Guitar

• An acoustic, steel-string, dreadnought-style guitar would work best for lessons with me, unless you already have your heart set on electric. In that case, you're on your own. Nylon strings (which is what a classical guitar uses) will be easier to press, but the neck is a lot wider and playing chords is more challenging. Either one will work fine, but I recommend steel-string.
• 6-strings. Don't start with a 12-string or a 7-string or whatever. Most are 6-strings anyway, but I don't want you to make that mistake.
• DO NOT get a left-handed guitar, even if you're genuinely left-handed. It just isn't worth it. It will feel awkward at first either way, so you might as well learn to play it the same way everyone else does. You'll save yourself a lifetime of frustration from not being able to play other people's guitars.
• Good action. "Action" is the distance from the strings to the neck at the 12th fret. The greater the distance, the harder it will be to press the strings down. Higher action = greater pain. Just ask the salesman to show you what "action" is.
• For adult-sized guitars, I wouldn't go much below $250, or you'll really regret it when the neck starts bowing in and the glue inside the body comes undone and it can't play in tune anymore. For kid-sized guitars, I'm guessing you probably wouldn't want to go too much below $175. I've never bought a kid-sized guitar, though.