I do agree that a badly made guitar will certainly hamper a beginner from enjoying the experience, but I was more talking about a reasonably made 'cheap' guitar - production of Chinese and Indonesian guitars these days is remarkably good (and consistent).
One situation that highlights my argument is: I was talking to my guitar teacher the other day, who is a monster player. He had a well known maker build him a Les Paul style guitar, but when he received it, he had a hard time getting used to playing it - something seemed off. He sat down with the builder and went over the guitar with a fine tooth comb (literally - the used a set of calipers), and discovered that the 'B' string slot on the bridge was out of place about one string width. One millimetre out, and he could feel that something was wrong.
To an intermediate player like me, I probably would never have detected that - my playing style and speed is not at the level where that would even make a difference to me.
One situation that highlights my argument is: I was talking to my guitar teacher the other day, who is a monster player. He had a well known maker build him a Les Paul style guitar, but when he received it, he had a hard time getting used to playing it - something seemed off. He sat down with the builder and went over the guitar with a fine tooth comb (literally - the used a set of calipers), and discovered that the 'B' string slot on the bridge was out of place about one string width. One millimetre out, and he could feel that something was wrong.
To an intermediate player like me, I probably would never have detected that - my playing style and speed is not at the level where that would even make a difference to me.