Every man of style should know how to do certain things, useful or otherwise: e.g. change a tire, prepare a signature dish, sew a button, etc. And play a musical instrument. Few abilities are more impressive, especially to women.
To those of you who can play an instrument, you already know what I mean. But to those who have never picked up an instrument, its possible to sound reasonably good even as a beginner. The guitar is the perfect instrument for most of us. Portable and relatively inexpensive, yet very easy to learn the basics - most contemporary music seems to be built around 4-5 chords, so if you know the basic chords, you can play an infinite selection of songs. Of course, like with anything else, it takes years of practice to play like Eric Clapton or George Benson, but to play simple contemporary music, all it takes is a few hours.
If you want to start, then I suggest acoustic guitar for its simplicity and low tech requirements.
Martin Guitars is one of the oldest continuously operating business in the US today - it is a unique company that produces some of the best acoustic guitars in the world despite being one of the largest companies in the industry. Their guitars range from $200 for a travel guitar to over $10,000 and above for high end dreadnaught, the most popular body type. And their vintage models can reach $175,000 and up for the rare
prewar D-45, of which only 91 were built. All their models, even the cheaper ones, sound generally great, with a distinct tone that makes recognizable to players as "that Martin sound".
Simple guitar lessons showing the basics are available for free on YouTube - Happy strumming!
