mr dave

Except that pain could also mean your wrists are seizing up and you're causing yourself all sorts of carpal tunnel problems. If you think that learning how to manhandle the strings on a super high action guitar is going to make you somehow more proficient on a properly setup low action guitar, you're setting yourself up for a harsh surprise.

It's one thing to challenge yourself by trying to learn a technically demanding piece right off the bat as your first tune (like Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix). It's a whole other thing to try learning to play on, what is essentially, a broken instrument.

The ONLY time you should be considering a really high action guitar is if you want to be all like Ben Harper and playing slide guitar exclusively. Otherwise you're just developing a bunch of bad habits to compensate for a bad instrument.

Again - the only concerns for a beginner guitar are - it stays in tune and it has a straight neck.

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