When to switch to electric?

Hey All,

I have been screwing around with my Acoustic for the past few months and have been taking private lessons for the past 2 months....my main aim all along is to get on to electric and rock...

(The stuff i like is like GnR, Jethro tull, Zappa, Led Zep, Aerosmith, Eric Claption, BB King and so on)

I am still in the basics and can play a few songs now,
eg:
Beatles - Yesterday
Lennon - Woman
Lennon - Imagine
E John - Daniel
C Stevens - Wild world
J Denver - Country roads
Eagles - Hotel california (cant do the soloing stuff...just normal rythm)

I have also read and practiced some scales (minor and major pentonic)
and to prepare I have gotten some videos (downloaded, borrowed and bought) like Zakk Wylde, Richie Kotzen,Marty Friedman etc

I want to take this step by step and understand while playing so I am first learning rythm....but I am really itching to play electric...question is, do you think I should go out and buy one? or keep practicing on my acoustic and buy one after a few more months?

Right now i can afford a decent Electric with a decent Amp...but should i buy one or will it be too much for me?

Note: I have never played a single note on an electric...atleast not when it was plugged in :-)

Thanks for your input.

Cheers,
Ryan

Electrics are generally easier to play.

It's important to not buy a guitar so cheap that you quickly outgrow it. If you can't afford something that you'll still be playing a year or two from now you would be better off saving up for something better.

Originally Posted by: HammurabiElectrics are generally easier to play.

It's important to not buy a guitar so cheap that you quickly outgrow it. If you can't afford something that you'll still be playing a year or two from now you would be better off saving up for something better.

yes hammurabi's got a point.

electric can help your acoustic playing and vise versa, but you need a good guitar. buy a good one that will last you a long time and you cant go wrong

[font=trebuchet ms]As the others have pointed out, you should get the best axe you can reasonably afford when you make that jump. You want something that you can be satisfied with for a long time. And in the unlikely event that you decide to sell it later, you can get most of your money back, especially if you buy a used guitar.

Something else to be aware of is the fact that electric guitar requires a much softer 'touch' than most acoustic guitars. If you spend a couple of years playing acoustic before getting your first electric, you may have some trouble making the transistion. I recommend starting out on acoustic because it does a lot to teach you about the subtle differences in tone you can get from varying your pick attack, and where on the strings you apply the pick. Those skills go a long way to helping you to develop a unique personal sound on electric guitar. And you don't get side-tracked by fooling around with control settings.

BTW: I like your song choices.[/font] :)

get an electric! seriously, they are so much more fun to play then any acoustic I've ever played, you won't regret this, you don't need to be good at acoustic before playing electric, in fact, you don't even need to know acoustic to start playing electric. so, I say go for it, you won't regret it.

but, as the others said, don't just go buy the cheapest thing you can find, buy something you won't outgrow (growing musically, not physically) too quickly. a good $300-500 guitar with a $200-400 amp should last you quite a while.

have fun, and let me know what you decide to do.

Hey!,
Thanks for replying.

After reading what you guys wrote, I want to go out and buy an Electric immd, but I guess I will wait till around Dec/Jan coz I will be visiting India and I'm pretty sure the prices there are rock bottom, if they are not and the guitars are no good, then I am coming back (to Sweden) and getting myself a good Strato ;) :cool: with a Fender amp! (Not a very big fan of the Gibson LP, but I love what Jimmy Page does with it :eek: , I love the sound/look and tones of the Fender Strat...dont like the Tele...kinda girly...but hey, thats my sorry ass opinion!)

I'm reall happy I asked for your advise because you cured me of the disease to buy the cheapest quickest thing/s out there, the local guitar shop was running a "package" which was reallll cheap and came with a guitar,gigbag,pedals,amp and extra strings...which sounded like crap but I thought might be good for my first guitar..

will save and get myself a good instrument, I wonder why my guitar instructor wanted me to stick with the acustic for so long...he told me it would take a few months before I should even pick up an electric...

Lordathestrings-> Yep, I kinda liked those songs so had to learn them...and if you look they go up little in complexity (more or less):

First I learnt hotel california (my fav from small)
then Imagine
Daniel
Yesterday (no pick...just fingers, little plucking)
Woman
Country roads - Dont care for country much, but this has a nice ring to it
Wild world - love this one, the old version and Mr.Big's version


Now i gotto start reading a bit more about "tremolo", "humbuckler","tubes" and so on...I saw quite a few references to them around the site... will google for them but if anybody has any starting points or any input or any links or any other things i should search for...I sure would appreciate a reply.

Thanks,
Ryan

Originally Posted by: musicgu7dont like the Tele...kinda girly...

Ooooo...

Take a trip and Nashville and try and say that! :eek:



The best thing for you to do when you go to buy your guitar is to try out everything in your price range and be sure not to ignore the "used" racks -- there's usually a gem or two on them.

You may walk out with exactly what you thought you would or you may walk out with something totally different (maybe even a Telecaster :p), but if you try every guitar you can and walk away with something that really speaks to you, you can never go wrong.

Originally Posted by: RaskolnikovTake a trip and Nashville and try and say that! :eek:

Yes, and make sure someone films it.

Teles are wonderful instruments. They might not look the most hardcore, but they can handle just about anything.

Heh he heh
let me quote again:

thats my sorry ass opinion!)

As for saying say that in Nashville, no problem, always wanted to visit the States, pay my ticket and I'm even willing to say Michael Jackson is a real macho dude :D

Yeah I know, I'm sure I pissed some of you off as you own Teles but I was talking in looks...dont you think its just a little bit extra rounded in the "right places"....like a babe? on the other hand if you look at the Strat...it just looks macho and beautiful...even if its just hanging on the wall. I didnt mean its a bad instrument.

If you're judgeing by sound...thats an old war...been reading on the net and you have pretty much 3 main sides: Teles, Strats and the Gibson side (which can open up another discussion), and theres no winners (in my humble opinion) coz its a matter of personal preference and how well you play and what you play (feel free to correct me)

Cheers!

Originally Posted by: musicgu7...dont you think its just a little bit extra rounded in the "right places"....like a babe?

No. Not at all.

Originally Posted by: musicgu7dont you think its just a little bit extra rounded in the "right places"....like a babe? on the other hand if you look at the Strat...it just looks macho and beautiful...even if its just hanging on the wall. I didnt mean its a bad instrument.

so? all that means is, you are holding a "babe" close to your body, thus making it manly, and with a strat, you hold a man close to your body, thus making it gay... so, therefore, tele's are more manly! end of story.

actually you wanna know what I think the girliest guitar is?

that's right, a plain old acoustic

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrsactually you wanna know what I think the girliest guitar is?

that's right, a plain old acoustic

HA, that gave me a good laugh...well...a brief giggle.

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrsso? all that means is, you are holding a "babe" close to your body, thus making it manly, and with a strat, you hold a man close to your body, thus making it gay... so, therefore, tele's are more manly! end of story.

Unfortunatly no...its like a man wearing bangles+earrings+skirt (if we start thinking extreme...please note i am not saying a Tele is like bangles or earings ;) ) those things are so feminine that if a man wears them its kinda hard to look macho while a strat is like a good sports car...just standing next to it increases your face value...

As for acoustic's being girly, thats a different arguement...for example no matter how expensive your electric is or who made it for you...unplug it and play it normally next to a really good acoustic in the hands of a real player playing a real good song (eg: Claption: tears in heaven) and the acoustic's normal "voice" will kick butt...but we are getting side tracked...I was just giving my opinion for the two Fender guitars' looks: Strats and Teles

If you bring in other guitars and shapes then this can get to be a prety big discussion...considering just electric shapes: Flying wing, Gibson's linup, Zachery's Z1,Z2 etc...

Difference of opinion is what makes us human, makes lawyers rich, seperates marrages and creates wars...but also makes beautiful music...which again is a matter of opinion.

Cheers!