For the last two weeks or so, I stopped playing my electric guitars and focused on just my acoustic. Since they are not as forgiving as electrics (you can't hide mistakes under a layer of distortion ), I figured it would help with my accuracy and technique. And...

It works! My fretting has improved and it forced me to slow down, which was a big help. Now I warm up on the acoustic before hitting the amps.

Just thought I spread the tip in case any other newer players needed help. It's sure working for me!

Years ago I read an interview with Keith Richards where he said "I play acoustic guitar a lot. When there's no more oil and we can't make electricity, I don't want to rely on feedback to keep the lick going...

Yhup, time spent on an acoustic will repay you bigtime on electric.

I think anything that takes you out of your comfort zone can help you grow musically. For me the biggest hurdle was to start finding a way to get a good tone without relying on amps, pedals, pickups ect., and realizing on acoustic all you have is your fingers. Of course a good guitar helps, but the basic sound comes from you.

Over the last five years or so I have been playing less and less electric, I just find the acoustic more responsive. Changes in dynamics and tonal inflections are just so much more immediate on acoustic, especially nylon string. I found that electric guitars and amps compress the sound so much that you have to work much harder to get these variations. When I do (rarely) pick up the electric now, I am more aware of the physical aspect of tone vs. the mechanical equipment aspect.

A note on distortion and electrics: I NEVER practice a song with distortion. I learn it on a clean, low volume setting until I have it nailed.

Then, we you go to the distortion, it's all the more fun

I think playing the acoustic helps with the electric as it gets you away from pedals, amps, etc...helps build your finger strength...and helps with your listening skills...then when you fire up the electric it's easier to play and you have more insights to experiment with...

Also helps you pick up folkie hippie girls...

90% of my practicing is done on a 12-string acoustic for a few reasons...

I find that playing acoustic makes you much more intimately familiar with the instrument as well as the music. Subtleties that can get disregarded or lost on even a clean electric are much more apparent on an acoustic.

I like 12-string because it fights back a bit and discourages string bending. 12-string also builds hand strength and demands accuracy.

I only dabble on guitar (play bass), but when I do play I use my acoustic 95% of the time. I've found that if it can be played on the acoustic, then it is easy on an electric.

Also, because I play guitar so infrequently, the little amount of time that I do play is enough to keep the calluses on my fingertips.

Although acoustic practice will help improve your playing on electric you should play acoustic for the sake of playing an acoustic guitar. They're different instuments.

A very good point.

There is something beautifully simplistic about a wood box with strings, just you and the instrument. My carvin acoustic has no pickup so there's no evil temptation to run it through a phase shifter or whatever. Trust in Keef!

and sing around the campfire...

On second thought, don't any of you guys switch from playing electric to acoustic guitar.

I love playing acoustic. If you guys start playing it, you may discover that you prefer the rich complex sonorities of a well-made acoustic to having to crank the pi$$ out of a solid-body electric trying to squeeze a few harmonic overtones out of the fundamental, making it sound like a chainsaw. Then I'll have more competition than I want.

So keep playing your Strats and Les Pauls through digital multi-effects units. That'll be better. Really.

Nice, i agree. As someone who plays mostly acoustic when i pick up an electric certain things are alot easier.


Anton

Playing both is fun and educational...playing more often on the one you like best is normal...nothing wrong with only going in one direction and enjoying the beauty of your choice...I'm playing around with mixing them both on the Taylor T5 concept...not the best electric...not the best acoustic...but I'm enjoying it....

I personally just tend to play my electric unplugged.

Just as unforgiving, but without the heavier strings. And my acoustic doesn't feel quite as nice as my electric, too.

Someone mentioned a box with strings...

I'm amazed at how loud an acoustic guitar can be if you strum it hard. There's a sweet spot over the sound hole that really makes a rich loud tone. It also makes my wife yell at me to "turn it down".

I have mainly played 12 string for like 13 years. I practice all of my scales, sweep picking, or whatever on it.

I parted with it for a year while in Taiwan. But I am back on vacation and am loving my 12.

I can play legato fast licks, or dimeola type patterns, whatever. The reason is--I practiced on the 12 string.

When I play electric it takes some time to adapt because of my exagerrated left/right hand strength.

I believe real tone starts from your hands. If you can't play it on acoustic, chances are you are one of the millions of players who RELIES on the amp or the pedals for tone.

I love to play 6 string acoustic now. The reason is that all the work and strength I built up translates perfect to 6 string. I can bend and do almost anything I could do on electric--with the exception of some of the high notes, or saturated pinch harmonics.

If you listen to electric guys like Gambale, or Holdsworth, or EVH, SRV Gibbons or really any great player. They can sound great through anything. You could put them on acoustic and they still have the thud, and thunk like they can REALLY play guitar.

Most metal players of today have lost this. They don't get it. They hide behind gain, and develop 'crutch technique'. Thats what I call it.

Yes, if you've been practicing acoustic a lot you have to remember to LIGHTEN UP on electric, where the amp does a lot of the work.

And not all good acoustic players make good electric guitarists, either. It's a different esthetic.

and the inverse, not all good electric players make good acoustic players.

I think they're very complimentary. As someone who's always been a bit of fan of really digging into arrangements and productions of records, the way a good acoustic track sits in a record is a different animal, different accents and rhythmic emphasis.

I think playing drums, bass, keys, mandolin and whatever else you can get your hands on helps your electric playing, too. It's kind of like learning to play all the positions on a sports team...

Though my first guitar was an electric, I have pretty much always considered myself a guitar player, and if pushed, a rhythm guitar player.

I play mostly acoustic.

I can play most anything that I can play on either instrument.

But I can't see playing acoustic being a help to playing electric. Keyboardists say the same thing..... practice on a manual piano, and you'll be a better keyboardist. But I believe that the touch of each instrument is different, so the way to become particularly proficient would be to pick an instrument and stick with it. Then you know it, inside and out. What excites me about owning a bunch of instruments is that each one draws out a different performance from me, based upon how they feel and how they sound. So I don't , personally, find that this correlation working for me.

I know that I would be a faster, flashier player if I concentrated on electric. I know that I would be a cleaner player with more complex chord forms if I concentrated on acoustic. But that is just me.

I think they are both different animals. For instance with electric you need to control string noise. The more gain you use, the more you need to be in control of this facet.

But with acoustic you need to be accurate and your hand strength has to be there to project sound if you are playing leads, or rythm.

My opinion is that the transition an acoustic player has to endure to switch to electric is less, than visa versa.

I played both for many years. I think my technique is very strong in both hands because I played 12 string for so many years.

When I switch to electric, well.. It is an adjustment. Usually the strings feel too loose to me, and of course the resistance is different when I play electric. With acoustic I can really dig in with both hands and have some thwack.

You really need to modify this for electric, and of course adjust to the added noise.

BUT, for an electric guitarist to switch to acoustic and play all the same licks and chord riffs.. I think it would be more difficult.

But I also played both of them for a while, as you have Bill. I dunno. Perhaps if I had NEVER EVER touched an electric. It would probably be very hard to sound good.

But at this stage of my playing practicing on an acoustic definatly has advantages.

I went to GC when I first came back to the States a few weeks ago and tried the Spidervalve MK II. It was the first time I have played through an electric in a while.

Very strange. Some of the acoustic licks I play really were hard to play on electric. Mainly because of string tension.

I rely on that on acoustic for certain types of licks that require the tension and clarity.

I dunno, I think for myself it has made my natural tone in my hands for electric alot stronger.

One thing I have always appreciated about playing acoustic, is the control over dynamics without a bunch of knob twirling. I can play late at night with someone in the next room sleeping and they wouldn`t know it, or I can blast through the door and have people ask me to turn it down-um...it doesn`t turn down. I wouldn`t be interested in playing acoustic just to make my electric playing better-they both have plenty of their own appeal.

Ha! I have had the rare pleasure of having the cops called due to being too loud on an un-amplified acoustic guitar. Yes, the transition from acoustic to electric is easier than the converse, and while I agree acoustic and electric are different animals, (as are steel and nylon string acoustics, or dreadnoughts, jumbos and parlors, and let's not start with resonators and twelve-strings) the practice of one reinforces that of the other in nearly all cases. I think that guitarists who regularly play both-in public and at a single sitting-are well-advised to alter their string gauges so that they don't require as much mental and physical adjustment. I love both and what they bring to my playing; the acoustic guitar reminds me that tone begins with the hands, and there are many bends I have learned to do on acoustic that I might've never tried, were they not more easily achieved on electric.

"...I also played both of them for a while, as you have Bill. I dunno. Perhaps if I had NEVER EVER touched an electric. It would probably be very hard to sound good."

First, welcome back!

Yeah, I bought my first acoustic 12 string in 1965 or 66, and I played mostly 12 string in an acoustic trio through the 70-73 period (Buffalo Springfield, CSN, etc...) definitely a different animal back then before Ovation made the acoustic 12 a playable instrument!

They are different animals, but I'm a stubborn git, and I'm going to first off make it do what I want it to do, unless I'm looking to see where the box will lead me. I hate accidental art, I prefer thought, intent, technique and practice all leading to a goal.

The strings ton't feel too loose to me, as I use heavier strings on the electric and lighter strings on the acoustic, but I do have to have a substantial electric... I'll pull SGs or Richenbackers out of tune.

"One thing I have always appreciated about playing acoustic, is the control over dynamics without a bunch of knob twirling. "

I've always been bad at knob twirling, if I can't step on a button, I'm pretty much hosed.

I was almost going to bring this up as a separate topic, but-well I have size 12 feet, a lot of the stuff that you`re supposed to step on looks like it`s made by somebody`s girlfriend. I prefer to use my hands as much as possible, without interrupting my playing.

In fact I`ll expand on that, because I mostly like to incorporate multieffect type units into my gear BUT, they usually have these floor controllers with buttons that are WAY too close together, I`m aware that they want to keep it compact but give me a break. Ideally there should be away to attach or separate them as needed.

The RP series from Digitech has some pretty large buttons.

Don't be silly. Nobody's girlfriend would design anything that would make playing guitar easier or more enjoyable...