Originally posted by Josh Redstone
Ya know, people say that you can get by just reading tab.
WRONG!
What happens if I wanna learn a song I've never heard before, can I do it with tab? Nope, but I could with sheet music.
And what happens if I wanna write down some music so that someone else can play it without hearing the song. Gotta use sheet music.
Frettycrouger was right, I've heard the same thing from many people also, and really, if you start learnig guitar by playing with sheet music(like me), you'll notice that its not that hard, as opposed to someone who's been playing with tabs for years and tries to learn to read music.
My advise to all beginner guitarists out there is to learn to read music as you learn to play. It will serve you much better than tab will.

Well... not all tabs dont have timing, I mean tabs like 'Guitar Pro'... a lot of tab books are written the same way, and if not, they have it written in 2 lines together (one for tab and the other for standard notation), so that you can figure out the timing from the notation.

And if you wanna write some music for yourself (or someone else) in a notebook or something, you can always include timing (I always write my tabs this way so I don't forget how to play my stuff!).

I believe that learning standard notation for a guitarist isn't that essential, but it will surely enhance your musical knowledge.