I'm just sayin' what if...

[deshead]

I see that Fender offers lefty guitars. That's appealing, since I'm a lefty. Am I going down a bad path to learn guitar backwards, or is it no big deal?

Heh, it might even be easier because chord diagrams are backwards on the page for right-handers. But the toughest thing for beginners is learning to coordinate the actions of both hands, regardless of whether it's the left or right hand doing the strumming. And given your background, you've probably got that mostly licked anyway. So no worries.

[roymond]

Jim - some random thoughts on beginner pointers for guitar selection.

Nylon strings are larger and less likely to slice through your fingers, but by no means are they easy to play for long periods of time or for anything beyond basic open chords (at the end of the neck incorporating open strings). Bar chords are difficult and navigation above the fifth fret gets harder as you go up. I don't doubt that someone with your abilities can obtain enough technique to move into these spheres for musical purpose.

I recommend a Strat, as I think Steve did, as they have a comfortable feel against the body and are generally pretty darn fun to hold. But this can apply to any electric. This goes against all formal training, but I also agree that a lot of it is about feel and appeal. As with any instrument, it's an ax. It has a certain roll to play in that regard.

Those with small, varnished maple finger boards and low frets are slippery and the models folks often go for when trying to get rediculously low action (height from fret to strings). They also tend to be sort of "sloppy" necks to play on. There are some with unvarnished mahogany (or cherry?) fret boards that are relatively wide and flat. These allow for easier chord navigation, since there's a little more space between strings, especially for someone who probably has pretty good finger independence from keyboarding. Those with thick necks (fingerboard to the back) like Les Pauls are harder for some to hold since your fingers need to reach out farther to play. This can cramp things up especially if you have shorter fingers.

You may be attracted to semi solid jazz guitars for their tone and feel, but a decent quality jazz guitar will cost more since body construction and neck bolts, etc. need to be of higher grade.

You will have far fewer choices for lefty guitars than righties. If you don't already have an affinity for one or the other try playing a righty. There will always be about 5000% more of them available at any given moment. That said, I think lefties are totally cool. Girl lefty players get extra points, but... you know.

Even beginners can produce a good tone one note at a time. This is done not by pressing directly above a fret, but pressing just below a fret (the side closer to the tuners). Play each note slowly and deliberately from the first fret all the way up the neck. Take your time and listen for clean notes with no buzzing. Repeat for each string. This will let you know if the neck is straight and the frets are even. If you hear buzzes, or worse skipped notes entirely, dismiss the guitar and move on.

[obscurity]

You have never been on the receiving end of Midi bashing reviews, I take it. They ain't no fun at all. I tell ya, my personal arrangement choices are driven almost entirely by what I think I can get away with Midi-wise without sounding like the Ms. Pac-Man theme.

It's entirely possibly to get a perfectly serviceable guitar sound with just midi. There are 3 products that I'd recommend for this - Steinberg's Virtual Guitarist, Musiclab's Realguitar and Native Instrument's Guitar Rig.

Granted, they're not cheap. But they're a *lot* cheaper than buying the equivelant hardware and will give you a huge range of possibilities (and they're also a lot cheaper over kazaa ;) ).

Sure, some guitarists may take issue with this, and insist that you can't fake it, but fuck 'em - they're just being purists. You can fake it. The important thing is not to have it be played like a robot was playing it - both VG and RG help in this aspect by offering various ways to 'humanize' the sound.

[jute gyte]

for what it's worth, i'm left-handed and play right-handed guitar. it keeps your options much more open when looking for a cheap guitar, and i actually think it's easier, since it puts fretwork, in my mind a more complicated task than strumming, in the domain of the dominant (left) hand.
and i would, as others have, recommend a cheap stratocaster.
i also recommend that you base your arrangements around what sounds most like the ms. pac-man theme.