1. What style do I play
2. [U]What's my budget?[/U]
3. [U]What's my budget?[/U] (duplicate intended...)
4. What are the type of guitars used by those who I want to play like?
(eg - Stevie Ray Vaughn - Strat syle; Metal a la Trivium - A more metal machine with a Floyd Rose type system; Jazz - Electric hollow body; Folk/Classical Guitar - Acoustic)
5. Do I want to get a guitar just to try it or am I so willing to play I can't stand it?
6. If your answer to 5 is that you're 'so willing to play', would you want to wait and save for a better, upgrade instrument to get a better grade to ease you initial playing?
...Just a few thoughts. No one can really recommend a guitar that will work for you, if you've never played, it can be hard to know what is good. My suggestion is, after knowing what 'kind' of guitar style you would be looking for (metal, blues or acoustic etc), start seperating out the price ranges they come in. While nowadays you can get lots of guitar for not a ton of money, you still want to make sure that you spend enough so that you get a guitar that you enjoy playing.
If the guitar doesn't play easy or well, you will never want to pick it up. You tend to find that you fight playing on a cheap guitar but when you start stepping up, it stops fight and start becoming and extension of you.
You don't have to buy a $2000 Les Paul and can get away with a fantastic guitar for maybe $500 or less.