It’s probably fine. If at all possible, find somebody to set it up properly for you. You may avoid some frustrations with the instrument if the string height and intonation and neck etc are fighting you less.
+1
E-Sabbath - yay. Remember: playing for 5 minutes on a single string, rocking out to a favorite riff in your brain, is better than not playing at all because the chords feel funny. Keep playing - stuff will come.
Yeah, the top strings buzz a bit. I’m wondering how you raise string height.
The short answer: take it to a guitar tech and spend ~$50 to get it set up properly.
Yes, you can use an Allen wrench / hex key to screw in the set screws in each strings’ bridge saddle, but that throws other aspects of your guitar’s “system” off and so if you don’t know what you’re doing - or what to go back and re-check - you can put yourself on a never-ending-or-satisfying guitar tweak cycle. Kinda like trimming your sideburns - you keep working up to the scalp!
Get it set up properly…
Amen.
I took up the electric guitar earlier this year; my wife bought me an Epiphone Les Paul Special II in a starter set at Guitar Center. They didn’t do a set-up there (as it was in a box), and the low E string buzzed terribly. When I started taking lessons, I had the tech there do a set-up for me, which cut down the buzz substantially. I’ve since discovered that much of the rest of the buzzing was due to poor fret technique. 
And, my brief bit of advice: you won’t get good at it in a few days, or even in a few weeks. It’s taken me 6 months of lessons to get to the point where I can play something and it sounds like a recognizable song. But…I reached a breakthrough a few weeks ago, and suddenly, my fingering is coming more quickly, and I’m really happy with how things are progressing. So, I do encourage you to stick with it…it takes time, but it can be worth it. (And, this is coming from someone who was convinced he had no musical talent.)
Lemme rephrase.
Make me aware, here, of what it means to ‘set up’ a guitar? How do you raise a bridge? What does screwing with the neck do?
And I can almost play Ode to Joy. Which isn’t half bad, really. I’m gonna just work on the first two strings a bit.
Basically, it means tweaking the various components of the guitar’s “system” to render it as playable, great-sounding and reliably tunable as possible.
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You typically first check the neck relief - is the truss rod set properly so the neck is straight or very slightly bowed?
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Then you check the action - the height of the strings off the fretboard. Ideally you just adjust the saddles at the bridge, but often you have to re-slot the nut (where the strings cross at the peghead) or do some fret leveling, etc.
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Then you check the intonation - i.e., the length of each string via the individual saddles. You want the string fretted at the 12th fret to intone the same as the 12th fret harmonic - this means that the string is the proper length for that guitar.
You typically give the electronics and tuning pegs a once over - anything that will affect the qualities of the guitar described above.
There’s a bunch of tutorials here about different aspects of setting up a guitar. For example, here’s one on adjusting a truss rod, another on adjusting string height. As WordMan said, proceed with due caution if you try this stuff yourself. In your shoes I’d just hire a tech, because you don’t have any feel for what a properly setup instrument should play like, and therefore no frame of reference to know if you did something wrong or what that wrong thing was.
I took my acoustic to a shop because the action was too high. The dude basically frightened the crap out of me. He said it’d cost $120 and that I’d be better off doing it myself - but if I did, I’d probably screw it up and trash the guitar.
I went to a different shop. They also quoted $120 but said that - unless I really loved the guitar - I’d be better off putting the $120 towards something decent. Which I did.
If that first guy had not given me the horror story, I would’ve just given him the $120 - but then I would not have ended up with a beautiful surf green strat 
I intend to go back and fix the action one day but I can’t imagine ever getting tired of playing my new guitar and going back to the old one.
Can you say more about cleaning strings? Should I be doing this? How?
I noticed last night that my strings sound a little less vibrant than they did a couple of weeks ago. How often should I change the strings? Would cleaning the strings prolong the time between changes?
Oh, I plan to hire a tech, I just wanted to know what the dynamic factors in play were. I mean, it’s no good if you don’t know at least what you can do to an instrument, even if you’re not going to do it yourself.
Strings do start bright and then slowly get duller as they age from use. You can slow this process by wiping the strings clean with a soft cloth after playing, but it will still happen and you will need to change them eventually. How often you need to change strings depends on how picky you are about tone and how much you play. When I was jamming all of the time with friends, I’d change my strings weekly. Now I do it about monthly, when intonation becomes difficult and they sound dull.
I’ve found some brands of string age faster than others, so experiment. For me, Ernie Ball strings last a ridiculously short time. I’ve used Dean Markley strings since forever, and they seem to wear more slowly and give a more even tone, but I’m sure there are other string brands that work just as well.
I like Elixir coated strings (on an acoustic, don’t know what they’re like on an electric). They cost twice as much but they last for ages. On one guitar I’ve had for 20 months, I’ve only changed the strings once, and that was because I wanted to try a different gauge rather than because they sounded dull.
A few thoughts:
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The previous posters are steering you right. One thing not mentioned so far is simply your hands - different folks have different acidity in their sweat which directly affects string life. I am sorry to report that I have sweaty palms and acidic sweat which makes for short string life. I should be changing them after a few hours of playing time. I have friends who play similar guitars and strings but have less acidic/dryer hands and they hold onto them for months, per some of the other posters.
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Another big factor is your playing style. Even if I didn’t burn out the strings in a few hours of playing time, I would have to change them anyway - I typically blow through D’s and A’s through my aggressive rhythm style. For punky songs, I pound straight down-strokes hard, and for classic rock stuff there is a lot of chunking rhythms with my palm resting on the strings at the bridge. So if you are on the Townshend, Stevie Ray end of the spectrum you should plan to change your strings more often.
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Dirty strings aren’t all that bad and newer strings aren’t all that great - people typically love the sound of new strings on a guitar, especially acoustics. But you know what? You’re really just hearing the bright, metallic harmonics of the strings themselves a bit - it adds a bit of reverb-like shimmer to the tone and it stands out - kinda like a fresh coat of lipstick, regardless of the attractiveness of the woman. But it “coats” the actual tone of the guitar; you have to play the strings a bit to dull that sheen and position the strings’ contribution to the tone in a more proper place. Eddie Van Halen is known for preferring old strings, especially in the studio. And Stevie Ray was such a sweaty pig that no strings sounded new on his guitars ;). Learning how to listen to an acoustic guitar past new-string brightness takes time - but you can fool yourself into hearing a “great guitar” when you are really hearing fresh strings.
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Use cleaners and oils sparingly - sure, wipe down your guitar with a clean, natural cloth after playing, but do NOT use guitar polish every time - use it maybe once a month or even once every 2 - 3 months. And do NOT oil your fretboard with lemon oil or some other branded product more than, oh, once a year, if that. Used sparingly, those products clean and/or refresh the guitar - used a lot, they gunk things up. I recently got a vintage Gibson acoustic - over 60 years old. I was so freaked out at the thought of being the custodian for such a thing that before I even considered getting it, I tried to do some research. Through a weird set of coincidences, I ended up talking to Kerry Keane, the guy on the Antiques Roadshow who is the head of Christie’s Musical Instruments department - he put together Clapton’s two auctions and has spent time building guitars and violins (it was very cool to be able to talk with him and he was incredibly patient and nice - which is why they pay him the big bucks, I guess ;)). Anyway, you know what he told me when I asked how high-maintenance a vintage guitar was? He told not to do anything to it but keep it in its case (i.e., NO humidifier), wipe it down after every use, don’t mess with the tuning a lot and keep it fully tuned - and that’s about it. It completely floored me - on some acoustic guitar message boards frequented by guys who get custom-made, super-high-end boutique acoustics built, they discuss polishes as if they were Bordeauxs and humidifiers like they were Rolexes. Bottom line? Keep it cased and wiped.
All for now,
WordMan
Wow! Thanks for the comprehensive advice, Wordman. I really appreciate it.
I tend to the sweaty end of the spectrum so I guess I will be taking up the string-wiping habit.
No worries - a guitar geek’s job is to stay vigilant; someone, somewhere *has * to have need of this meaningless crap I have accumulated in my head 
I agree with this mostly. Brand-spankin’ new strings are too bright IMO, and feel/sound better after an hour or two of steady playing. Not to mention that the tuning stabilizes. But, as I said above, it’s a matter of personal taste how you want your strings to sound, and when to change them if that tone has dulled more than you’d like. For me, there’s a plateau that’s reached after some playing, and after that the string tone stays mostly the same for days to weeks. Some time during interval, I’ll eventually notice that chords start sounding a bit more ‘out’ than I’d like, and the intonation gets compromised, and I’ll start thinking about that pack of Markley 10’s in the cupboard.
I also like to change strings somewhat regularly because with the strings off I can give the guitar a good wipe-down with a soft cloth, and keep the fretboard nice and clean and wipe away all the metal bits that have worn off the strings in the picking area.
ETA: I also keep around a can of compressed air (available from Radio Shack), and I’ll use that to spritz away dust and such that settles around the pickups and bridge etc., when I’m not ready to change strings.
Hello! I cannot read. Please ignore
Me, too. It also sounds like I’m overdue for new strings.