those myriad of tab sites are pretty damn good, a lot better than they were when i first looked at them back in the dial-up beginnings say 6 or 7 yrs ago, the quality and accuracy has risen 1000%. Some of them were outrageously bad back then (i knew many of them already from learning BY EAR).
But really ..how about Youtube (with fast BB access), ..singlehandly, youtube has made rapid advancement for beginners (sound familiar in another hobby?) of learning guitar unbelievably easy! I can freely log on to 'one on one' masterclasses, rewind, pause ect. infinitum FOR NOTHING! with the worlds finest guitar players that ever lived! of course DVD's were the last such advancement and instructional dvd's (and you cant underestate the importance/conveniance of that digital quality again compared to preceding technology.. pause rewind/loop coupled with the accompanying supplied tab!) from absolute masters abound and can be ordered with total ease via internet/amazon for example, and their numbers grow exponentially everyday!
I could write a thesis on this subject easlily - from what was available in say early 80's to aspiring guitarists/beginners to what we have today - is simply breathtaking - all we had was cassette tapes and a handful of outrageously expensive books that were full of errors and leaned towards keyboards (as that was who had transcribed the music), even for heavy guitar bands such as led zep. true tab was emerging then, but the scope and quality of transcribed stuff was nothing compared to whats on offer now.
more stuff: How about those little free!! programs that allow you to open a audio file/song and change the pitch to 440/concert without altering tempo!!!! so you can play along without re-tuning your guitar to match the recordings tuning, and slow it down to analyse solos ect. without changing pitch!! these things we would of killed for in the old days! sure there was expensive reel to reels, but not many had nice versions of those, cerain;ly not as common as dvd/cd players and computers.
so much so that one old timer i know, upon first seeing these developments ie tab on the net, dvds, back then, reaction was - are they dying? and need to pass on their life long hard earned info before they pass? like old magicians who get excommunicated for passing on industrial secrets of the trade to the public. lol!
i could easily go on and on - ie excellent value chinese/ and japanese made music gear, ebay, technology, the net in general (releasing us from the tryanny of the robberbaron local music shops with f all variety and stock pre-internet days) ect. ect. (more familiar stuff?) guitarists you've/we've never had it so good and easy!!
but anyway now you know were i am spending a rapidly increasing amount of time -
youtube
)
Rock on 
arrrggggg - funny but when we were young not many 10-16 yr olds had $3000 + guitars (or BMW's for that matter) this affluenza epidemic is getting stronger! 
those top shelf guitars play themselves! its a freaky thing believe me 
