Acoustic Guitar - Electric Guitar?

anti_gravity · Post by **anti_gravity** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 1:52 pm

My problem is the following:
I've played a classic guitar for almost 2 years (in March), it doesn't sound soo good but anyway I think it's okay.
For Christmas I got a nee electric guitar and I think my first tries with it sounded horrobile. I can't really put my fingers on the strings, every chord sounds so "wrong". I thought e-guitars are a bit easier to deal with than acoustic guitars?!
Do you anyone of you have had the same problem or am I just stupid?

Thanks for your help.
(:

Kahn · Post by **Kahn** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 1:58 pm

Is it in tune?

brian_ok · Post by **brian_ok** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 2:03 pm

Electric guitars are not necessarily 'easier' than acoustic guitars. This is a common misconception because the strings are looser, and are therefore physically easier to push down. (This is one of the reasons that I tell people that it's better to learn on an acoustic than an electric.)

The looser strings definetly take some getting used to.

As far as the chords not sounding 'right', I assume you mean the open voiced chords? The ones in first position? Those sound great on an acoustic, because the open strings ring, but on an electric, closed chord voicings tend to sound better. I'd recommend experimenting with the E and A shaped barre chords.

DMBtabs, welcome to it!

thejoe · Post by **thejoe** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 8:22 pm

um, the strings arent looser

Grachi · Post by **Grachi** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 8:58 pm

actions typically a lot lower, and i think the stringe gauge is also usually pretty light too so I'm guessing that is what they mean by looser. I mean I'm sure you could have higher action and similiar gauge strings on an electric as you do an acoustic... but why would you

brian_ok · Post by **brian_ok** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 9:52 pm

Grachi wrote:actions typically a lot lower, and i think the stringe gauge is also usually pretty light too so I'm guessing that is what they mean by looser.

what I was trying to say.

the strings play looser

FMP

czech · Post by **czech** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 10:44 am

also, it's easy to hide sloppy playing behind distortion.
just keep practicing and you'll be fine. I learned on an electric and moved to acoustic and i think it made learning a lot harder. I never had any strength or mobility in my pinky for some reason, so when I switched to acoustic a lot of chords and scales are a lot harder for me then they should be through a lot of bad habits that i'd formed.

brian_ok · Post by **brian_ok** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 11:29 am

czech wrote:also, it's easy to hide sloppy playing behind distortion.
just keep practicing and you'll be fine. I learned on an electric and moved to acoustic and i think it made learning a lot harder. I never had any strength or mobility in my pinky for some reason, so when I switched to acoustic a lot of chords and scales are a lot harder for me then they should be through a lot of bad habits that i'd formed.

exactly. I learned on an acoustic, then went to electric (and now I'm back to mainly acoustic), and I'd say the opposite is true for me. I found playing the electric much easier.

dmbandummer · Post by **dmbandummer** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:55 pm

I started acoustic and bought an electric later on.

My main problem was that I pressed too hard on the electric, often bending the strings, causing 'off' sounds. You just have to learn the feel of each guitar. Acoustic and electric are two entirely different beasts.

anti_gravity · Post by **anti_gravity** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:00 am

Thank you all for your help. I tried and tried and I think it will get better... It is just that the electric guitar 'feels' completly different and if I do a chord wrong it is more grave than on my acoustic....

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:14 pm

yeah, when you play an electric cleanly through an amp it is a lot less forgiving than just playing an acoustic by itself. the amp picks up everything you do so sloppy playing shows very much unless you use a distortion.

this was my problem when i tried an electric for the first time and it was very frustrating but if you keep at it, your technique will become better and you'll become a little better on the acoustic too.

and something was mentioned earlier about holding the strings down too hard. if you learned how to play on an acoustic you probably got used to holding the strings down a lot harder than you need to in order to get them to sound. when you do this on electric it will make the note you are trying to play out of tune. if this is the problem then just figure out the least amount of pressure that you need to make the note sound and practice with that. you'll find out that you don't need to hold them down that hard on an acoustic too.

if neither of these are your problem them i'm not sure what to tell you

anti_gravity · Post by **anti_gravity** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 11:58 am

Thank you elijah77jc. This is exactly what I meant, the electric shows every mistake...
I hope it's getting less frustrating after a time.
Thanks for the tips!