I teach mostly acoustic these days. My suggestion is depending on what kind of music you want to play, the fender telecasters and stratocasters that they are currently producing out of Mexico are excellent instruments. I don’t know what kind of genre of music you are interested(please let me know if you like!) but these solid body instruments are sturdy as hell and can play just about any style you like out of it. Similarly, squires are excellent instruments if you get a set up.(see below)

The ones produced a couple hundred miles away in California can cost hundreds to a thousand dollars more, for not really not much of a qualititative difference. They can be found all over Reverb.com used for quite reasonable prices.

Once you have acquired your instrument, take it for a set up at a luthier in your area. Tell them that you are just starting playing, and that you would like a set up on your new instrument.

This can cost anywhere from $50-100 in your area. They will ensure it is fully playable and in tune across the range of the instrument. Depending on the strength of your hands, I would recommend that you ask your guitar tech/luthier to set up your instrument with 8’s or 9’s maximum for a beginning player. This just refers to the thickness of the gauge of strings on your instrument. The thicker, the more difficult they can be to play.

Similarly, look into used amps from fender or gibson. The princeton reverb and the champ amp are excellent, sturdy, professional grade amplifiers that are also relatively simple to service, and work in a variety of musical styles. They are currently flooding the used market right now because so many were produced, so I think you can find a deal there.

Let me know if I missed anything, and I hope this helps for guitar! Comrade @Angel@hexbear.net, I hope that it is okay for me to summon you for electric bass tips too.

I greatly want to second what @MusicOwl@hexbear.net is saying about getting used instruments, as I do this for two primary reasons:

1. Cost
2. Environmental Friendliness

Contrary to popular belief, a used instrument can serve the job just as well as a new one, alongside the other advantages it has such as the sustainability aspect I mentioned. It's all about finding one that has been taken care of well and doing whatever work with a luthier you can to maintain it once you get it. What MusicOwl said about Fender Teles and Strats is accurate, by the way. As a bassist, Fender Precision and Jazz instruments are highly well-rounded and among some of the most affordable basses, and there is a similar type of dynamic for Fender guitars as well. I and many other stringed instrument players have started off with Fenders. Right now, I'm seeking to, sometime in the near future, get a used yet quite affordable model of a seven-string bass that's no longer in production.

This depends on the style of music you generally play as well. I am, first and foremost, a progressive metal bassist who has been composing djent and that kind of shit using weird time signatures. I composed a 5/4 lick for guitars that I'm loving the sound of, and I hope to expand it into a beautiful, full-fledged song. What I got in my mind sounds incredible already; I just gotta connect the dots.

Regardless of genre, though, Fender instruments are incredibly versatile to the point of being found across so many genres. Good luck with your guitar hunt, comrade, and don't be afraid to ask any more questions about any specifics you want to know of in further detail.