Originally Posted by: schmangeI guess it depends on the situation and whether you can afford it or not.
Personally, I never regretted not taking them, except for the extra amount of time it took to learn.
I'm glad that I avoided the whole 'beginner' song thing with the cheesy standards, learning to read music and remembering what all the scale names were..or having a teacher telling me what I wasn't supposed to do.
But it woulda been nice to have someone show me how to do tapping and sweeping without it taking 5 years to figure out on my own.

I am completely self taught. And as far as technique goes I'm pretty fine with that. I know of a lot of capabilities and techniques and etc. that can be done with the guitar so all that's left is practice. I learned all that through reading, watching, listening and talking to other guitarists... especially the ones here. So what's left but to perfect what I know. Of course I don't mean to imply that I already know everything that can be done. That's a load on its own. But you get the point, you can learn better than most teachers can teach by listening, watching, talking and reading. And in those scenarios it's usually a lot cheaper. I have considered taking music theory lessons however. I've got a lot of room to improve in theory that I think lessons could help, but I may just find some music theory books instead and ask a few people some questions. 20 bucks in one lump sum for a book that helps forever or X amount a week to watch some dude shred and say "now you". Always be careful when looking for a teacher. Find as much about him as you can. Talk to some of his students, anything. I don't trust the majority of them myself though. I must iterate though, a good teacher is something to behold, if you get one of those then you're in like Flint. They're just too far and few between... sadly.