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Is it better / easier to learn on an electric than an acoustic? If you can play one, can you play the other? I want to learn. I have an Alvarez acoustic and a Yamaha electric acoustic. Looking at getting something like a Fender Squire Strat. Any helpful advice?
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You're learning something new. I don't know that one is easier than the other for everybody. I've never caught the hang of an electric. The notes are the same, but the skills are a little different. I'd say as far as ease, it's probably a six of one, half dozen of the other sort of thing. A lot of electric players play more barre chords than acoustic players.
One thing that I find is that acoustic players are kinder, smarter, and better looking. :-)
- Zurf
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Learn on the acoustic. What you will do with the electric is turn the gain up real high (not that there's anything wrong with that) and cover up any mistakes or misfrets you make. You will spend all your time futzing with tone and stomp boxes rather than learning to play the instrument. The acoustic will expose all of that, making you a better player.
Switching to the electric at that point is easy. Going the other way isn't as easy.
Last edited by jerome.oneil (2012-10-09 18:34:19)
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jerome.oneil wrote:
Learn on the acoustic. What you will do with the electric is turn the gain up real high (not that there's anything wrong with that) and cover up any mistakes or misfrets you make. You will spend all your time futzing with tone and stomp boxes rather than learning to play the instrument. The acoustic will expose all of that, making you a better player.
Switching to the electric at that point is easy. Going the other way isn't as easy.
I think jerome make's good points,start out acoustic and try electric later.
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I agree with Jerome yet again.
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As much as I respect Jarome and his excelent knowledge,, I have to say the oppisite here. When I was learning on the acoustic,, I got bored and it was harder to get going on. The day I got a electric,, I never put it down. I was able to learn all my open chords faster with less finger pain, I was able to play root 5ths in a day. When I got bored of open chords I could switch to the Dirty channel and bang out power chords all day just having fun. After I got confident with that I found picking up the Acoustic wasmuch easier and I was able to get stuff going on it also.
Once again it boils down to the main answer on this page,, Try both and see what works for you 
Just keep at it and it will not dissapoint.
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Baldguitardude wrote:
I agree with Jerome yet again.
I have yet to hear a suitable refutation on my assertions re Kafka's Metamorphosis. I can only assume that you concede my point!
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I'm a consensus builder bro. I find ways to come together, not divide. You will see no such refutation. Can't we all just get along?
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Would everyone please use English?
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Baldguitardude wrote:
I'm a consensus builder bro. I find ways to come together, not divide. You will see no such refutation. Can't we all just get along?
I thought we were all getting along. We are also expressing the many different views of many different players 
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Yeah, but the dude turned into a bug! It's a metaphor!
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As far as learning goes. The sounds are different but I think of an electric as a car with power steering and an acoustic as a car without power steering. One thing for sure. A poor quality or badly set up guitar will be hard to play no matter what type it is. I used an acoustic for practicing. Then an electric was that much easier to play.
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I concede,,, ya lost me on this one 
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He's probably a better guitar player than Jimmy Vaughan too.
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jerome.oneil wrote:
Cool picture Jerome!
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I started on an acoustic. Spent more than a year on the acoustic and then got a cheap electric. I found that there were chords I could do on the electric that I was unable to do on acoustic. Spent the better part of the next year playing the electric (and futzing around with the sound a lot), and a few months ago started grabbing the acoustic more often. I found that the chords I was unable to do earlier I could now do, along with some picking patterns for certain songs.
As far as set-up? i can agree with the statement made previously. Went to a Best Buy and started messing around with a Tele that was set up well. Chord changes were much easier and I seemed to flow better. Went home and did some adjustments to my electric and got the same results. The biggest issue I run in to is that the frets are farther apart on the acoustic and the neck is thinner on the electric. Practicing with the acoustic makes your "reach" better but you have to be aware of the differences when you are going from one guitar to the other. Also, the strings on an electric are not as tight so you need less pressure to fret a note thus they don't abuse your finger tips as much.
Final opinion: Start with the acoustic guitar (well set-up) and then play what you learn on the electric. Try to learn the song acoustically and then you may find it easy to play on the electric.
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All these answers have there own good points, I taught myself on an acoustic and my daughter had some lessons on electric and as Jerome said she turns up the gain and seems to play parts of songs not the whole song probably because she needs backing, With just a few chords under my belt I could play a few songs at the Bar-B and had the family and everybody else singing along (Couldn't do that with the electric) Now days I pick up my daughters electric and get it going as well.(She gets a little jealous I think)
Cheers
Pete
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Interesting reading for sure.......I do not consider myself,in the upper crust of Gat players at all,just yr average bush-beat #,but I have found that learning a song and its chords on the acoustic,makes for a better/easier transition to the electric.I find some songs sound better on the acoustic hooked up to my amp,vice versa on the electric.......................one thing is constant ....my room-mates reckon I sound bad no matter what I,m playing
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