(Replace "guitar" with "ukelele", "bass", etc., as necessary)
I guess my answer to that question would be another question: How good do you want to be? Followed by another question: How long are you willing to work for it? Or, "Are you willing to work for as long as it takes?" (I wrote a post about figuring out who you are as a musician that's relevant to these questions, which you can read here).
Some guitarists just want to learn to play the blues. And you can have a lot of fun doing something like that, if that's your thing. Learn a few blues scales, learn some simple fretboard theory, jam with some backing tracks. How good you want to be will be up to you, but it shouldn't take long before you start to sound musical - weeks, months perhaps.
Other guitarists want to be the next Eddie Van Halen, or so they claim. The truth is that most guitarists who claim to want to play that well tend not to put the time and effort into actually making it happen. But, if you will (and you want to be that good), you may be in for some long days of practice. I wouldn't expect you to sound anywhere near as good as Eddie Van Halen for years (assuming you put the time in, and with the right methods).
Me? I love writing music. As long as what I'm writing means something to me - and is something that others enjoy - I'm pretty happy. On the skill/technical front, I try to make sure I'm getting better at all of my instruments - guitar (acoustic and electric), ukelele, bass, piano, and vocals - as I progress with my songs. If I see progress, I'm happy.
I have no serious desire to play as well as Eddie. He's awesome. But I'm pretty happy doing what I'm doing - writing music, and teaching guitar, bass, piano, and ukelele.
How good do you want to be? And, perhaps more importantly, how much are you willing to work to become that good?
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