I've taken lessons for a couple of months now, and though I'm not all that fantastic at playing guitar I'm a lot better off than I was before. And it's not so much the learning of theory and scales and what not but for me it's much more the experience. My instructor's a delightful bearded college student whom I can discuss music and movies with and occasionally swap materials, it's a pretty good time. As far as equipment goes, just a used Hohner accoustic picked up from a pawn shop for a hundred bucks. Sounds pretty well, good to learn on, I like it a lot. I think I can play a total of maybe two songs on the piano, aside from teaching myself the intro to "Baba O'Riley" on a little toy keyboard...not the synth part.