Playing an electric after playing acoustic so long

[JackB1]

I just recently got a PRS Hollwbody II Piezo for my gigs to cover electric and acoustic sounds. It's great, but I find myself struggling with the transition. When I play open chords they sometimes sound a little sharp because I must be pressing too hard. I'm also not used to the tighter string spacing as compared to my Martins. Any tips? Should I move up in string gauge? The PRS came with 10's. Would 11s make it feel more like an acoustic? What about a wound G? Would that help? I know I need to press lighter, but that's easier said than done when you have this long muscle memory on acoustics. Thanks!

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by JackB1

I just recently got a PRS Hollwbody II Piezo for my gigs to cover electric and acoustic sounds. It's great, but I find myself struggling with the transition. When I play open chords they sometimes sound a little sharp because I must be pressing too hard. I'm also not used to the tighter string spacing as compared to my Martins. Any tips? Should I move up in string gauge? The PRS came with 10's. Would 11s make it feel more like an acoustic? What about a wound G? Would that help? I know I need to press lighter, but that's easier said than done when you have this long muscle memory on acoustics. Thanks!

Hi JackB1
I play both acoustic and electric, and I use .011 on both. I want a fuller tone than super light (.008 or so) produce for my backing and lead work.

Mine doesn't feel anything like my acoustics, and I do NOT want it to. The action is lower, faster, smoother and I don't play the same styles on them. When I'm on the acoustic it's full-time fingerstyle. When I'm on electric, I play backing and lead.

The .011 give me that, and I still can accomplish full step bends when needed.

Should you change? Why not experiment a bit.

[davidd]

Just hang in there and it will come around. Before you know it you will be going to lighter strings on your acoustic! Watch this Mark Knopfler video. This is how a light touch works magic on an electric guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_hGcY1Ht6Y

[AX17609]

I have a PRS SE 245, and I was astonished to discover that it has virtually the same neck as my Martin J40, albeit with a shorter scale length. I had to fiddle with my PRS a bit to get the intonation set correctly for my playing style. I had to move the bridge back quite a bit to keep it from fretting sharp. In fact, I had a bit of a problem with PRS technical support, because the set screw used to adjust that particular bridge didn't want to move. I had to develop a workaround.

[mr. beaumont]

Sounds like your acoustics need a setup, too if you're used to pushing that hard....

It would come down to what you want to use that electric for...I actually use heavier strings on my electric than I do on my acoustic...it's not a sin

If you're looking to play some ripping blues leads, I agree you'll probably still be able to bend .011s with no problem. If you add a wound G, that stabilizes things a bunch, but wound G's don't like to bend. But string experimentation is cheap.

As for the string spacing, the more you play it the more it will feel comfortable...

[FrankHudson]

People take different paths while playing instruments, and we can't say what yours will be.

You can certainly try a heavier set of strings and wound G. I always have several electrics, and besides one jumbo archtop, I've generally kept at least one conventional electric strung with what in the electric world is called a "medium" set (which in the acoustic world would be marketed as "light.") Certain kinds of more aggressive strumming interacts better with a higher tension string set in my experience. To my observation, with me doing the playing, it's more of a feel thing that a sound thing, the way the string reacts to the pick, though there is some effect in the sound area too.

So, you can certainly try that. You're out a set of strings to make the experiment.

Now, I don't keep most of my electrics setup this way, and I'm not even close to tempted. A set of conventional .010 high E strings is as heavy as I'll go over the rest of the electrics. I want to use (maybe even overuse) string vibrato, and my old hand doesn't want to do that on high tension strings anymore.

String spacing, particularly near the nut. My technique there is not what it once was (older, stiff finger joints) and with acoustics I prefer a wider nut. On electric I'm sometimes bothered by a narrower nut and corresponding narrower string spacing, but I don't play as many chords in the "cowboy chord" area on electric. It may be as you explore the electric you'll learn to voice chords with fewer notes and further up the neck and your observed problem will be reduced. Another thing that many electric players find: they actually want to mute strings with the fretting hand more often in electric guitar playing than on acoustic, or cleanly fret two strings with one fingertip, so the narrower spacing bug becomes a feature.

What do I do when I can't finger chords up near the nut cleanly when I've composed a piece to use those cowboy open voicings? Capo! I'll tune down a step or half-step and capo up, quickly giving me a wider "nut." You can try that along with a higher tension string set (the two things go together well) to see if it's something you want to do. This isn't a common electric guitarist tactic, but some (particularly those electric guitarists who use alt/open tunings) do do this.

[Brent Hutto]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

People take different paths while playing instruments, and we can't say what yours will be.

You can certainly try a heavier set of strings and wound G. I always have several electrics, and besides one jumbo archtop, I've generally kept at least one conventional electric strung with what in the electric world is called a "medium" set (which in the acoustic world would be marketed as "light.") Certain kinds of more aggressive strumming interacts better with a higher tension string set in my experience. To my observation, with me doing the playing, it's more of a feel thing that a sound thing, the way the string reacts to the pick, though there is some effect in the sound area too.

So, you can certainly try that. You're out a set of strings to make the experiment.

Now, I don't keep most of my electrics setup this way, and I'm not even close to tempted. A set of conventional .010 high E strings is as heavy as I'll go over the rest of the electrics. I want to use (maybe even overuse) string vibrato, and my old hand doesn't want to do that on high tension strings anymore.

String spacing, particularly near the nut. My technique there is not what it once was (older, stiff finger joints) and with acoustics I prefer a wider nut. On electric I'm sometimes bothered by a narrower nut and corresponding narrower string spacing, but I don't play as many chords in the "cowboy chord" area on electric. It may be as you explore the electric you'll learn to voice chords with fewer notes and further up the neck and your observed problem will be reduced. Another thing that many electric players find: they actually want to mute strings with the fretting hand more often in electric guitar playing than on acoustic, or cleanly fret two strings with one fingertip, so the narrower spacing bug becomes a feature.

What do I do when I can't finger chords up near the nut cleanly when I've composed a piece to use those cowboy open voicings? Capo! I'll tune down a step or half-step and capo up, quickly giving me a wider "nut." You can try that along with a higher tension string set (the two things go together well) to see if it's something you want to do. This isn't a common electric guitarist tactic, but some (particularly those electric guitarists who use alt/open tunings) do do this.

Over the past year or so I've been learning about electric guitar playing (not that I was ever much more than a dabbler with acoustic in the past) and for me the trade-off seems to be it's much easier to play up the next and/or use closed voicings with no open strings on electric BUT it is a little more fiddly to play open-string voicings up near the nut cleanly on the smaller neck and narrower fretboard up there.

So I'm definitely developing an appreciation for the no-free-lunch aspects of this acoustic versus electric choice.

And BTW, like yourself I got no problem doing Capo 2 or Capo 3 just to buy myself a bit of finger room when I do need open strings. That's my go-to move on even acoustic guitars with narrow nuts.

[leew3]

I'm with you on this as I thought my Squire Tele had some intonation problems when I first got it. Nope, acoustic fingers caused the sharps in barre chords. I try to play the electric first during a practice session to reacquaint my touch as I'm primarily an acoustic player so tend to grip too hard. Keep at it!

[jseth]

While I have played electric guitar quite a bit in various band configurations, I am primarily an acoustic player and have been for over 60 years... so, the transition between the two instruments is always a bit of a challenge.

I have a Gibson ES-345. I have it strung with 11's, precisely to have the guitar "feel" a bit more like my acoustic (which has 12's). That helps a little bit, but the main thing I've come to accept is that electric guitar is just a DIFFERENT INSTRUMENT than an acoustic!

You have to learn this "new" guitar... your attack and fretting strength wants to be dialed WAY back from your acoustic guitar's... Especially the right hand!

Muting strings is paramount with an electric guitar - when I play my acoustic guitar, 90% of the time, I WANT sympathetic strings to resonate and ring out, but it's nearly the opposite with an electric guitar. MOST of the time, I'm damping strings (with either hand) so that only the notes I'm playing are sounding.

If you are intending to play similar material with a similar style as an acoustic guitar - you said you have a UST? - then bumping string gauges will help, I would think. You might even want to go to 12's; I have a friend in Montana who has his Strat strung with 13's! When I asked him about it, he told me that the places he was playing with a trio (doing old-time country and rock and roll) were pretty rough and tumble and there was no time to be tuning and re-tuning a lightly strung guitar throughout the night...

As others have said, it takes some time to re-acclimate yourself to this "new" thing - but accepting and embracing the differences is a good way to shorten that process.

[Puddleglum]

A while back I started playing electric again after a long time. I also was pressing down too hard and just generally overplaying. Everything sounded terrible. Just ease up and realize it will take some time, but it will all come along nicely. Someone mentioned lighter strings on acoustic…. I also did that after playing electric for a while. I just felt right.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by JackB1

I just recently got a PRS Hollwbody II Piezo for my gigs to cover electric and acoustic sounds. It's great, but I find myself struggling with the transition. When I play open chords they sometimes sound a little sharp because I must be pressing too hard. I'm also not used to the tighter string spacing as compared to my Martins. Any tips? Should I move up in string gauge? The PRS came with 10's. Would 11s make it feel more like an acoustic? What about a wound G? Would that help? I know I need to press lighter, but that's easier said than done when you have this long muscle memory on acoustics. Thanks!

Jack,
A heavier string will help with the unintentional bending notes sharp, but the string spacing thing can't be attended to with an existing guitar. It's doubtful that PRS makes their nut/string spacing like many Yamaha acoustics, which are notorious for having acres of unused real estate in the nut-string-spacing department.

Long ago I made the decision to 'build' my electric guitars using necks from Warmoth, and to that end I have several with 1 & 3/4" nut width & boat-neck profile which is very deep. I also have them made with SS6100 fret wire so they'll never need refretting, and they make the heavy strings very easy to play because there's almost no contact with my finger tips and the fingerboard.

I string with .013-.054 on my electrics, by the way......but they still don't really feel like my acoustics, of course, because the body shape/weight/thickness is entirely different.

So.......keep your expectations in check.

Best,
Howard Emerson

[rokdog49]

I’m convinced a lot of acoustic players press harder than they need to, especially if the setup is good. I know I did. The only time I press really hard on my acoustics now is when I do bends or slides.
As far as playing an electric goes, a good deal of it is a mental adaptation as much as physical. JMO.