Before getting an electric guitar...
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Topic: Before getting an electric guitar...
Posted By: Shatterwolf
Subject: Before getting an electric guitar...
Date Posted: November 14 2004 at 14:45
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I don't plan on becoming the next Jimi Hendrix, but what kind of electric guitar should I buy? I plan on trying to play some Kansas and Yes songs with it, with plenty of practice, of course. I'm planning to buy one for Christmas, but my parents insist that I buy an acoustic one first., because going straight to electric might make my fingers scream in pain. 'Tis true? And if so, what is the price range for a decent guitar(s)? Perhaps I can play Dust in the Wind if I get acoustic, but... What should I do? ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: arcer
Date Posted: November 14 2004 at 15:55
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my advice would be to go with your parents' advice and get the acoustic first. It's the best schooling you can get and you won't annoy anybody too much in the first months when your technique will... ummmm... suck royally. An electric won't hurt your fingers but it isn't the best place to start. it's more expensive to equip yourself (axe, amp etc) and it will sound awful at first. Learning to play acoustic, with a wider neck, heavier strings and more difficult fretting technique than an electric will stretch your fingers, give you good strength and flexibility. I first learned on a £50 acoustic that had a neck that seemed to be as wide as a telegraph pole but I mastered that and when I moved to electric with a flat neck and 9 gauge strings everything just seemed so simple and easy. Also the best advice I can give is walk before you run. Some of the music you like is extremely complicated and imagining that you're going to crank out Magnum Opus in a couple of months is over-ambitious. Your best bet is to buy your acoustic and at the same time nab yourself a songbook (with chord windows) of some simple enough songs but ones you like. Try some Beatles, Bowie, whatever. If nothing else these will teach you the fundamental of song construction, after all these guys were masters of the art of songwriting. Also ther's millions of great solely acosutic songs out there, from Zep to Yes to Rush to Genesis to whoever... ti's not a limiting instrument. And open tunings will expand your horizons even further. At the end of the day it's practice that will get you there. Don't get donwhearted when you find yourself with blistered fingers and no discernible improvement after a month. It takes time and effort. But it is the most rewarding and enjoyable thing you will ever teach yourself. And you can only get better at it. I've been playing for nearly 20 years and I still learn new things every day and it still thrills me and soothes me in equal measure as much as it did the very first day I ever picked the thing up. It's an astonishing, always fascinating instrument and it will enrich your life. Plus, if you're good, it'll get you girls. isn't that the reason we all started to play?
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Posted By: sigod
Date Posted: November 15 2004 at 07:11
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arcer, that's good advice. I started on an acoustic and it helped my playing no end. However, when I started (back in 1908) there was no such thing as a budget electric guitar and amp package that you can get now. One of the favourite guitars in my modest collection is a £99.00 Squire strat that is still great to play to this day. Your choice obviously but I'd go with arcer in that the acoustic will improve your playing. However is heavy riffing is your aim, well...
------------- I must remind the right honourable gentleman that a monologue is not a decision. - Clement Atlee, on Winston Churchill |
Posted By: James Lee
Date Posted: November 16 2004 at 05:01
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I have never owned a good acoustic guitar, but I've had a lot of cheap ones My first was a student-size Fender (about $150, but that was almost 20 years ago!) that played great from day one but sounded pretty thin because of the smaller body. I then got a Yamaha Dreadnought ($199) that sounded good but was really hard on my fingers for some reason. Then came the inevitable Ovation (used, $225), which I curse to this day...not only did it play really stiff, it kept slipping off my lap because of that damn round back! After that, the Takamine...it was the most expensive acoustic I ever bought (at $300, used, that's not saying too much!), and honestly didn't sound much better than the Yamaha or play much better than the Fender. My main acoustic now is another cheapie; an Ibanez that I got on sale for about $150 at a Sam Ash in Florida about three years ago. Oh, and I had a Martin backpacker that I specifically bought for my cross-country trips. If you like to travel light, it's a nice thing to have. I destroyed mine in a fit of rage one day, but it wasn't really the guitar's fault... Acoustics are trickier to buy used- there's plenty of potential problems that you just can't fix- so definitely go new unless you really trust the seller. There's a lot of crappy guitars but a couple surprisingly good ones in the under-$200 bracket; it would be great if you knew an experienced guitar player who could try them out with you...my first guitars were pretty much decided solely on brand name, looks and price becuase I had no idea what a good guitar actually felt or sounded like. And BTW, built-in pickups and preamps and such seem like a nice feature but most of them sound really horrible and drive the price up. There's nothing worse than getting stuck with an acoustic-electric that doesn't quite satisfy on either end. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/sollipsist/?chartstyle=kaonashi"> 
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Posted By: Shatterwolf
Date Posted: November 16 2004 at 18:17
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Thanks for the advice guys, hell, it won't be until a few years that I'll get pretty decent, but I'd better start now then never. Acoustic it is then! -------------
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Posted By: sigod
Date Posted: November 22 2004 at 05:10
Good hunting Shatter . Remember, Even Gilmour was crap once.------------- I must remind the right honourable gentleman that a monologue is not a decision. - Clement Atlee, on Winston Churchill |
Posted By: Wizard/TRueStar
Date Posted: November 24 2004 at 14:46
| I don't know what your parents are talking about, never playing a guitar before acoustic or electric your fingers will definately scream in pain far more when playing an electric, unless your electric is eqipped with 80 gauge strings. If you get any guitar get a strat. other than that get a acoustic. Keep in mind a excellent acousitic is far more affordable than a good guitar |
Posted By: Certif1ed
Date Posted: November 24 2004 at 17:44
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I bought my first acoustic for 3 reasons; 1) I wanted a guitar, and my parents wouldn't let me have an electric (seriously... 2) The one I eventually bought looked really cool - it was BLACK!!! 3) When I tried it out, it sounded good to me, and felt like I might get to enjoy playing it. oh, and there's 4) It was just in my price range; ie very cheap. I found out later that I'd been lucky - it was/is an Eko. It went everywhere with me - summer camp, holidays, Stonehenge and other free festivals - notably one year, when approx 1,000 of us got rushed by 10,000 baton-wielding police, who picked me up by the hair and dragged me the best part of a mile from my gear. Fortunately I'd made a few friends up on the slope, and one guy had made it his business to collect everyone's guitars (Me and two others had concentrated on bags), and we were all re-united with our babies. Sadly, the guy who had collected the guitars found that his was the only damaged one - completely irrepairable - but refused the offer from all of the rest of us of a replacement. ...erm, enough of the tangential boring stories... The only reason I parted with it eventually was because I inherited my mother's Ovation and my brother wanted a guitar. God, I miss that axe... Bottom line: if you're only spending a very little money, then I think that 2) and 3) are as good criteria as any. Although, depending on your budget, James' criteria are definitely the safer! A guitar is for life... |
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Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: December 29 2007 at 23:03
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No, your fingers will not scream in pain from playing an electric guitar first, given the lower action. And if you plan to be playing songs with electric guitar technique, why hinder your progress with an acoustic? Trust me, go on any serious electric guitar website, Shred guitar sites, read up and you'll understand what i mean better |
Posted By: A B Negative
Date Posted: January 02 2008 at 17:34
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How about persuading your parents that an electric guitar and a headphone amp will be much quieter than an acoustic? There are some excellent headphone amps out there (I'm seriously thinking about the new Vox AC30 Amplug which costs £30 and sounds great) and multi-effects devices like the Zoom G2 can be used with headphones. Multi-effects sometimes have a built-in electronic tuner which can be a great help! As for which guitar to choose, it sounds lame but what does your favourite guitarist play? If they play a Gibson, try the Epiphone equivalent, similarly with Fender and Squier. They're pretty good value for money and, if you decide later on that the guitar isn't really for you, the resale value will be higher than a similarly priced "unknown" guitar. ------------- "The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar.... Now, that's my idea of a good time." |
Posted By: Chicapah
Date Posted: January 03 2008 at 08:42
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I vote for electric just because it's actually easier to play than a cheap acoustic where you can't lower the strings enough. I started out on a Sears silvertone and a small amp back in the 60s and didn't get an acoustic till about 15 years later. There's my two cents worth. ------------- "Literature is well enough, as a time-passer, and for the improvement and general elevation and purification of mankind, but it has no practical value" - Mark Twain |
Posted By: Passionist
Date Posted: January 03 2008 at 19:56
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Well an acoustic guitar... I think you could just as well buy a soprano sax to practise a baritone one. I'm not saying one is easier than the other, but the aid you'll get in my opinion is inexistant. Seeing as how when you realise the genre/style you want to be practising/performing, you'll be grown to your instrument, be it acoustic or electric, but there's a significant difference there. My teacher told me to practise the songs we played on an electric guitar, and then play the ones that were for acoustic on an acoustic. i thought this was the best way to learn. Though I started with a fairly cheap classical guitar, I don't think it helped my el guitar playing at that much. Basically I've never broken my fingers while playing any of them, and I think after periods of 6 hours a day I can say you're doing something wrong if you bleed your guitar neck red. Also, these two instruments serve a very different purpose for me, I play different music when I have different guitars. My classical one is usually for jazz, bossa, spanish picking etc. However the pick feels completely different on the el guitar, and I do not play the same stuff with it, I usually go for blues, jazz too, funk, rock even. Honestly I wouldn't advice to get an acoustic if you want to play the electric guitar. Only if you just think about buying a guitar and don't know what to try/play yet. The theory is the same, so that leaves an option, but don't start playing dream theater on an acoustic, you'll learn much easier and faster with an electric guitar. You don't study motorbikes with a bicycle, do you? I do not agree with your parents. You can tell them that, after all, I am a random guy from the internet ;) |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: January 03 2008 at 20:55
 ), discovered his unique axe-man pose and formed his own Prog-rock band.../edit: .... in the past 3 years! ------------- What? |
Shatterwolf wrote:Posted By: Proletariat
Date Posted: January 03 2008 at 21:07
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your fingers will hate you regardless, the only reason that an acoustic might hurt less is if it were nylon stringed, steel string acoustic and electric feel the same to me. The real reason for your parents wanting you to start acoustic is likely because they dont wat their ears screaming in pane.
By the way, my first guitar was electric it cost $10 at a garage sale plus $5 for the amp, cheap as hell, but I got what I paid for it, and I was able to learn to play just fine. ------------- who hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up with a sob |
Posted By: ProgBagel
Date Posted: January 07 2008 at 20:27
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Well....hmmm.
I don't particularly like this advice on the acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar is definately more for chords which I think anyone can agree on. If you want to know more then the basic chords, you have to know your way around on the instrument and be able to recognize the shapes, in short...theory. The electric guitar is good for leads and for chords too. It is much more diverse then the acoustic guitar. Once you gather up enough knowledge on there the acoustic isn't hard to play. Most of the kids I know are really stuck on just playing three chord songs on their acoustic guitars. I played electric for about three years, I've had an acoustic guitar for about two years and a kid that has played it for a good portion of the day has played it more then I have. To me it's more of an artistic instrument. When I feel like making something intricate...I usually switch to the acoustic. |
Posted By: Jshutt64
Date Posted: January 07 2008 at 23:15
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I'm going to advise you to get an electric guitar before you get an acoustic. Why?
Because, that's what I did.
 Go with a Fender Strat. They're not too hard to play, and they're incredibly versatile. With a proper amp, you'll be able to get a good Yes or Kansas tone.
But, just because you have an electric, don't try to go off and shred first thing. Start with the basics.
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Posted By: asimplemistake
Date Posted: January 07 2008 at 23:53
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I vote go with a classical nylon string guitar, and learn about the true basics of playing guitar. You can then transfer those basics to any style you wish to play. Unless you're totally against learning the basic classical pieces (or against playing on a nylon string), I'd go with it. I started off guitar with an electric and a nylon string. I learned to "shred" with the electric (poor choice) and learned some good basics on nylon string. I still like to go back to the nylon, even though I've moved on to more advanced stuff. |
Posted By: asimplemistake
Date Posted: January 07 2008 at 23:57
oh darn I didn't realize this thread is so old!! darn, I guess my advice here is unneeded   . |
Posted By: Snipergoat
Date Posted: January 08 2008 at 16:49
Out of interest, what are the basic classical pieces on guitar? I wouldn't mind getting a classical guitar to mess around on. But I don't know any "classical" things to play on one, ive always played electric. |
Posted By: progismylife
Date Posted: January 08 2008 at 17:17
| I too would like to know basic classical pieces on guitar, since I want to hopefully pick up the guitar sometime. |
Posted By: Certif1ed
Date Posted: February 01 2008 at 07:08
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I've just had the pleasure of going shopping for an upgrade to my guitar collection - new bass, new lead, cases, the works.
As a result, I can add a few things to this thread - which I would assume will never go out of fashion, as there are so many musicians and potential instrument buyers on this board.
I discovered something that really ought to be blatantly obvious...
Play as many guitars as you can - good music shops will allow you to try several guitars in one sitting.
To start, see what the shop guys recommend, and remember that they're on commission from certain companies - but also that they do have a clue or two about decent guitars.
Read reviews about the guitars you've tried. Harmony Central is a fantastic place for this.
Return to the shops and try them again, bearing stand-out review comments in mind (e.g. comments that seem to occur in several reviews for that model).
Ask to try similar guitars - by now, you may have a clearer idea of what YOU want from the instrument.
Ask questions - if you can't get the tone you want out of a particular guitar, many shop assistants are delighted to attempt to achieve the tone - and you get the bonus of seeing the amp settings they use.
I did all of these over the last 2 weeks, and ended up with a Sandberg Ken Taylor basic 5-string active bass, and an ESP LTD KH-502. The latter was a complete accident, as a used one had just come in on the day before I was going to buy the Sandberg. I was going to buy a Jackson, although I'd already read nothing but praise for the KH-202s. I played it, and it just felt like my guitar!
  Sandberg Ken Taylor Basic ESP/LTD KH-502
I also got a fantastic deal on the price, with strings, straps, cables, cases and even a guitar rack thrown in.
The point is, apart from to show off my new purchases, this method got me the guitars I needed, not the guitars I'd been told about - as well as a very good deal (I saved over £250 on what I would have paid through internet dealers).
------------- The important thing is not to stop questioning. |
Posted By: Passionist
Date Posted: February 04 2008 at 18:57
I'd recommend something that is familiar to you, like Bach or Giuliany. Of course a lot of things are written later for guitar, but anyhow. I never really took lessons on this myself, jazz being the primary choise for me. But if you need something to start with, www.partiture.org is a perfect place to start. It consists of free classical sheets, mostly on gif. Just start learning notations or copy them on Guitar Pro  |