should I start with an acoustic or electric?

[marulee]

Make sure start with an acoustic to obtain proper skill to play it!

 

[imported_Imp]

I started electric: bad idea. I'm lazy, but love my strat so it's always in its box, this way, it never gets plugged in to the amp. Meanwhile, I now have an acoustic on a stand, it's cheap so no love (and I didn't buy it😉). Very accessible and sounds nice, but it's no strat.

 

[Fritzo]

Either or works...as long as it has strings.

An acoustic will be harder on your fingers, but it's cheaper and more portable.

An electric will be easier on your fingers and a bit easier to play due to less string tension, but more expensive and less portable due to the need of an amp.

Your choice.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: clamum
I'm no guitar expert, but I'm wondering why people are saying you develop better technique and skills if you start on an acoustic first. If you follow proper form or instruction, does it matter what type you start out on?

Common sense wins again 🙂

 

[Rock Hydra]

I would have preferred to start on the electric just for the action just seems to be way better on an electric, though using proper technique is important whether you start with either guitar.

 

[Noema]

No offense, but that 'start with an acoustic' cliché is crap.

If you are going to play metal (which requires A LOT of technique, by the way, probably more than any genre of popular music except Jazz) you N E E D to play electric. If you try to learn on acoustic and then move to electric...guess what...you are in for a nasty surprise: the distortion will be a nightmare. You need to know how to work with it.

You need to know how to palm mute. Plus Electric and Acoustics 'feel' different. Often, If I play a steel string accustic for a while, I feel my electric technique hampered because the strings feel so different. I always chuckle when people think an electric is 'easier'. Haha...try playing a sweep arpeggio with full blown distortion on an electric, or a super fast run that has to be played with all the notes picked, while having to mute every string so that it doesn't ring and bleed all over the place. Try downpicking 8th notes at 200BPM while alternating palm mute / chords like in thrash metal.

It all depends on the genre he wants to play:

If he wants to play pop / folk / campfire songs, he should get an acoustic. If you want to strum chords while chicks sing along, get an acoustic.

If he wants to play Classical he must get a nylon-stringed classical (and probably a guitar teacher).

If he wants to play blues, either will work, though acoustic blues is more chord oriented, whereas electric blues is single note runs oriented.

And for hard rock/ metal, no choice but an electric, preferably and electric with humbucker pickups.

It's not as black as white as 'develop your technique in accoustic, and then play electric which is easy mode anyway'.

At the end of the day, strumming chords on a steel stringed accoustic, playing Bach on a nylon string guitar and playing Thrash metal on a humbucker / active pickups equipped electric is so different that you need an specific tailored for the specific kind of music you play. Otherwise the experience will be frustrating.

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: SleepWalkerX
Cool, yeah I guess the general consensus here is to start at acoustic.

Right now I'm looking at musiciansfriend and is there really a wrong way to go? I assume I don't want to get a really cheap guitar. Its interesting to see that almost everything is like 50% off. Washburn, Epiphone, and Yamaha good? Or does it depend on the model?

Overall, I'd recommend Yamaha. I learned on a Yamaha acoustic, and currently own a Yamaha electric. Not sure I've ever played a bad one.
However, I don't know that I've ever heard an unkind word about the guitars from Rondo Music, and now I have a bass from them that cost $150, and plays just as well or better than a Charvel bass that I paid twice that amount for ten years ago.

Hey, naked, I ended up buying the SX SST62 pack from Rondo Music for my daughters xmas present -- and I'm pretty happy with the quality (so far). Granted -- I don't know anything about guitars, but tinkering with it on xmas morning everything sounded good and it had a good feel to it.
(You commented in a similar thread as this one a couple weeks ago and recommended the Yamaha to me. By the time I decided to buy the yamaha package deal from musiciansfriend or guitarcenter, they were both sold out -- so I went with the one from RondoMusic)
Fast (but expensive!) shipping got it across the country to me before xmas, so I'm happy. [to be fair, shipping was ~$25 -- which I guess isn't bad for a large guitar box + fairly heavy amp -- it's just that I'm used to 'free shipping' with online orders]

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Thanks for all the feedback! Hmm I guess I'm on the line then. I mean the only reason I wanted to start on an acoustic was to get the instant gratification that I can learn to play a song I know and have it sound as similar as possible, you know? I guess it would also be a lot of fun to play all these acoustic songs I know. I'm just afraid of becoming too impatient with trying to sound just like a song I know with an electric guitar and I don't want to give up so quickly.

I think I'll just buy an acoustic now and learn how to play it while saving up money to buy an electric. If you guys have any suggestions I'll definantly look into them. I guess its time to do some research now.