Acoustic guitar or Electric guitar?

 

This is the first question comes into your mind when you want to learn and play guitar. Don’t worry, you are not the only one. This article is going to help you to choose which guitar suits you best.

Before this, you need to consider few things to make this choice.

Music Genre

What is your favorite music genre? What makes you feel good when you are listening it? If you like acoustic, country, folk etc,  you can choose acoustic guitar. If rock, metal, punk, blues etc gives you adrenaline rush, then you are a electric guitar person.

Favorite Artist

Who is your favorite artist ? pick 5 of your favorite artists. Write down what kind of songs they sing, what kind of music they produce. If your favorite artists are someone like Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift etc you can choose Acoustic Guitar. If your favorite artists are someone like Jimi Hendrix,  AC-DC etc, you can go with Electric Guitar.

Playability

Acoustic guitars are little harder to play. The strings of acoustic guitar are made of heavy gauge which needs more pressure to put on from fingers tips to make it play. Because of this you will feel pain for sometime until you practice it well. On the other hand Electric guitars are easier to play because of light gauge strings. You don’t need to put more pressure on fingers.

Usability

Acoustic guitar is a complete package. You don’t need any extra accessories to play it. You can just take it out from case and start playing right away. Electric guitar on the other hand, there are some additional things you need like guitar cable, amplifier etc to play the instrument.

Budget

Acoustic guitars are cheaper compared to electric guitars. You don’t need any extra things to play the acoustic guitar. On the other hand, to play an electric guitar you need amplifier. Because of that you need more money to buy the whole package of electric guitar.

Let’s see the pros and cons of both Acoustic Guitar and Electric Guitar.

Acoustic Guitar

Pros

• Acoustic guitar is cheaper when compared to electric guitar.
• Acoustic guitar doesn’t require any extra accessories to play. you can just take it out and start playing.
• You can take it to anywhere without worrying about the power source to play.
• If you are able to play a piece on an acoustic guitar, you will more than likely be able to play it on an electric guitar as well due to the higher amount of technique required.

Cons

• Acoustic guitars are made of heavy gauge strings. This might be little difficult for a beginner which gives you pain in fingertips.
• Frets are wider than the electric guitar which is not a beginner friendly.
• As the strings are heavy, holding the barre chords will be little difficult for a beginner.

Electric Guitar

Pros

• It is easier to play the electric guitar. The strings are lighter and far more comfortable than acoustic guitar
• The size of the guitar is small which makes learning more comfortable
• Electric guitars have softer strings compared to those on acoustic guitars, this makes it friendly to hold barre chords and perform other techniques.

Cons

• Electric guitars are little expensive than the acoustic guitars.  You need to purchase amplifier to play the output which can be costly to the beginners.
• It will be difficult to find a good tone for a beginner who have no knowledge about amplifiers and guitars. The wrong tone might discourage them from continuing.
• If you are able to play an electric guitar, that doesn’t mean you will be able to play the acoustic one directly.

 

At the end of the day you need to pick something that inspires you. You need to pick the guitar which makes keep on practicing. You need to pick the guitar which doesn’t make you feel bored. If you are choosing the acoustic guitar, you shouldn’t feel like ‘ah! my fingers are paining’ and all. You should be very sure about the things you are going to face before you buy the guitar.

Final Advice

As per my personal experience, I would suggest you to pick the acoustic guitar as a beginner. Because If you learnt to play acoustic guitar, you can able to play the electric guitar but not vice versa. And the acoustic guitar is budget friendly as well.

All The Best!