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Read 'Musicophilia' by Oliver Sacks. Interesting stuff about music and the brain. Hard to say for sure if abilities cross over from one thing to another. Music seems to use distinct parts of the brain. People with brain injuries and other issues often can maintain musical ablilites and sometimes even 'discover' new musical abilities they didn't know they had. Or they recover certain brain functions but lose the music.
Some people are fortunate to be just good at everything,  but doing anything well involves 90% perspiration and 1% inspiration

Not everone likes them but there are many devotees. Get an old, US-made, deep bowl, solid topped one. Anything with 'Celebrity or 'CC', or Applause in the name are more budget models (and are good budget models)

Apparently the Japanese made great acoustic guitars in the 70's. But if you love it, do you care what its worth in money, or in popular opinion?

Not necessarly ever, though they can eventually wear out

OR

what MEKIDSMOM said

Get a good one, even if 2nd-hand. A bad one will be hard to keep in tune and hard to play, and if old, the tension of the strings may have distorted the neck and/or the top, making it even harder to play and tune.

I was fortunate to find an old good one made by Ovation (round backed but not shallow bodied). Structurally they are possibly the best.
Anyone who has heard mine loves the sound, but some people have a sort of quasi-religious belief that guitars with synthetic round backs are bad. Do a search for Ovation on the web but ideally stick to US-made solid-topped ones (any Ovation with Celebrity, CC, Matrix, or Applause in the model name/number is from their budget range).
I've tried playing mine with only 6 strings and it sounds a but dead. 12-strings are heavily built and 6 strings don't have enough power to 'drive' them.

Also try Nashville tuning - a sort of 12string sound from 6-string guitar - search Chordie for details.

Never heard it called that. I've heard it called "that folkin' thing" alright.

Well, the comic book and me, just us, we caught the  bus
  The poor little chauffeur, though, she was back in  bed
  On the very next day, with a nose full of  pus
  Yea! Heavy and a bottle of  bread

Medium too difficult. Extralight too tinny. I've eventually settled on Light gauge for best combination of sound and playability. (12-string needs extralight). Regarding brand, ABM (anything but Martin) for me.

Sounds great. Just a job, a family and an ocean make it a bit tricky. Oh well, nearly time to get my kayak and fly rods out here anyway. And here's the ideal guitar to take
http://www.blackbirdguitar.com/rider_steel.html
(is carbon fibre waterproof or at least damp proof?)

DE, I did try Nashville tuning and love it, but t's a bit redundant as I have 12-string too. Also it does weird things of you play melody across all 6 strings as the 6th string is no longer the lowest pitch.

I did try deviating from the standard string combination on the 12-string as I wanted a unison pair on the G instead of an octave pair. Didn't work great though - 2 plain strings on the G were either too thin (inotnation problems) or too thick (increasing neck tension, probably safe enough but didn't want to risk it). Also experimented with a different 2nd string in DAGDAD tuning as a standard light-gauge B didn't sound/feel right when tuned down to A. But abandoned that too for similar reasons

So now it's standard light-gauge sets on the 6-string and standard extralight on the 12 for me. Until I get another guitar that's permanently DAGDAD, another permanently Nashville, another that is....