Continue and expand greatly on the listening task of week 2, take the advice of ben and look at some phase inversion to de-construct some of the effects used.
Seek to discover much much more about the recording of the track, what mics, where were instruments recorded, what desk was used... things such as this should become fairly normal questions.
I think the guitar in the intro is an acoustic steel string. I don't think it was an electric-acoustic as I'm pretty sure I can hear fret noise during the pause 0:03 sec. The sound of this guitar makes me think the mic was positioned up the neck and a little bit out, with the mic pointing back down the fretboard. I think that is how they got a sharp (almost electric) sound rather than a warm sound obtained by a mic at the body.
