What would be a good acoustic musicians first electric guitar?

[DukeX]

Originally Posted by swarfrat

I spent 30 years avoiding Teles like the plague. Give in now and save yourself a lot of fighting.

Same here. Now I love them, and they are great finger pickers IMO.

[GHS]

For under 400 dollars the Squire Classic Vibe tele ( in the butterscotch color, that has the Alnico 5 pickups in it), is something that you can use and not really have to "move up" from. Great tone, play ability and finish. It balances well, ( better than a Les Paul guitar), the neck is super nice, all around a bargain.

[ManyMartinMan]

What Moon said is pretty tight. What you hear from an electric guitar has more to do with your equipment than the guitar itself. Many people chase a "sound" and never get it because they think it is the guitar's fault. My advice is to determine a budget because this could get really deep, really quick. Then go to a guitar store with a lot of electric guitars (you'll see a similarity here to advice for an acoustic) and find a guitar that fits and suits your sensibilities. Again similar to acoustics, you can play almost anything on any electric guitar. Players like BB King did almost everything on a hollow-body electric. Guys like Eric Clapton do almost everything on a Strat. Find a guitar you like to play and search for the sound you seek with your amp and effects.

[JeffreyAK]

Electric guitars are not planks of wood, it's mostly acoustic players who say that (my Dad used to say that when I was a kid...) but it's not correct. If you play a few guitars unamplified, you'll hear the differences, and that's what drives the pickups, which feeds the effects, which feeds the amp, which feeds the speakers, etc. You can change pickups, effects, amps, speakers, etc., and you can make dramatic changes the sound, yes, but it starts with the guitar. I noticed quite a difference in my Strat after changing out my neck, and changing nothing else.

That said, you can play anything on any electric guitar, it's true, but that's true of acoustic guitars as well. The reason I like Strats is basically versatility. You have three pickups and at least five combinations, each sounding different from the others, and you have a bridge that conveniently allows a variety of right-hand techniques from what is (to me) a comfortable base for your palm, assuming you're using a flat pick as most electric players do.

[moon]

I think the clue is in the name: "electric" guitar. All the electromagnetic bits from pickups to speaker driver have a massive effect on tone.

None of these circuits are hi-fi. They are not designed to faithfully represent the acoustic sound of an electric guitar in exquisite detail. Instead, they take huge liberties. The raw signal from the pickups - already strongly filtered - gets processed by pedal circuits, pre-amp circuits, tone circuits, output stage circuits, and TWO stages of electromagnetic conversion before the speaker cone (and cabinet) has the final say in what parts of the signal get blasted out, attenuated, compressed, or simply ignored.

That's not to say the physical construction - wood & fittings - aren't important but if you're aiming for a particular type of sound, you first need to choose an amp, cab, perhaps a pedal or two, and pickups type (by default, choosing a pickup means choosing a guitar but it's the type of pickup loaded in the guitar you're really interested in).

If you could experiment with the same pickups & amp etc with a variety of different guitars you would find you like some guitars better than others - particularly with clean sounds where you get more of a chance to hear the "natural" tone.

There's a kind of a soft "clucky" tone I associate with semi-hollows for example. The Telecaster has a sharp, trebly twang which isn't just a factor of the single-coil pickup.

But these are subtleties: electric guitar tone is primarily about the electromagnetic bits. When you're starting out, you have to learn how to blend pickups, amps etc to get the tone you want. Unlike the world of acoustic guitars, simply choosing an instrument won't do it.

Experienced guitarists take all this for granted because they've learned it so well so they don't even need to think about it. They've already finalised most of their amp choices, etc. For them, tone is ALL about the guitar because the plank of wood is the only variable left.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by JeffreyAK

Electric guitars are not planks of wood, it's mostly acoustic players who say that (my Dad used to say that when I was a kid...) but it's not correct. If you play a few guitars unamplified, you'll hear the differences, and that's what drives the pickups, which feeds the effects, which feeds the amp, which feeds the speakers, etc. You can change pickups, effects, amps, speakers, etc., and you can make dramatic changes the sound, yes, but it starts with the guitar. I noticed quite a difference in my Strat after changing out my neck, and changing nothing else.

That said, you can play anything on any electric guitar, it's true, but that's true of acoustic guitars as well. The reason I like Strats is basically versatility. You have three pickups and at least five combinations, each sounding different from the others, and you have a bridge that conveniently allows a variety of right-hand techniques from what is (to me) a comfortable base for your palm, assuming you're using a flat pick as most electric players do.

Completely agree. I’ve spent money on new guitars and had them thoroughly worked over by my guitar tech that have not saved them from being dogs. One Epiphone Les Paul I had would only ring out a D chord but was muted on other triads. Strumming acoustically is an easy test to hear if it rings out. No point in modding a dud to begin with.

[Glennwillow]

I think the best thing to do is to go to a good guitar store and play a bunch of electric guitars and find out what you like. That's what I did.

I had a friend that kept telling me that my first electric guitar should be a Les Paul. So he went with me to a good guitar store and I found that I didn't care for the sound of a Les Paul, at least at that point in time. My first electric guitar was a Gibson ES-335. It's still one of my favorites.

Today I also have a Stratocaster, a MIM telecaster with US electronics, a nice Eastman archtop, a Les Paul (which I have still never gotten used to), and a Rickenbacker 360-12. They all have their places.

But if I were to have only one electric guitar, for me, it would still be the ES-335 or something close to it.

- Glenn

[justonwo]

I think the answer is any of them if the question is that broad. I don't think there's any particular electric guitar that's well suited to an acoustic guitar player, per se. I think it's more about the sound you're looking for.

Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, SGs, ES-335s, etc. They all work well. If I want to do 70s classic rock, I'll pull out my SG Special with P-90 pickups. For effects, Pink Floyd, and Jimi, it's the Strat. For a whole slew of stuff it's my Tele.

I would say it's more dependent on the kind of music you want to play than anything, but even then pretty much any electric guitar can be made to do what you want it to do.

[Rudy4]

Once I played a Tele thinline I never wanted another type of electric.

An acoustic player who was contemplating an electric could do far worse than considering this:

https://youtu.be/V27xPNnr1e0

[M Hayden]

Originally Posted by Alder Statesman

You can play anything on a Tele. There is one to fit any budget.

+1

Tele are both comfortable and versatile.

[Jerry D]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Once I played a Tele thinline I never wanted another type of electric.

An acoustic player who was contemplating an electric could do far worse than considering this:

https://youtu.be/V27xPNnr1e0

Nice, but that ain't no Tele.

[Wasper]

I would also jump on the Tele bandwagon. The pickup configuration lends itself to an easy transition from an acoustic guitar. The cleans are excellent and you can dirty it up to play whatever you want. Also, since it is a fairly simple setup, it doesn't have that much learning curve.

If I was going to buy a Tele, I would go for the G&L tribute series over the entry-level Fender lineup. I found the build quality to be superior and the hardware more refined.

I will say, though, I don't like the overall shape of the body of the telecaster nor the tree headstock.. just not a fan. I wanted the sound of the Tele, but something different.

I would put forth this suggestion, which I ultimately purchased over the telecasters. Look for the Ibanez Talman TM302 ($400-ish street) . They reissued them a couple years back for a limited run. They also have the more expensive Japanese made versions ($1200-ish street). They are becoming scarce now, but can be found still.

The talmans have a more comfortable offset body in my opinion. They also have a more standard headstock and even come with locking tuners. The bridge hardware is better made then the entry level Fender guitars as well. Check them out for consideration, at the very least.

You can still find various models on the major web sites. They even offer a model that has a strat style configuration as well.

Here are 2 examples from a place I have purchased from in the past.

A nice bust model for $399.
http://www.proaudiostar.com/talman-s...ade-burst.html

Or, this extremely well priced blue model on sale for $249.

http://www.proaudiostar.com/ibanez-t...e-sparkle.html

Check them out, I live mine!!

[mikealpine]

Not knowing your budget, have you looked at the Taylor T5z? Lots of versatility. I happen to like Reverend, and would look for a Sensei model, choose the pickups you like.

[fray]

I would also suggest the Taylor T5s, they offer a wide range of tones, check them on Youtube. If that fails, another Tele or Gretsch endorsement.