heya , i play for about a year now , got me a Ibanez Rg 2570 Prestige . I listen to Metal mostly (everything except Nu ). I find learning guitar is pretty hard in a way because it indeed takes years and progress is very slow (unless you’re a natural talent probably). But i find it very interesting and i practice everyday. I have taken some lessons from a friend of mine who’s playing for 20 years now and i suggest you do thesame if possible , you really learn a lot more and you get a bigger understanding of music theory than when you have to figure everything out by yourself. i took about 15 lessons but now i’m back on my own , since i don’t have the time to go to the lessons. I got some friend who play in a band (Viggen =>80’s Thrash Metal =>http://users.pandora.be/paul.ulrix) and seeing how they play makes you want to run home ,pick-up your guitar and start practicing 🙂 My advice is : practice as much as you can and if it doesn’t work right away keep trying , eventually you’ll get the hang of it . It’s constantly pushing yourself further and further but in the end it’s well worth it (at least that’s the way i experience it)