Oscilloscope for newbie...

[Gregg]

For entry level USB scope and basic audio measurements you can hardly beat this one:

hantek 6022be | eBay

Comes with the probes as well. There are several similar products in this price range. Doesn't handle HV.

[Usable Thought]

As someone who 6 months ago was new to oscilloscopes & can now use one well enough for guitar amp work - I'd highly suggest going the "real piece of equipment" route & staying away from PC/USB scopes until you know what does what. At that point a USB scope could be a useful backup if you travel, etc.

A real scope will have knobs that stay in one place & have dedicated functions, not shared functions. Most PC/USB scope interfaces will assume you already know what the knobs do and will have at least some of the problems that make all software a PIA: Menus or buttons that change places, share places with each other, or disappear (out of sight, out of mind); mousing issues; overcrowded screen space; and lack of sufficient visual distinction due to 2-D surface. We are used to these problems & don't mind them so much with software we know well, e.g. a Web browser; but when both content (what you are looking at) & controls are entirely new to you, the PC interface adds a layer of difficulty that you don't need.

An analogy: the old-style car radios & temperature controls with regular knobs were easy to use; the new LCD-based ditto are so complicated & confusing, what with their inscrutable vanishing menus and sometimes vanishing "knobs" too, that I know quite a few car owners, including me & my wife, who just say the hell with it and use them sparingly and only the most basic functions. For a laugh, but also some real insight, I recommend reading Neal Stephenson's screed "In the Beginning was the Command Line" - available for download here. He nails the inherent problem with graphical computer interfaces.

Used scopes may or may not be plentiful depending on your location & how long you are willing to wait. If you're not in a hurry, I'd put out whatever feelers or weekly searches you can and settle in. It wouldn't hurt to do a light read on how to evaluate a used scope & what the basic functions are that you will want to use, just so when you do come across something you're not tongue-tied in asking questions or checking it out.

My only other thought is that for guitar amp & similar work, a CRT scope, assuming it's not too ancient or dinged up, is nicer than a digital scope. The waveforms on a digital scope just look like crap by comparison. There are other nice features that are only available on a digital scope, but we don't really need 'em.