Anyone else expanded their interests beyond acoustic to a greater variety of guitars?

[ewalling]

Since I first heard Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins and a few more recent such pickers in my late twenties, my main 'thing' was always solo fingerpicking. I stopped playing between 1998-2006, and when I started again, the multiple acoustic guitar ownership thing was on fire through Internet discount shopping and forums like this one. I jumped in with both flippers, and worked my way through an assortment of acoustic instruments, sometimes owning up to 9 of them at a time, and constantly weighing up 24.9 vs. 25.5; rosewood vs. ebony boards; hog vs. rosewood b/s and even venturing into koa, ovangkol, cocobolo, maple and bubinga; 000 vs. 00 vs. 0 etc.; and hey, do I need a dread and a parlor in my 'stable'?

Over the last few years, though, I've noticed my fancy straying into solid electric guitars and lead playing, the difference between solid-wood hollow-body electrics, nylon string instruments, 12-strings, original style instruments like the Emerald Amicus, guitar synthesizers, vocal harmonizers, band boxes, and some of the amazing effects that can be had by coloring sound with echo delay, gain, and reverb. I still own 9 instruments, but only two are pure acoustics. I've found that the whole field of guitar-based music is just too rich for this kind of instrument alone, and my interest in new acoustics has diminished considerably. Has anyone else experienced this expanding curiosity and desire to play a greater variety of music with a greater variety of sounds, or have you maybe even gone the other way by simplifying and focusing your musical ambitions?

[SFCRetired]

Not me. I have learned what I already knew. The acoustic guitar sounds the way a guitar should sound. Even the lousiest acoustic I have ever played sounds better than an electric guitar to me.

Sure, I love an electric in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. But it's not for me. I sold my last electric guitar last week. A truly wonderful guitar, I just never played it much. In electric however I prefer a hollow or semi hollow.

[bobwl]

I'm kind of going the opposite way. Played acoustic mainly for a while, ended up playing electric for a while. Now I'm selling most all my electrics and going back to acoustic.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by ewalling

Since I first heard Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins and a few more recent such pickers in my late twenties, my main 'thing' was always solo fingerpicking. I stopped playing between 1998-2006, and when I started again, the multiple acoustic guitar ownership thing was on fire through Internet discount shopping and forums like this one. I jumped in with both flippers, and worked my way through an assortment of acoustic instruments, sometimes owning up to 9 of them at a time, and constantly weighing up 24.9 vs. 25.5; rosewood vs. ebony boards; hog vs. rosewood b/s and even venturing into koa, ovangkol, cocobolo, maple and bubinga; 000 vs. 00 vs. 0 etc.; and hey, do I need a dread and a parlor in my 'stable'?

Over the last few years, though, I've noticed my fancy straying into solid electric guitars and lead playing, the difference between solid-wood hollow-body electrics, nylon string instruments, 12-strings, original style instruments like the Emerald Amicus, guitar synthesizers, vocal harmonizers, band boxes, and some of the amazing effects that can be had by coloring sound with echo delay, gain, and reverb. I still own 9 instruments, but only two are pure acoustics. I've found that the whole field of guitar-based music is just too rich for this kind of instrument alone, and my interest in new acoustics has diminished considerably. Has anyone else experienced this expanding curiosity and desire to play a greater variety of music with a greater variety of sounds, or have you maybe even gone the other way by simplifying and focusing your musical ambitions?

Absolutely, just this last November I took the plunge and got back into electric after some 40 + years of just acoustic. And am so glad I did , I am also taking lessons for the first time ever specifically to learn how to play leads .
I have always loved good electric guitar playing as well as acoustic and cannot personally imagine becoming entrenched in a limited concept of appreciation because as you say there is rich palate of possibility if one can be open to it.

[kydave]

Originally Posted by ewalling

Since I first heard Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins and a few more recent such pickers in my late twenties, my main 'thing' was always solo fingerpicking. ...
I still own 9 instruments, but only two are pure acoustics. ... Has anyone else experienced this expanding curiosity and desire to play a greater variety of music with a greater variety of sounds, or have you maybe even gone the other way by simplifying and focusing your musical ambitions?

Like others, my path was the reverse, sort of...

I started playing rock on electric back in the early '60s. By the late '60s I was also playing folk on acoustic. Solo fingerpicking rarely entered my thoughts, since I was primarily a singer playing guitar to support that.

Throughout the '70s and mid-way through the '80s I was entirely acoustic, though - mostly doing a solo guitar/singer gig.

Midway through the '80s electric re-entered my life as I got into playing full time in a country band, using a Strat, a D-28 with pickup, and a pedal steel. That lasted until the late '90s, when I returned to primarily acoustic and stopped playing music as my primary means of living.

Recently in the past couple of years, I pulled the Strat and pedal steel out of mothballs and started playing regularly with a friend's band, while maintaining my own acoustic band in which I'm playing the guitar, but also Dobro and mandolin.

So there definitely are other forms of stringed instruments expanding my horizons in my musical life over the years!

[M Sarad]

I practice on acoustic seven days a week, both steel and nylon string guitars, uke, mandolin, and Charango.

Monday nights I play electric: Gibson Melody Maker with PAFs, SG with Throbacks, Les Paul Jr with a P90, Strats with either stock pups, Seymour Duncan, or Tonamacs, PRS with not two but three Dimarzio Super Distortion Humbuckers, a lap steel, maybe an Electra /Hagstrom copy from '67, and all through a narrow panel Tweed Deluxe from the 50s into an ancient Danelectro cabinet with a Jensen MOD 12".

15 watts never sounded better turned up to 2.

[Pitar]

No. No other guitar types entertain the muse for me as acoustic does. Electric does not appeal to me in any genre. I share Andre Segovia's opinion of them.

I will say I prefer nylon string acoustics, or the so-called classical guitars convention has named them.

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by M Sarad

15 watts never sounded better turned up to 2.

Wait till you turn 'em up to 11. That's when you'll really be cooking with some gas ...

[The Bard Rocks]

While I can admire great playing on any guitar including, electrics, I have never cared for the sound of electrics (or the music that is most often played on them) and am not likely to be tempted to play one much less own one.

That said, I do look for a wide range of acoustic sound in those that I own.

[Moocheng]

yes, pedal steel, not very good on it, though if I keep it simple, I get by.

its a instrument I've always loved and wanted to play. TBH, left it a bit late, PSG takes a lifetime of learning and I hav'nt got that, not that it matters, just happy doing what I can.

Its a wonderful instrument but it does'nt give up its rewards easily

[roylor4]

I went from become a Blues harp (harmonica) player 25 years ago, to mostly an acoustic rhythm player (5 yrs ago), to playing electric, resonator, rhythm bones, percussion & blues harp and possibly, next - a lap steel.

[devellis]

I've stayed purely acoustic. For me, the complexity of having and knowing how to use amps, pedals, pickups, etc. is a disincentive to going electric. But I can definitely understand why it would appeal to some folks, especially those who play in larger venues and need the volume. Once you cross into needing an amp, I imagine a whole lot of experimenting can easily follow.

[Greg Ballantyne]

I'll have to agree with others here - electrics can be great in the right hands, but they are not for me. In fact, I go so far as to consider electrics as not really guitars - they are guitar like instruments, but they are not guitars. They evolved from guitars, but they are not guitars. Nearly every aspect of sound generation is completely different. The only similarity in how the sound is made is the fact that the sound starts as a vibrating string, but that is as far as it goes. Playing has slightly more similarities due to configuration, but is still very different. If you watch a person you have never met choose and buy an acoustic guitar, you will know if they are a guitar player or an electric player.

[kydave]

Originally Posted by Moocheng

yes, pedal steel, not very good on it, though if I keep it simple, I get by.

its a instrument I've always loved and wanted to play. TBH, left it a bit late, PSG takes a lifetime of learning and I hav'nt got that, not that it matters, just happy doing what I can.

Its a wonderful instrument but it does'nt give up its rewards easily

My thoughts exactly!!

I did use one on my song "A Child's Cry"... Simple, but I think it adds to the song.

A Child's Cry

by David Alan Trabue

[Irish Pennant]

I've really tried the electric but I just can't connect with it. I have a decent Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro, a Fender Blues Jr amp in which I've upgraded the tubes, the speaker and the reverb. I have a few pedals, a tube screamer, a compressor by Xotic and a crybaby. I actually prefer the electric guitar's pedal board plugged into my mixer over the amp.

I guess I'm just an acoustic guitar player although I do have effects on my pedal board. I have a Boss Blues Driver on my acoustic pedal board that I will sometimes engage for leads over a loop. Does that count as expanding my interest beyond acoustic?