Well, yes, and no and maybe, and perhaps 'grin'. Ok, let's see if I can bring some perspective to this.Any badly make guitar, whether electric or acoustic is not going to be fun to play, for all the reasons you outlined, bad action, not staying in tune, intonation being off, inconsistant tone, fret buzz, and space time warp inconsistanties in the fabric of reality mere mortals can't fathom except guitar gods listening through oxygen free copper from the planet of silvertone 'grin'.
Ok, never mind, 'grin', the simple answer is that take any reasonable electric guitar, and any reasonable acoustic guitar, and the answer is that yes, the electric will be easier to fret.
But controling pressure, and not over strongly pressing on strings, and such and hitting the strings with just the right amount of force, etc will all be different on an acoustic than an electric.
The technique will be different on an electric, you can bend the strings a lot further, get harmonic responses, and such that aren't quite the same as on an acoustic, and the other way around too.
The fundamentals are the same, but they're are like two different species.I have know some fine acoustic players that sucked on electric, and the other way around too and some doing fine on both.
an electro-acoustic like your thinking of is pretty much an acoustic guitar which has pickups in it, but will more or less play like an acoustic.
There are hybrids like the gibson hollow bodies, which lean toward being more electric, I was never much of an ovation fan, I always felt like they were going to slide off my lap with those round cheap plastic backs, but lots of people loved them.
I'm a takamine man myself, hope I spelled that right, and you don't have to spend 2 grand to get a great playing guitar, but if you don't know what to look for take someone experienced with you who plays and they can tell you.
the instrument should be set up by a good guitar tech, who can make sure the tress rod is set correctly, and the right balance is going on, some guitars have adujustable bridges, some do not, and guitar designs have evolved, especially in the electric realm, and now of course we have the dsp and computerized technology going on, I have an acoustic variax which is like an electric guitar, but plays through a dsp which makes it sound like a pretty decent acoustic for quick and dirty rhythm tracks and such, of course for the best, mic up your favorite box in mono or stereo, and good guitar micing is another subject too we can talk lots about, finding the hotspot, and what mics to use, and they still haven't invented the perfect acoustic pick-up that really captures an acoustic right no matter what they say, so a god room and micing is still the best.
but with electrics we have all sorts of nifty stuff, amp sims, tons of software, the ine 6 stuff has brought guitar to the masses, usb guitar cables for $39.95 with a zillion tones and blah blah blah, of course the best stuff is still very expensive, you can buy anything from a jap or mex strat for $150 to a paul reed smith for 3 grand, and everything in between, and above.
do you want single coil, double coil, active or passive pick-ups, do you want a fixed or moving bridge, for either straight playing or those dive bomb rock metal or even bluesy trem effects, benders which will bend strings in ways your hands can't via strat or levers, there are double necked guitars, electrified acoustics, and acoustified electrics, yes, they sell pick-ups which propose to make elecric guitars sound like acoustics and sort of do, but you need wood and space and body resonance to really get that, but everything in the world is out there, and is tried, and touted to be the cat's meow, and it's up to you to go out and try the stuff and see what you like.
and there are 7 string guitars, and midi guitars, and the vg birtual guitar thing from roland which used to be amazing, a sort of hybrid guitar and pick-up system and tracks better than any midi guitar I've ever seen, and does a pretty good sim of a lot of different things from electric classic tones to 12 string acoustic, and even bass.
and we haven't even talked about cat gutt or nylon string guitars yet, strings are wide apart, and generally easier on the finger pads, and there are all different sizes of frets, what gauge of string you use will determine your tone to a large extent, the thicker the string in general the more sustain and bigger the tone, but harder to play.
Take Stevie Ray Vaughn with his 13s, he played with well ropes, that's part of why his tone was so huge, and most guitar players unless they have ham hands can't get close to that tone without using those thick big strings.
YOur thrasher rock players like thin strings and tend to use lots of distortion, they can play very fast on those things
but they tend to break very easily.Then you have standard tuning heads or locking ones, and several varieties of those.
I currently only have 4 guitars, my old toc I've had since high-school, an american strat plus with quick locking tuners,no those dreadful floyd rhodes you have to practically take the guitar apart to tune but just a quick twist behind the machine head and you never get a slipped string, and lace sensor pick-ups,
which are suieter but not so bright like a standard strat.I also have a nice more modern toc with a cut away which is nice to play and an inexpensive cat gut guitar an alvarez which is nice, for the money.
No collector stuff here, just work aday insruments, but they play and sound well, and there are many brands of decent guitars out here now, if you don't care about brand name which will serve you well, you just have to know to pick the good stuff from the tons of trash out there, and the market is glutted with crap.
But the main thing is that the instrument feels good to you, sounds good, and can stay reasonably stable one tuned up.
In the beginning when learning to play, your fingers will hurt, that's just part of the game, and this alone stops many wood-be guitarists, just like wanna-be programmers runs screaming in to the night when they encouter properties and methods and variables and expressions 'grin'
But once you get some caluses and the tears dry, if you can get past the first 3 months, your on your way.
and I do think for an all round guitarist, that learning your basics on a decent acoustic will lay the foundation, later you can decide whether you want to be an electric players mostly, or acoustic, or do both.
I love both for different reasons, and do a decent job with both, but I think lately I've fallen back in love with acoustic guitar.
there's something just so imtimate about that wood and large body and resonance and naturalness chicks dig acoustic guitarists, you can't drag your marshal stack and go play under a tree or on the spot in a tender moment 'grin'.
but what ever you want to do, tqake your time and play some different instruments and take that experienced ax man with you and make sure you can return anything you try out, a good music store sometimes will let you take stuff and try it if they know you.
Maybe not that vintage 58 gibson hanging on the wall that chuck berry played, but something reasonable.
And used instruments are a great way to pick up good stuff for not a lot of money sometimes, the pawn shops are full of bargains some times, but again, you havfe to know what your looking at.
some fine instruments might be dinged up a bit, but play and sound like a dream.
I personally don' think a guitar sounds good unless it's been banged around a little bit, seems like all the best guuitarists I know have battled scared instruments and all the wanna-bes have these shiny never touched looking things.
maybe because they've been used more, but what ever you end up with, make sure the structure is sound, and have it set up proterly. Well, that's all I can think of for right now. Happy guitar hunting. At 06:32 AM 12/7/2011, you wrote:
Hey Chris,You caught my attention when you said, if you want to build up hand strength and stamina then acoustic is good. I've always wanted to play guitar too, and have heard this a thousand times. But given my experieince on pianos, I can't help but ask, is a really good acoustic that much more difficult to play than an electric? Move up the food chain on pianos and while the sound certainly improves, there's nothing worse than a cheap piano action to discourage a newbie.I'd rather have an electro-acoustic. Think James Taylor, old Bruce Springsteen, Kansas, Eagles, etc.I gave it a whirl a year or so ago. But I didn't want to spend the money in case it didn't work out. And given my piano logic, I didn't want to buy a super sonic ultimate acoustic signature series power pack for 200 bucks that included the guitar, case, strap, stand, two sets of strings, tuner, rubber gloves, a can of WD40, and a life--time supply of spam. So I borrowed one of those exact guitars from my nephew, who hadn't touched it for at least a year. Needless to say, the strings were about 6 inches off of the fret board and my hands were ready to fall off after a couple weeks.Okay. Back down to earth. I used to play in a band. The lead singer/guitarist had a decent electro-acoustic, but nothing special. Then he bought (I think) an Ovation and he never stopped raving about how damn effortless the thing was to play. So much so that he didn't even have to think about it and was still ready to roll at the end of the night, rather than looking for a bag of ice to put his hands in.But hey, to be honest? this is more of a have a good time fun factor to me. At least that's the way I'm looking at it from the outside. Who knows. Maybe I'll fall in love and the guitar will become my main instrument.So what's your (and anyone else's) thoughts and recommendations on the acoustic versus electric question. If electrics are indisputably easier to play, are there electrics with more of an acoustic tone?Okay. Time to shut up. I've got to head on out for a while. Maybe I'll go guitar shopping and drop a grand or two. Heh!Tom On 12/7/2011 6:40 AM, Chris Belle wrote:Well, I think the Bill Brown stuff is pretty popular, but he sort of does the method you said you didn't like, doing songs or runs and such. If you want an instructor, you could check out music stores around there, they might teach you just what you want to learn. I don't know how advanced you are on the guitar, but baring anything else, I had done remote lessons and if it's cords and some scales you need, orsome technique, I could step up to the plate and try and help you get a bit further down the road, there are also tabs and guitar resources all over the net, and books, take your pick. I admit this sort of thing works better in real time, but a good phone system and hands free could work too. And I'll give you a good rate, you couoldn't put me in Eddy Van Halen class of guitarist, but I can certainly hold my own, and it might be fun and challenging. Are you wanting to learn electric or acoustic? If you want to build up hand strength and stamina, I think acoustic is good. If you don't care about theory so much as feel, or learning riffs, and listening to stuff and trying to do what they do, and having stuff recorded, so you can review later, that's how i teach. But aside from a shameless plug for a gig 'grin', your best bet is probably to find a good local teacher. he could watch your technique, like if you were here, I could see or feel what you were doing with your hands, and this kind of thing is harder to do remotely. Not impossible, but a good local teacher could make sure your not doing anything that might hinder you. But in a way, whatever works isright. Look at all the guitarists that played wrong that made it bigt? Good luck man. At 01:53 PM 12/6/2011, you wrote:Hey guys, so I'm thinking of picking up the guitar again, and was wondering if anybody had some audio material or knew of a good place where I can get started? Here's the thing, I don't want a thing where they teach you a song or teach you chords by teaching you little songs or whatever. I'd rather be given the tools and go doing my own building. This is how I teach my students when I teach piano, and it's more effective than teaching specific things; so if I can find some site or audio tuts that will teach me scales and how to create cords etc, that'll be what I'm looking for! I know music theory and all that, took classical training and all, so don't need that either. Just need to refresh my memory on what I started learning a few years ago... Any ideas/suggestions? THX, D!J!X!For all your audio production needs and technology training, visit us at www.affordablestudioservices.com or contact Chris Belle cb1963@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or Stephie Belle stephieb1961@xxxxxxxxxxxxx for customized web design
For all your audio production needs and technology training, visit us at www.affordablestudioservices.com or contact Chris Belle cb1963@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or Stephie Belle stephieb1961@xxxxxxxxxxxxx for customized web design