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You said: “Not being very advanced yet, I wonder if I will notice much of a difference, or have a preference”.
I agree @ironpat . I have bought and sold a number of guitars since joining TAC 2 1/2 years ago. And I don’t have much money. The Alvarez parlor (AP66) I was talking about lists for $399 and I bought an open box for $300 from zzounds. I currently have 10 guitars, a ukulele and a guitarlele (tenor ukulele body with shortened guitar neck). I have sold 6 guitars, 5 of them on Reverb. When I joined TAC I had one guitar. So I bought 15 guitars and sold 6 of them. That’s why I have some insight into your question and some resonance with your desire to get it right from the beginning.
The more experience you have playing guitar, the more you will notice the differences in guitars and the more you will know what direction you want to go in. However, I believe that there is a certain amount of trial and error you’re going to have to go through. Sitting in a guitar shop playing a guitar isn’t going to tell you much until you already know what kind of guitar you want. It took me playing a guitar for weeks or even months before I had a definite opinion about it’s strengths and weaknesses and how much I did or didn’t like the guitar.
Because you own one guitar and it’s a dreadnaught, my suggestion is to buy at least one lesser expensive guitar to take you farther down your guitar path. Ibanez makes very good guitars at an unbelievable price and they copy a lot of more expensive, popular guitars. Ditto for Alvarez and some others.
I hope this is helpful.
MG 😀