[hmm_what?]

This guy started playing at 18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3WDG8pfzwA

How good you get depends on how you approach the instrument: How open minded you are, how patient you are, how much you practice you can do, how much playing you do, what you want to play. It also depends on your aptitude to music, some people pick it up easily but for others it's a struggle. Starting earlier does not necessarily mean someone will be a better player, in fact someone of 14+ can easily pick up in less than a month what takes the average young child many years to learn.

Most importantly you need to make sure you do things right from the beginning, you only cheat yourself by trying to cut corners.

FWIW I've been teaching guitar professionally for nearly 10 years and I started playing when I was 17.

[NB_ide]

(Original post by You Failed)
Not quite sure where all this talk of being at a disadvantage compared to people who started at 10 is coming from.

Of course you are. If nothing else, they have a number of years as a head start. You may well turn out better than them very quickly, but the {time in the activity} factor is always and advantaging factor. Just not the only factor.

I think this is a fairly old school of thought and comes from a period when it was thought that the brain was better at learning new skills at a young age and stop developing as you got older.

However, it has been shown that the brain remains plastic even in adulthood.

Yes the brain is still plastic in adulthood. But, sadly, less so than in childhood.

I'm pretty sure no one seriously believes that you don't become less able to learn as you get older. If they do then it's simply nativity and wishful thinking, or a failure to comprehend comparisons).

You'll change your tune once you get old yourself and see what happens.

So, it's never too late to start. You may be awful at it to begin with, but practise a lot and you should be just as good as anyone else.

What?

[ShredMaster]

I want to learn drums later on. I know Chris Adler started when he was pretty old, and he is pretty good (drummer of Lamb of God). I assume it is the same with guitar.