaps this store was too rich for my blood. FWIW, the owner (I guess) came out and we talked quite a bit about guitars and kids and getting started and you know, I think I might shop around some more before I buy but thank you for your time.
Since then, Google has helped me find:
- What my son probably wants.
- What my son will likely get.
- What I want, among other things. That’s a Pawless, btw, and Vince has been kind enough to share some words of wisdom with me about guitars over time.
To answer a question from the comments, yes I used to play, back when I was a kid. In fact for an exam I once played “Margaritaville,” which did not amuse my teacher too much. I had another teache that convinced me that Jethro Tull was awesome. It didn’t take much convincing, but learning to play some of their stuff helped with the appreciation quite a bit. I haven’t touched a guitar in probably twenty years, so to say I was rusty would be too kind.
The search shall continue…