Electric for acoustic player?

[rb1591]

I'm primarily a finger picker but I'm called on to play electric often. I have a pretty good sounding strat that I'm satisfied with. However I find myself playing electric like an acousic, that is with a heavier touch. Anyone else experience the desire for an an electric that feels more like an acoustic? Any suggestions?

[jomaynor]

You could always string the strat with heavier gauge strings, and it will offer more resistance. I'd try this first.

The longer scale length on Fender electrics, and their clear sounding pickups, tend to make strats or teles very good fingerpicking and strumming guitars. Exemplified by Mark Knopfler and Richard Thompson. It's a beautiful electric sound.


Gretsch makes good sounding fingerstyle electrics, and they have a fairly flat fingerboard with a short scale neck.

[dagobert]

After years of playing acoustic the first time I played an electric I didn't realize how heavy handed I was.
Playing the electric has helped me on acoustic by now having a lighter touch.

[JeffreyAK]

I use pretty heavy strings on my electric, for an electric, at least on the bottom, including a 0.060 tuned to D. GHS TNT gauge or something similar might be a good option to bridge the gap.

[Bob Womack]

HERE and HERE are a couple of articles i wrote on choosing your first electric. Maybe they will help.

Bob

[zabdart]

One of the challenges of going from acoustic to electric guitar is all that volume... which is the point of an electric guitar in the first place. You need to remember that 90% of all electric guitars are passive wiring systems -- so, turn your amplifier up and let it do the work and use the knobs on your guitar as a control panel to shape the signal going into your amp.
There's no way to get around this -- and no quick fix for it -- electric guitar requires a much lighter touch than acoustic guitar. You're just going to have to practice until you develop it. Once you have developed it, it will open whole new possibilities to your acoustic playing by increasing your dynamic range. There are times when playing softly is a real benefit, as it sets up a contrast to building up to a loud climax. The concept of diminuendo and crescendo have been a part of music for centuries. Playing electric guitar can help you employ them more effectively no matter what guitar you're playing.

[guitararmy]

Heavier strings might indeed do the trick for you.

If you up for buying another guitar, either a Gibson ES-335 or its Epiphone sibling might work for you.

One guitar I have which is close to an acoustic in neck feel is a discontinued Ovation SVT. Mine has two SD humbuckers and sounds great as an electric, not so good as an acoustic/electric (has a piezo bridge).

[JeffreyAK]

I'm usually far more aggressive on electric guitar than on acoustic, which is why I use relatively thick strings and an extra heavy pick, along with relatively high action. Depends what kind of music you like to play.

[Steve DeRosa]

Welcome to the dark side...

Given your requirements, you might want to look into a Godin CW II before you settle on a final choice - I've had mine for the last four years and I've got nothing but good things to say about it. For an acoustic player the initial learning curve is next to nil: the neck and body dimensions are virtually identical to a Seagull mini-jumbo cutaway (good luck finding that type of neck on a production electric), the weight is comparable to an acoustic instrument (~ 5 lb.), controls are simple (volume/tone/3-way PU switch), the factory P-90's are actually better IMO than the Gibson originals (comparable power, more string-to-string definition and clarity), the factory setup on mine was absolutely flawless (plays better with 13's than my P-90 LP plays with 10's), and the lightweight woods used in its construction add a sense of "air" to the tone very reminiscent of Brooklyn-era Gretsch hollowbodies (as the original owner of a '64 Double Annie I speak from experience here - my Godin has essentially driven it into semi-retirement); far worse things you could do with $1K these days, and I've heard Tony Bennett's guitarist is using one on tour - I'd tend to think they both know a little something about good guitar tone...

Gretsch is also doing some amazing things with their current Korean-built Electromatic lineup (not to be confused with the Indonesian/Chinese instruments at the lower end of the line). Again speaking as a 50+ year Gretsch player - and the recent owner of a 5622T (NGGD posted previously on this forum) - both the tone and QC are absolutely uncanny for an under-$1K guitar: these are pro-level instruments that are not only better than many of the "golden era" '50s/60s originals, but I frankly see no reason to spend 3-4 times as much on the Japanese-built Professional Collection (yeah, they really are that good). They've also got most of the classic styles covered - 6120 (single/double-cut), White Falcon (single/double-cut), Country Gent (double), Country Club, the "Mike Nesmith" 12-string Gent, and the rarer-than-dinosaur-turds cats'-eye 6117 (in the mid-70's I was in a band with a guy who bought two of the '64-66 originals - for $75 each) as well as newer (Brian Setzer Nashville) and never-were-but-should-have-been instruments (semi-hollow '63 Duo-Jet, 3-PU/cats'-eye '66 Viking) - and nearly all of them come with honest-to-Chet Filter'trons as well as 11-49 strings (FYI they'll handle wound-G 12's, with little or no adjustment other than intonation - and a big improvement in tone). Bottom line: if you're jonesin' for "That Great Gretsch Sound" but can't handle the prices of the Professional Series or a Brooklyn original (and don't want the MIC entry-level Electromatic crap), you've just run out of excuses...

Good luck...

[mr. beaumont]

I often use heavier strings on my electrics than I do on my acoustics!

[Bob Womack]

The best advice I could give you is don't approach the electric in the same way as you approach the acoustic. Approach it on its own terms and get from it the different things only it can yield.

Bob

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

The best advice I could give you is don't approach the electric in the same way as you approach the acoustic. Approach it on its own terms and get from it the different things only it can yield.

Bob

That's great advice I have been thinking about getting into electric also and came to that same basic conclusion. If I am going to get something different, then get something different.

[rokdog49]

It's like anything else I guess "learned behavior."

It takes me a few minutes to back off my Tele when I play it but I just try to focus more and get the "feel."
The one thing I have always felt is that after really learning to play an acoustic better, the Tele is a breeze to play.

[blue]

I have 2 kinds of modern National electrics. Current NRP production, not the classic glass bodies, and lawsuit models.

The expensive one is the Resolectric and the cheaper one is the reso-tone. But the Resolectric is literally 3 to 4 times the guitar the reso-tone is. If a used resotone is $700 to $900 and a used Resolectric is $1,500 to $1,800 it's no contest.

Here's a couple great demos of the expensive one. In the first one at the end he applies super mild "country" levels of dirt. In the second one... Well you'll probably recognize the dude in it...

[The Blood]

I've owned various electrics over the years but, being an long time acoustic player, I just never could get comfortable with any them. Even so, I got a couple of telecasters last year and made a start at trying to figure out what its all about. I enjoyed the modular aspect of these Fenders and how you could set the action and intonation very precisely. My fat fingers were always having problems, though, with with anything other than the most simple chording.

Anyway, I was thinking of selling one but then recently decided to try one of the Warmoth necks and got one that was a little thick and wide, much like my Martins. The result was that I got something that I really like playing now. I was surprised at the price and quality of the neck and how well it played after some adjustments. The body I used was a Squire in which I had installed Lindy Fralin Blues pups, along with a 4 way switch, so I had spent some effort and had been disappointed before when I just didn't seem to bond with it.

Now however I can't seem to put it down. The fingerpicking tunes that I play can all be played without being crowded. Some stuff sounds better on electric some doesn't, of course, but I'm liking this solution to my long time search.