I've now be playing for three years. And from my personal experiance i would say that beginning on an acoustic will truely help you. But it can't help you that much if you don't practice. When ever i slack off and don't play for awhile and go back and play i really suck. So learn your chords and very importanly your scales. I know they arn't fun. But they help you so much.

also if you looking for a great electric to start from I love my Epiphone LP-100. I personally think that it plays better than other guitars in that same price range.