Well I started out on a classical because it was the only thing I had to start on... once it was obvious to my parents that I was going to keep on playing (somewhere between the 3 and 6 month mark) they bought me a cheap electric and cheap practise amp... I can still remember how much of a difference it was.. I could play all these little tunes on the classical but none of them really worked the same on the electric.. I had to learn how to play a completely different type of beast...

I guess it is the same as automatic cars and manual cars.. it's still a car with the basics of driving the car being fairly similar... but unless you know how to use the clutch, you're not going anywhere... may be not the best analogy.. but yeh.. it's different enough that re-learning is required, is my point. The same notes, chord shapes etc are on the fret-board.. just that you have to re-learn how to make it sound right..