Acoustic vs Electric: A Beginners Guide

Choosing between your first axe can be a daunting prospect, and can be quite the ordeal. Without proper guidance and supervision, you’ll just end up confused and in all probability, end up making the wrong decision.

For your first axe, you want a guitar that looks unique and cool, has looks that impress, and perhaps more importantly, sounds amazing and is comfortable and is easy to use. Remember, that your first guitar is what you’ll be learning your trade on, which makes it one of the most important pieces of music instruments you’ll ever own. Plus it’ll probably stay with you for a long time.

It is therefore extremely vital that you choose your guitar properly.

Acoustic v Electric: The Differences?

There are some obvious differences between acoustic electric guitars. An acoustic guitar is much larger in size, mostly because of its hollow body, which actually acts as a sound chamber. Acoustic guitars therefore produce their own sound. Coupled with the fact that they don’t require any additional equipment or electric supply to function, and that they’re lightweight and easy-to-carry, acoustic guitars are ideal for  gatherings, parties, trips to the beach, backyard barbecues, or casual jamming sessions. In short, they can be played just about anywhere. However unlike, electrics, acoustics produce only one kind of sound.

Electric guitars, on the other hand, are solid-body guitars, which produce no sound of their own. Because of this, electric guitars have to be paired up with amplifiers and external speakers in order to produce sound. They, therefore, require additional equipment and a mains electricity source to function. This invariably makes them a lot less portable and much harder to carry around. Electric guitars, when coupled with a good high-quality amplifier (and an effects pedal), have the capability of producing a wide range of different sounds (including acoustic guitar sound), and are recommended for playing rock, blues, jazz, and metal music genres, to name a few.

While acoustic guitars have hollow chambers, through which the sound produced by the strings echoes, electric guitars have electromagnetic ‘pickups’ that pick up the mechanical vibrations produced by the strings, and converts these vibrations into electrical signals and ultimately sound that you hear through the attached speakers.

Brands and Types

Apart from these basic differences, which every guitar player – new and seasoned – should know and be familiar with, acoustic and electric guitars come in all shapes and sizes and all sorts of different forms and brands. You have the likes of Ibanez, Jackson, Fender and Gibson, making up the top-4 of guitar brands, and that doesn’t even begin to mention the likes of Yamaha, Minarik, Epiphone, ESP, Kramer and other lesser-known brands. And then you also have different acoustic and electric guitar variants such as bass guitars and semi-acoustic guitars.

But at the end of the day, the main difference between both is, quite simply, amplification.

Strings

Acoustic guitars come with nylon and steel strings. Both understandably produce different sorts of sounds. A nylon-stringed guitar produces tone and sound suitable for playing classical, folk or flamenco. Nylon-stringed guitars are usually picked with fingers. Steel stringed guitars are louder, and hence more suitable for rock, country, blues and the like. Picks are used to pick steel-string guitars.

Money and Cost

Electric guitars generally tend to cost more. Mainly because additional equipment needs to be bought, apart from the guitar, which adds to the price of the package.

Before speaking of costs, it is important to note that the market is filled with cheap knockoffs and alternatives, however personally, I’d strongly advise against getting an extremely cheap no-name guitar. It is generally a safe bet to stick with a good brand such as Yamaha, which are known for making some of the best bang-for-the-buck guitars right now.

For beginners, a good Yamaha acoustic guitar, such as the FG730S or the F310 would set you back by around 300 of your greens. Which is not bad at all for an excellent, branded beginner’s guitar. Similarly, a YamahaGigmaker – which is a complete electric guitar package comprising of an amp, a gig bag, and a tuner, as well as extras like picks, DVDs, straps and extra strings – goes for around under 300 bucks on Amazon or Musician's Friend.

Please refer to my previous post on this blog to have an in-depth look at the strengths and pros of these guitars, especially from a beginner’s perspective.

A Beginners Choice?

What a beginner or a novice guitar player chooses is totally his or her own prerogative.

However my personal recommendation would be to go with an acoustic as your first axe.

Acoustics are generally harder to play and get a grip on. The strings on an acoustic are much harder than the ones on an electric, and the distance between the strings and the neck (aka. the action) is much larger than on an electric. Furthermore, acoustic guitars require firmer picking and fingering because of their heavier strings. In short, acoustic guitars are harder and much tougher to play than electric guitars.

So why then, you must be wondering, am I recommending starting with an acoustic? Well, for precisely the same reasons as mentioned above. Mastering an acoustic guitar first would make the job of learning an electric one later on much easier.

Setting off with the tougher of the two, and learning the basics on the instrument that is more difficult to play is recommended, as it will make your hands and fingers much stronger, making the transition to an electric easier.

Besides, getting the tough part out of the way in the beginning would allow you to enjoy your guitar-playing exploits later on. As compared to someone who started off easy, and then had the (comparatively) tough part of learning how to play on an acoustic guitar hanging over his head the whole time!

However don’t make me put you off from buying an electric as your first guitar. If you feel that you are more comfortable with playing an electric guitar, go for it! If you’re a thrash metal or a heavy metal fan, and idolize Hammett or Slash, you would probably find learning an acoustic to be a chore. In that case, pick up an electric, couple it with a good amp and of course, a good learning course and a teacher, and learn the tricks of the trade on an electric guitar.


Choose a guitar course that helps you with your choice, and allows you to choose from a wide range of guitar courses for both acoustic and electric guitars. For less than $15-a-month, GuitarTricks is a great choice, especially for beginners!

Ending Words and Pointers

Here’s a few points on what to expect when setting about in the guitar-playing world:

• Choose according to your proficiency levels
• Choose according to the type of music you like playing
• The best choice is the one you’re most enthusiastic about learning
• Take your time when picking up your first guitar, choose one that’s the most comfortable and with which you feel at home with the most
• Electrics are easier to play but you should start off with an acoustic!
• Over time, as your proficiency with one type of guitar increases, you will automatically want to move on to another.
• And of course, choose one which is within your budget!