Acoustic Guitars - everything I need to know about...?

Well, first off: With guitars, you really get what you pay for. A $100 guitar is gonna sound a lot different then a $500 guitar. HOWEVER, if he's just starting out, look for beginners kits at your local music store. A lot of places have them, they come with a guitar, tuner, pics, a bag usually, strap, string-winder, usually a second set of strings...pretty much everything you may need to get started. It may even come with a book to get him started, but otherwise I'm sure they'll have some. I started with a Mel Bay book.

Other then that, a good resource is tablature books. Most stuff out there has books that correspond to a particular artist or album, if you can't find it in stores you can usually find it online. Outside of that, pretty much just listen to the song and try to play along. I pretty much taught myself by ear, listening to the radio and playing along trying to figure it out. Granted, this was back in the grunge days when everything was pretty simple. Start out with punk or something like that, they are generally much easier to figure out. Metal and such will have to come later LOL

Also, I recommend starting with an Acoustic. It's cheaper for one thing, requiring less stuff to get started, and also because acoustics are generally a little harder to play then electrics. Why is that good? because when you're just learning you need to strengthen your muscles in your forearm and hand, and learn how to be more dextrous with your fingertips. Starting on an acoustic will get you much stronger, and the shift to electric will be much easier then it would be going from an electric to an acoustic.

Also, I started learning on a Classical Acoustic. There's 2 types Acoustics, Classical and Standard. The Classical neck doesn't taper as much (get thinner as you move away from the body towards the headstock), hits the body at the twelfth fret, and uses Nylon strings usually. They are made for fingerpicking, but obviously can be played with a pick as well. The extra space between the strings made it easier for me to learn. A standard goes to the 14th fret at the body, has more taper, and generally uses steel strings. These sound nicer then nylon but are a lot tougher on the fingers before he gets calluses. If anything, start with nylon strings regardless, they're much easier on the fingers.

Best thing to do really is to talk to the guys working at your music store. Chances are they're all guitar players, and have a good idea on what would make a good beginner guitar.

Good Luck! Guitar has been one of the most rewarding things in my life, I've been playing for 15 years now and I can't imagine not having a guitar near me at all times =D

Angry Deuce says it all. Can't emphasize enough how much of a difference there is for a beginner between steel and nylon strings. When I started, I learned on steel, but gave up early on.

Picked up a nylon string acoustic and "hey, this doesn't hurt!!!". Eventually built up some light callouses on my fingertips, went back to steel and built up some pretty hard ones. Easy for a beginner to be turned off by the pain.