I've just started in on the guitar learning myself. My wife wound up getting me an acoustic for Christmas (Was bought from a friend of my son for $20 but hey, it's a guitar) and I messed around on the internet looking for information on how to play etc.
Found this site here and was learning off Lisa McCormick's free lessons. I Then decided to quit paying for one of my online games and bought the membership. Great investment.
That's when I discovered that I was going to need an electric to learn to play some of these other songs that the instructors were playing.
I bought my Axl Stratocaster type with a Peavey Amp at a pawn shop for $118 total I believe it was.
The electric is MUCH easier to learn on than the acoustic. As someone said in an earlier post, the acoustic strings are much harder! With the electric, I was able to start learning chords easier since the strings weren't tearing my fingers up. BUT I still go back to the acoustic to get the finger picking techniques down.
So, I'd go with a simple setup like that as my suggestion. ALSO, I've found that with other instructors teaching on here with different types of guitars, ie Hornbuckle Pickups, Semi- Hollow etc... There are programs out there that you can download and use for free to get that electric of yours to play and sound like other types. All ya need is the adapter to take your guitar jack down to a 3.5mm for the line in or mic jack on your computer.