geeky question for guitarists
 

Do you find your playing remains the same on both acoustic and electric? I'm asking because I often find that the same chords I play on my acoustic don't sound as good when I play them on the electric, no matter how clean the sound is.

I gravitate to a more fingerpicking style on acoustic. Playing chords I wrote for electric on my acoustic seem to ring too clearly.

I'm a guitarist; I doubt an amp will ever sound quite as good as a decent acoustic guitar. The more money you spend on your amp and electric guitar will equate to how good of a sound you achieve. I'm not trying to sound mean but you are probably playing through a shitty little amp, no?

Long-winded response, but I love to talk about playing music, since it's my greatest love in life, even if I'm not very good at it...

I play electric guitar extremely clean, but with a very trebly, bright tone. I'm not into distortion, so I only distort it/put JUST ENOUGH gain on it so when I play harmonics (which is very common in my playing style), they ring out properly. As an electric guitarist, I guess I'm inspired by Richard Bishop, early The Fall, Wire, Joy Division (!), Sonic Youth, Ikara Colt, TFUL#282... and Captain Beefheart.

I approach acoustic guitar as a completely different being, as it is. As an acoustic guitarist, almost nothing I play on electric sounds as good. If I play too fast, it gets muffled... like, it reminds me of "folk punk", like Against Me! and shit... so, playing lots of really fast chord changes kinda sounds ... eh ... to me, at least when I do it. The acoustic is such a different instrument to me, kinda like how I don't play bass the same way as I do other instruments. Acoustic usually sounds best when you play lots of single notes. So, I mainly just finger pick (in a very limited, Fahey-ish way) or tremolo pick single notes really fast. Just single note runs, no chord blocks or anything "avant garde" really. As I read in a book once, if you play "noisily" on electric guitar, it sounds cool (well, hopefully); if you play "noisily" on acoustic, it sounds like you don't know how to play.

Another thing about electric guitar is that I feel very comfortable playing in all sorts of wild tunings, letting it go out of standard tuning quickly, and putting it all sorts of made-up tunings, and open chords. I feel very comfortable playing in just about any tuning setup, because it's very easy for me to make (in my mind) decent riffs, no matter what -- my playing style allows for that to happen. On the other hand, I can't make anything other than standard sound good on an acoustic. I will occasionally tune to open for some slide stuff, but that's about it.

I guess I just view acoustic guitar usually as a completely different instrument than other guitars, in the scheme of things. They seem to invoke wilder different emotions, since they don't feed back, most people can't really fingertap on them (which is something I do a lot with my electric) in a meaningful way, and you "can't" (or, perhaps, "probably shouldn't") use too many effects with an acoustic. So, in a way, acoustic guitars offer a more limited range of ways to manipulate the sound, BUT at the same time, I think it can invoke more emotive responses. For example, the most beautiful "guitar songs" I've ever heard are acoustic-based.

I just tend to think all guitars, all timbres are different and in my playing, I try to treat them all differently. Lately, I've been playing LOTS of bass, and honestly, I'm about to give up guitar, since bass is the instrument I'm starting to feel really comfortable with. I've only been playing it non-stop for about 2 weeks, and I can play every Joy Division bassline no problem, and many Primus basslines.. by ear... I just "get" the instrument, and I am probably going to give up all other types of guitar and just focus on bass.

Sorry for the long response, but this is actually a cool thread and I'm eager to read others' thoughts... I guess my main point is that I find that even though all guitars are basically the "same", when I play them I approach them in completely different ways, depending on what I'm trying to accomplish. I think the thing is, just about anyone can pick up an electric guitar and coax interesting sounds of it, but I think it's usually better to have a better "understanding" of music to get good results with an acoustic.

I've written plenty of acoustic songs and one of the things I've noticed is that acoustic works really well as a "Stand-alone" instrument; acoustic has such a naturally dark atmospheric sound. For those who haven't heard the new scissor shock record, I improvised two 40 second acoustic songs on it:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/lh3a83
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bgftx8

which some of you might dig. Now, to make those links relevant to those thread, listen to those songs... then, just imagine those same songs on solo electric guitar instead of acoustic... it would sound like garbage (er, more like garbage than they already do).

One more thing... I've heard plenty of great bands with guitar interplay.. Fugazi, Q and Not U, Captain Beefheart, Polvo, tons of amazing bands trading guitar notes back and forth. I've never heard a band do this in any meaningful way with acoustic guitar. Interesting.

...Genteel, have you heard John Fahey's later albums, like Hitomi? I think you'd love them. They're almost all clean electric guitars -- with some delay -- and the playing style is COMPLETELY different than Fahey's acoustic stuff. On the other hand, I've noticed Derek Bailey's acoustic and electric stuff is usually pretty interchangeable (I prefer his electric stuff).

The best recent acoustic guitarist I've heard is Bill Orcutt... I haven't really heard anyone play that detuned and fucked-up and still be fucking amazing... I love how he constantly plays that open one note (C?) over and over. Great style.

I guess this thread is the same as asking if you play organ the same way as you play piano. Most people don't -- in fact, if you play lots of organ notes the same as a piano, it usually sounds like shit... in a way, they're extremely similiar instruments, but the timbre is so different and evokes completely different emotions, so most people approach them differently. There really aren't too many "upbeat" acoustic based songs; acoustic guitar seems like it always has a natural dark ambience, a disquieting unsettling sadness, no matter what. That's what makes it such a compelling instrument.

By the way, this reminds me, since we're talking about acoustic guitars, I should take pictures of the acoustic bass I made a few years ago. It appeared on the scissor shock acoustic song "proud of white blood cells" (d/l: http://freedownloads.last.fm/downloa...od%2Bcells.mp3... Genteel, even you'd like this song, it sounds nothing like any of the other SS stuff, it's very simple and ghostly, with organs and xylophones). I made it specifically for the song, and it is such a weird instrument. I broke an acoustic guitar's neck and put bass strings in the acoustic guitar, and it sounds like a stand-up bass, the only way to play it is to move the neck up and down or with a bow, so it gives it this weird ass wobbly acoustic sound. It's loud as fuck too and noisey. I've made a lot of instruments but I'm really proud of this one...

Oh, one more thing, Genteel, I highly reccomend playing acoustic guitar in open c tuning. It's probably the best tuning to get a dark (but not muffled) sound. It's probably the coolest tuning, it's nearly impossible to sound like shit on it.

Man, I wrote a lot, but geeky guitar questions rules. I always set aside 1-2 hours a day just to play guitar, and have done so nearly every day for 12 years. I'm not very good at it, but I think I can come up with some interesting melodies. Some of my favorite "guitar songs" I've done are the 58 second surf song PHANTOM TERROR GODDAMN from my old band (http://freedownloads.last.fm/downloa...amn %2529.mp3) and FAHEY GHOST (http://freedownloads.last.fm/downloa...y%2Bghost.mp3), my 1 minute Fahey tribute. Enjoy.

Utterly different instruments, for me. But then I tend to hold with the idea that every instrument has different ways of playing it. The difference between a Spanish nylon-string and a generic European classical nylon-string is massive.

In terms of actual playing, I think a good technique will stand you in good stead for either acoustic or electric. And I tend to think it's really important to work on actual technique, possibly more so than melody/ harmony. If you're playing garage rock, a 'sophisticated' approach isn't really necessary; similarly, if you're playing through a raft of effect, technique takes a bit of a back-seat. But if you're coming down on the side of treating the guitar as an 'instrument' (rather than sound source), technique (whether classically 'good' or more idiomatic) is inescapable.

I just had a funny thought: someone shredding on an acoustic guitar. How awful would that sound? And does anyone have any good examples?

Shredding on an acoustic guitar would probably sound jazzy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6HDUKBbzE

Would this count?

hah, sure.

It just sounds like he's playing a Coltrane composition on guitar. It's interesting.

John McLaughlin is definitely shredding.

EDIT: This thread really makes me wish I could play guitar. :(

Anyone can play guitar. It's the simplest instrument in the world next to the triangle. I mean, you can play the complete Weezer discography with two fingers, you know? What got me playing guitat was CONFUSION IS SEX. I was just telling someone this the other day... I heard that album when I was 13, and it basically made me realize that, hey, I could do this stuff. I wasn't interested in "tuning", I wasn't interested in learning chords, or whatever. The guitar playing on that album is just so primal and visceral, and not concerned too much with "riffs" (besides the bass, wihch is simple). And yet it remains one of the greatest guitar albums ever, in my opinion. Now, playing the drums? That one can be hard. Then again, the fairly simple drumming on CiS is mindblowing, too.

Anyway, Joe, just pick up a guitar and dick around, it's fun. Hell, tune to drop d, and you can play all the "heavy" KoRn riffs (some of the weird sounds, and especially "Good God" are kinda challenging for beginners) with just one finger.

I think everybody would have to change it up a bit between acoustic and electric... what sounds good on instrument A might not transition well to instrument B, chords might sound better on one, etc.

Obviously your own style with playing would have similar elements for both, but it would still be different on both ends. For me, when I'm playing any guitar I hit (more so arpeggio) some extra open notes quickly while playing chords. This can work well for both acoustic and electric, and both have their own merits. On the other hand, I use a whammy bar a lot, which an acoustic does not have obviously.

I think your playing style will still have a strong effect, but you'll have to think a bit differently (Which is the same for ANY instrument, I agree with Glice 100% on that one).

~Jeremy~

It depends on whether I'm practicing/trying to maintain callouses or just playing acoustic for the sake of hearing a different sound than I get out of an electric. If it's the latter, then I tend to use more complex chords (not to say that complex chords don't sound good on electric) and not play as many lead parts above the 15th fret.

Really, all guitars have their own vibe and I almost unconsciously adapt how I play to them...a while ago, I tried playing heavy Helmet-like grooves on a Rickenbacker 360 through a cheapo Crate solid state amp, and while it sounded OK, it just didn't feel right. I played more open, ringing types of lines (actually not that easy on a Ric due to the narrow fretboard and close string spacing) and sounded and felt better. In those days, my thing was to try and get heavy tones out of things that weren't really built for it, often with disappointing results. I've found that it's better to play to an instrument's strengths instead of forcing it to be something it's not.

I remmeber watching a video of yngwie malmsteem doing exactly this.
will have a look if i find it

^^tenacious D?

one thing I've realized is that sometimes when i play my acoustic.. i come up with ideas i never wouldve thought of with my electric guitar. I've always been a fan of songs where it's just someone singing while playing his or her acoustic guitar. no drums or bass (etc.). i don't know why. i have always thought acoustic guitars were better for .. uh emotional songs i guess? or darker songs and i like to play more silent with my acoustic as well.

i haven't been playing for too long. about a year and a half or 2 years and i guess im not great at it. but i don't think you necessarily have to be outstanding like... Yngwie Malmsteen i suppose to write a good song or to play covers of certain bands. i have always liked guitarists who can write simple songs but make them seem effective. by adding certain twists or adding a great melody to it. i don't know... just random stuff that came to my head from reading this question.

so i personally think an electric guitar is different from an acoustic guitar. different vibes for me. but of course, it could be different for everybody depending on their style.

i try to develop my solo skills only on my electric guitar. probably because the action is very high on my acoustic and it's a pain. i play more finger picking on my acoustic.

This actually sounds like the time of my life. Wouldn't I wanna get an Ibanez 7-string though?

If you want to play them "right", then yeah, you'll need need an Ibanez 7-string tuned down a whole step (ADGCFAD) and heavy gauge strings.

I play Korn songs on a 6-string in A440 all the time, but I'm not seriously covering them or anything.

Maybe this? or this

I'm not going to lie - the first Yngwie clip excited me a lot. He's about as fashionable as Laudanum addictions, but no less brilliant for that.

I, like Glice also said, think the acoustic and electric guitar are two totally different animals. I don't own an acoustic, well I do but there aren't any strings on it right now and it needs a new nut after the last one split in half. But I don't get to play acoustic nearly as much as I get to play my electric. And when I do play acoustic it's on a friend's guitar and I have to play it upside down.

But certainly the moods evoked by either are alot different. Electric to me always seemed suited for exploring different types of sounds and the like. With the electric you can just mess with the distortion or all those levels and run it through some chorus and flange pedals or whatever if you want to come up with some wavy sound, or something like that. So you have all of those options on the table if you have some idea of a particular sound you want.

You can't really do that on an acoustic. You can't just decide to make it sound like a garbage compactor and then actually make it sound like one. So I think the things one thinks about in terms of what they want to do differ between the two. So in that regard when it comes to the acoustic one has to think more creatively about what they want to get out of the instrument because they don't have as much at their disposal. Kind of that making more out of less thing.

As well with acoustic (I think someone, maybe asp mentioned this already) it's not an instrument you can't um, be as much of an idiot on as you can on electric. With electric you usually have that gain and such to cover mistakes you make, not really the case with acoustic. The acoustic requires a heavier precision and delicacy.

I don't even describe the two with the same terms. I tend to identify acoustic playing with really indefinite words/phrases. Like this sounds like a bright sunny day, or this sounds like the inside of a buried coffin. Wheras with electric I'll think of the sounds like, well this sounds like a hunter getting mutilated by a grizzly bear, or a jackhammer, or the purr of a cat, just really concrete things.

Two really exciting instruments.

Haha, "be an idiot on". I like that.

This reminds me... I still need to listen to KoRn unplugged. KoRn's idiotic, and downright ugly riffing translated to acoustic songs? I gotta hear that shit!

In general I'd agree with this, but it's not necessarily the case, as with my electro acoustic I tend to use like an electric smtimes and even run through guitar fx. I'm sure you can play SY songs just as effectively on acoustic, in fact I've seen it done on YT.
I prefer playing acoustic over electric, I like the resonance. smtimes when playing electric I'll play it unplugged with my ear against the solid body to listen to the internal resonance and then I think about contact mic'in it up, but never get round to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY4IPNSL5HY

I'd love to play like Borland.

I'm really gonna give this guitar thing a shot tomorrow. I've got a cheap off-brand guitar now that just needs tuning, and I finally got my 120-Watt Line 6 Spider 3 amp back from my friend (I used to use it with a cheap mic in a lame noise project I once tried to get going). I'm not sure if I have one of those cables that connects the guitar to the amp or not. Hmmm.

KoRn Unplugged is definitely something worth checking out. At it's peak you've got KoRn and Robert Smith blending In between Days with Make Me Bad. They even cover Creep! It's definitely a spectacle. Just catch that shit on youtube, brah.

You figured me out you wear a mask.

:)

Already broke my first string! Haha. I'm pretty sure I've got it set in standard tuning properly, but am struggling to down-tune it to drop c. I watched a couple Youtube videos, but am still confused.

Any suggestions for a complete guitar/music n00b? I really wanna play "Break Stuff".

buy a guitar tuner!

Well, I sorta figured that much! ha I just thought maybe there'd be some sort of trick that would help me before I'm able to pick one up.

Thanks though.

Stringing the guitar: check from about 2:10 in this

When you're close to the tone you're tuning to, come from below the note, rather than going higher than the note then tuning down - it stays in tune longer and the string's stronger.

If you're really new to the guitar, don't bugger about with drop C - absolute fidelity to the pitch isn't really necessary if you're just fannying about in your bedroom. Plus, if you've got anything other than really thick strings, it'll sound like utter crap, because they'll rattle against the neck like nobody's business.

If you're breaking strings, try a thinner plectrum. To start with, your plectrum technique won't be great, so a thicker plectrum will really take it out on the strings. Hence breakage. Thinner plectrums are better for strumming as well, and to start with that's all you really need to do. If you're still breaking strings, try playing closer to the neck of the guitar - playing near the bridge is where the strings are most taut, so applying pressure there will both de-tune the strings and lead to them breaking.

Remember that everyone who works in a guitar shop is a cunt. But even so, if you're asking them questions, make sure you point out you're an absolute beginner. They'll try and baffle you with bullshit, but if you don't understand what they're talking about, just say so. They'll huff, but it's their job to deal with beginners, not to be treat people like idiots. I've been playing guitar for 13 years now, and I still haven't the slightest idea about the strange language guitar shop people speak. I have all my guitar bits delivered to me by a mate who works in a guitar shop because I actually can't tolerate being near guitar shop people.

Uh... that's probably quite a bit of information. PM me if you're after any more tips n' stuff.

yeah... do you have a piano/keyboard? you could tune off of that.
or use this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzKCgwvv-vw

harder with alternate tunings but you can get in the ballpark.

http://www.get-tuned.com/guitar_tuner.php

Good for alternate tunings as well. ALTHOUGH tuning with aids is only a good idea initially, it's much better for your ear (and therefore your playing) to go without one.

That's probably one of the simplest songs of all time, so you're in luck! Okay, first of all, tune to mud sharp (he probably used drop-C tuning). He used a 7 string but you don't have one so we'll just say, a 6 string.. Put all your fingers on the third fret and play the bottom 3 strings ("bottom" means "low", not "furthest away from you"). Then put your fingers on the on the 2nd string, 2nd fret, 3rd string, 4th fret. Repeat that a million times. That's the main riff. The chorus is just the first 3 strings, first fret, and there's some bending, you play it a few times, and then play the fourth fret and 2nd fret. There's some other stuff but at least with my little guide here, you can play the two main riffs. Basically, aside from the power chord you form in the 2nd part of the main riff, you can EASILY play this whole song with one finger. As far as sweaty ADIDAS mook rock goes, Wes -- and the members of KoRn -- were actually pretty interesting guitarists, but all their stuff is extremely easy to play, with lots of processing and effects. Many of KoRn's verse riffs were just one or two notes played through a pedal... weird bent guitar interplay and stuff, interesting and creative.. Then, of course, most of their chorus riffs were just 3 or 4 notes, all played on the lowest string with one finger. Very 2-dimensional, boring and simple... but, then, most popular music in general is 2-dimensional, boring and simple (White Stripes!)? I never took a lesson, I just developed my own style, utilizing lots of simple but neat-sounding techniques to compose riffs. Like, I use lots of harmonics, arpeggios, tremolo picking, finger tapping (though I didn't really know what any of that stuff was called when I first started fucking around), and mix different techniques within a riff -- I might play a few notes, palm mute a part, play some harmonics, then go back to the palm mute part, before I play two power chords -- all extremely simple techniques, mixed together to make some creative riffs. I always liked what Joey Santiago of the Pixies said... he siad he only wanted to play the type of stuff that made his ears perk up when other guitarists played them, hence all the really striking single note things he does and whatnot. I guess, just fuck around and develop your own style for a while -- by the time I actually watched a few youtube videos and read a few online tutorials, I'd already developed my own style almost completely, so once I introduced some real "technical" skill (beyond just "creative" skill), I was ready to go. And I also realized that I was already playing "better" than most of the popular guitarists anyway. Most of my favorite riffs ever are shockingly simple, and guitarists usually can get away with playing some simple stuff -- as long as it's striking. On the other hand, if your goal in life is to be Johnny Marr, you might want to actually take some lessons. It all depends on what you want to do. But I was really glad I just spent all those hours, alone, not being told what to do. And actually, I think I learned more just from watching other guitarists than I did from reading or whatever. I have never really been too worried about tuning, unless I'm playing slide, since my style allows me to go out of tune and I can kinda just go with it now. I mean, it's nearly impossible to be completely in tune anyway. But, uh, yeah, since you're just starting out, it probably does help to play in standard or whatever... to familiarize yourself with the guitar and the different sounds it makes... remmeber that the guitar never really changes, if you play now or in 10 years, and you'll eventually hopefully be happy with whateer you decided to do with it. Don't be afraid to play lots of power chords or just a few notes.

I highly suggest Ernie Ball strings -- they sound fucking great!

Agreed.

And I've used a few cheap tuners that I'm convinced were not very accurate...no matter how close.

As far as standard tuning is concerned, I trained my ear to remember the "eadgbe" sequence like a song....to the point to where I can get it in tune without the aid of a tuner w/ at least 95% accuracy (sometimes it'll be a wee bit off whenever I compare the finished result to what comes out of a guitar tuner)...this usually occurs when I haven't played for a while.

I just go to the fifth fret of the bottom string, play it, then play the next string open, then play the fifth fret of that string, play it, play the next one open, etc. (except, of course, the second to last string you need to hold the fourth fret). That always seems to work just fine. I like being sorta out of tune at all times. But I would reccomend you try to tune properly at first, at least, Joe.

Damn, this is really hard for me. Thanks fo rthe tips everyone!

And yeah, I probably do need to use a lighter pick - seeing as I've been using a coin to strum so far. hahaha
I plan on picking up a pack of medium picks when I get the chance.

picks are cheap. get soft, medium, and hard to see what you like. Good luck!

this is the most pointless thread ever.