Learning to play the guitar is very different depending on which type of guitar you begin with. Starting with a nylon-stringed classical guitar is preferable, as its strings are softer and its sound somewhat more welcoming to a newcomer. An electric guitar has a more abrasive voice and a slightly more painful set of strings. But nothing is worse on the guitar amateur’s virgin fingers than the steel strings of an unbroken-in acoustic guitar. I remember the first bit of blood to come from my fingertips onto those strings, a piercing pain that felt like the guitar had ripped to the bone but was ultimately a surface wound, something you’d have to deal with again and again.