Just determine the style of guitar and budget for your purchase first. Then play everything you can get your hands on to try. Go to every music store you can get to and try as many as you can. When you find the one that sounds like the guitar you hear in your head, then buy it. if things break on it, they can be fixed. The guitar should speak to you as a whole. You can get some really great guitars for low dollars these days. I can't tell you how many cheap guitars I've played that stack up really well next to my 4K Gibson 345. In all honesty, I could play my gigs with an Epiphone 335 copy with my favorite brand and size of string with a good set up. Later on you can experiment with changing pickups, tuners, etc. Rest assured they will only make minor changes. If the guitar rocks to you, the two of you should be together.