I should have bought an acoustic

Something to be said about the simplicity of an acoustic. I keep an acoustic out on a stand in my living room all the time, it's ready to play whenever I am..... If I had to get my guitar out of the case, plug in the amp, get out the cords and find the headphones, I might not play nearly as much.

Look at it this way..... You have an excuse to buy an acoustic now, not that you should need one :) everyone needs an acoustic.

I agree that the acoustic is much easier to just pick up and play. I have both and the electric doesn't get the playtime of the acoustic - not even close. However, there are lots of styles of guitar music that an acoustic just can't do any kind of justice to. Take power-chords, particularly the 'crunched' type: just never going to happen on your acoustic - unless I'm missing something completely! It's a bit of a conumdrum, because getting all the gear out to play the electric is a royal PITA. And you could argue that practise is practise, but I'm a stickler for practising the 'sound' rather than the 'feel'. To complicate matters even further, the guitars are physically quite different - the acoustic is 'fourteen-frets-to-the-body' while the electric is seventeen or thereabouts. The action on the electric is way lower, and the strings are about 30% lighter so bends and vibratos work out much better. It's no fun trying a full-tone bend on the acoustic, and with two or three fingers shoving for all they're worth achieving somewhere around a quarter-tone! :lol:

I have a little HoneyTone mini-amp which I haul out to practise the electric with - it's not great soundwise but it's about the size of your average Tupperware freezer box and goes into a drawer when I'm done. It has a headphone jack, too, so I don't risk another divorce doing the 'Smoke on the Water' riff for the gazillionth time while the missus is watching her soapie ... I should clarify that I'm on a long-term project away from home at the moment so we're in a little one-bed apartment with nowhere to go make a din!

The upshot seems to be that you have to be okay playing the styles of music suitable to acoustics if you're going to chop in the electric for one. If you aren't okay with that, live with the pain or have both!

Cheers,

David

I'm sitting here right now with a HoneyTone in front of me. I love this thing!

Maybe you can make your setup easier?
My guitars are on wall hangers. My main guitar is typically already plugged in to the amp that sits at the base of the wall. When I want to play the only "setup" I have to do is turn on the amp. Although there is that interminable 5 second wait for it to warm up! :D

Ricochet said: I'm sitting here right now with a HoneyTone in front of me. I love this thing!

Yeah - it's pretty amazing for the size and price! Particularly because I don't have anything else amp-wise available - here in the US you use 110V and in the Olde Worlde we use 220, so I can't just splurge on that Marshall half-stack I've been eyeing ... :evil:

I agree with Dennis
I have guitar playing setup that gives me possibility be up and playing electric guitar ( to backing tracks) in less than 30 seconds without disturbing the rest of my family.
In a small room in our house, I have a computer setup with a small mixer, some microphones and a V-Amp 2 ( multi effect and Amp sim unit). All the guitars are hanging on the wall behind my back, so I just take down a guitar and connect it to the V-Amp, put headphones on and play a backing track on the computer.
The same room hosts a sewing machine and other computers (for work use) and is the family office..
/Kalle

I have a crazy five year old. Leaving the kit set up at all times is just not on. I have been thinking of getting one of those Hercules wall hangers and putting it about 6 feet up the wall.

I have an electric sitting on a stand plugged into an amp at all times. I just turn the amp on, maybe wait 30 seconds for the amp to warm up. :D

I always keep my electrics in the case. Is that overkill?

I always keep my electrics in the case. Is that overkill?
Me too. All my guitars are in the case. The case is the best site for the guitar.

When I play electric, I plug the cable which is in a box with the other small gear such as the tuner, picks, slides, etc. (really it is a one of those office drawers for sheets) into the amp and guitar each time. Probably I need 60 seconds (?). If I use the multi-effects I need some extra time (basically for the second cable ;)).

If I'm in a hurry and I want to play electric, I just play unplugged (for practicing scales or the solo I was learning at that moment).

Maybe you can make your setup easier?
My guitars are on wall hangers. My main guitar is typically already plugged in to the amp that sits at the base of the wall. When I want to play the only "setup" I have to do is turn on the amp. Although there is that interminable 5 second wait for it to warm up! :D

+1

The guitars I mostly play are either on hangers or stands. I have two permanently plugged in and ready to pick up and play - one in the bedroom and another upstairs next to the computer where I am now.

I also find playing solid bodied electrics unplugged to be just fine. In fact, for the first year or two I practised mostly unplugged on a solid bodied guitar. I found the acoustic dreadnought a bit too big and awkward for casual 'on the couch' type practice. I did have a hollow body style, which I thought might be a good compromise, but the sound was pretty poor unplugged. I figured that I was going to be pretty lousy for a year or two anyway, and that quiet lousy would probably be better than loud lousy. :wink: But I actually got to enjoy and appreciate the sound of an unplugged electric. I've read that plenty of others are happy to practice many things unplugged too. 8)

Cheers,

Chris

I have a crazy five year old. Leaving the kit set up at all times is just not on. I have been thinking of getting one of those Hercules wall hangers and putting it about 6 feet up the wall.

Excellent idea! Put a strong secure hanger well off the ground..... attach a harness to your five year and then hang them up out of the way while you you play. :twisted: Then you can leave your gear where it should be. :D :P

hahaha :lol:

ditto to what a lot of people are saying, all my kit is at hand, takes maybe 5 secs to "set up" :roll:

I keep mine in the case too. I tend to play my electrics more than my acoustic. But when I'm away (off for vacation), I take the acoustic if I can manage bringing a guitar along.