Originally Posted by mr dave

Depends on your location more than anything. Private sale sites like Craigslist are fine, especially if you have a friend who can help you gauge quality. Most shops offer beginner packages with practice amps and carrying bags. The brands you'll likely be seeing the most are Squier, Epiphone, Yamaha, and Peavey. They're all decent enough for what they are. I still have an old Epiphone Special II, they retail around $200 and it's a tank.

As for cost generally $200-$300 (Canadian) for a beginner setup. You might get lucky and find something decent between $100-$200 through a private sale but anything under $100 is likely going to cause far more hassles than its worth.

Don't worry too much about the brand for now, at that level it's pretty irrelevant. There are a few major things you want to ensure with a learner instrument (this is where a friend with -any- experience comes in handy):

- the neck needs to be straight (just hold the body at eye level and look to the headstock)
- it has to stay in tune (play a chord, then bend some strings and play the same chord again - if you can't do it yourself, ask for a demo of chords, then a bluesy solo, then chords again)
- none of the frets should buzz (play every single note on the neck)

A lot of people make the mistake of acting like 'testing' an instrument is akin to auditioning for a band. While it's lame and dorky to sit there and slowly hit every single note on the neck but, really, it's the only way to check every fret.

The same applies to both bass and guitar, acoustic or electric. Also do NOT even consider a guitar with a floating bridge / whammy bar as a learner instrument. It'll will cause FAR too many hassles with tuning. If it's an electric it's also worth checking with and without an amp just to make sure there are no issues with the pickups or wiring.

Also - it has to look cool. Seriously. If you don't look at it and think 'yeah, that's cool' then you're not going to be as inclined to pick it up and practice; which never really feels like 'practice' when you're just playing with your new cool thing.