Acoustic Vs Electric

I can't decide on which guitar to buy to start playing, i love the sound of the acoustic, but i also love electric's riffs and heavy kind of sound I've looked into acoustic-electric but many have sad it doesn't sound like a full acoustic can anyone help me?

Depends on what kind of music you want to be playing. I learned on an acoustic since that's all I had access to. It may be easier in the sense that you don't have to worry about an amp or anything yet.

Hunter's made a good point in that an acoustic is stand alone and you don't need to worry about amps and the like. In my experience it's all to easy to be distracted from the main business of learning guitar. With all the hardware and software for an electric guitar around there's so much that can take away your focus.

That said, there's nothing like an electric guitar! For some reason I denied myself of one for far too long and when I got one I realised I'd missed out massively as I was always a rocker!

So if you can resist the temptation to be distracted by all the bells and whistles that an electric guitar offers then go for an electric and just play it through an amp plain and simple. Once you've learned power chords and palm muting you'll just never want to put the thing down, if that's your bag.... :D.

You can get a million sounds from an electric and only one from an acoustic but you'll eventually have both as they each have their own qualities and appeal.

When you're learning on an acoustic everyone can hear you but with an electric you can use headphones (careful with the volume there) and your early plinking won't drive people round the bend...

It's way easier on the finger tips with an electric when you're starting out as the strings are of a much lighter gauge.

Good luck!

Well for one, what is your budget for a guitar? Im sure if you go to your local music store you can find cheaper electric and acoustic guitars that could fit your budget. It wont be the best of guitars, but that's why you should go ahead and try em out first to see witch one plays better.

But if it were me, I would get the electric guitar, just because you can get an acoustic sound with an electric, but at the same time, you can get those crunchy riffs.

You just have to figure out what type of music you will be playing most of the time. If you're a folk singer and just plan on strumming chords, acoustic is the obvious choice. If you want to play rock and focus on lead guitar, electric is probably better.

On a side note, acoustics are less forgiving on the fingertips of your fretting hand due to the higher gauge steel strings (unless you get a nylon string acoustic). Though this will only be a problem in the beginning before you build up some callouses.

I think everyone has really said it already. Depends on your playing style and the type of music your playing.

I do mostly Folk Rock so I play acoustic most of the time, but if I'm on stage with a full band and we are doing one of the more rock oriented songs I'll bring out an electric and play on that.

But if I'm solo or just with my bassist I'm always on an acoustic.

Originally Posted by: Lauen Bateman
But if I'm solo or just with my bassist I'm always on an acoustic.

IMO, that's a pretty big factor. Most comments on this topic are usually "what do you want to play".

If you don't plan or expect to be playing with accompaniment, you might be more satisfied with an acoustic regardless of your musical listening tastes. Consider the number of rock tunes that became "unplugged" over the years. I think I have generally liked unplugged versions of tunes better than originals.

It can be challenging to make an electric-based song work on the acoustic and you can take pride in the originality of your approach. It's not always easy to make that work out.

I'm not trying to imply an acoustic would be the better choice. To me at least some of that decision should be based on what you want to sound like: "a whole or a part", as well as what you want to play, if you are going to solo, play to albums, be a writer, etc.

If I could only have one, it would be acoustic. Just my opinion.