Originally Posted by: haghj500My opinion
6 to 8 hunderd dollars will by a great guitar, after that you start paying for "Name" or "Pretty"

My advice
Go to many shops, play many guitars of all shapes and sizes and do not look at the name of who made the guitar. Use the sound your ears hear to decide what guitar you should buy next. Once you find one that feels good in your Hands and sounds Great to your ears. Buy it. You may find that your happy with a $500.00 guitar.

That's a pretty good price range to start with... I agree to some extent that after that you're paying for the name... but not entirely. For instance, I have a Breedlove AC250/C (about an 1,100 dollar guitar) and when I play it then play my friends Taylor 614CE (about a 2,400 dollar guitar) I can tell an extreme difference in the sound, the playability, and the craftmanship.

Now that you're seemingly becoming more serious about playing guitar, and you're also coming up with a budget - I would suggest looking at what feels right for you. You want something more mellow sounding? That sounds like you're looking at something with Mahogany back and sides - Avoid maple!!

Once you get over around 800 dollars you're kind of in the same quality range until you reach about 1,500 dollars. I don't suggest getting lower end models of high end companies. i.e. Martin or Taylor. These companies specialize in high end guitars and tend to subtract a lot from their lower end models while still retaining a high price tag.

Look at Breedlove, Gretsch, Gibson, and Epiphone Masterbuilt models... those should all give you high quality while maintaining a manageable budget.