Should you buy an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar?
Note: this advice is geared for beginners. Intermediate and advanced players should not need to ask this question.
Acoustic Guitar
- Acoustic guitars: pros
- no equipment needed
- ready to play right away
- bring it anywhere
- no need to fuss with electronics
- fewer playing techniques
- Acoustic guitars: cons
- thicker strings (harder to play)*
- higher string 'action' (harder to play)
*It is recommended that beginning acoustic guitar players use light gauge strings. This will help you avoid discomfort. As you advance, you may find that you prefer bigger strings.
Electric Guitar
- Electric guitars: pros
- wider range of techniques
- wider range of genres
- louder
- strings lighter (easier)
- action lower (easier)
- Electric guitars: cons
- more complicated to set up
- more difficult to control
- mistakes sound louder
- easy to irritate family, roommates and neighbors
- not as portable
When in doubt, you should follow your passion: choose whichever guitar you're more interested in. If you remain indifferent after reading this it is probably best to start with an acoustic guitar. Acoustic guitars are by far the most common instrument for beginning guitar players to use.
As the creator of Hub Guitar, Grey has compiled hundreds of guitar lessons, written several books, and filmed hundreds of video lessons. He teaches private lessons in his Boston studio, as well as via video chat through TakeLessons.