I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to guitar, and I was wondering whether to get an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. I plan to play electric guitar for the most part, but i need to know which is easier to learn on.
Thanks!

Any guitar that you will enjoy playing will be suitable to learn on. There are some advantages to acoustic though:
1. You can't hide bad playing with distortion - you'll have to get better.
2. You won't annoy your family/neighbors with an acoustic when you play sour notes while learning (or playing the same thing over and over and over). You could play unplugged but it wouldn't sound very good.
3. The action on an acoustic is usually bigger, which will force you to learn to play better.
4. You don't have to lug around an amp to be able play.

Of course, if none of these things concerns you, then get an electric - you're going to learn fastest on something you enjoy playing.

Technorati Tags: electric guitar, ibanez electric

How long did it take you to become really good at playing the electric guitar, roughly how many months/years?

I've asked my Music Theory Professor this question, and truthfully it varies greatly. I have been playing 6 years and started teaching guitar when I reached 5 years, and from all the different people I've played with I have come to one conclusion. First let me define what a "professional musician" is. A professional is someone who excels in what they do as a job, a professional musician is someone who get's "Paid to Pay". So basically anyone, who is getting played to pay the electric guitar is a professional musician. If you want to know what a "Good Professional Musician" is, then it is someone who can read music "proficiently" on their instrument, and play with other musicians without trouble. On average, if you practice, 4 hours a day, for 2 year's, you could be "good professional guitarist", 3 hrs, a day, 3 years, so on and so forth. The key here is, "Paid to play" I teach 12 year old's who could own the guitarist from My Chemical Romance, but they are not professionals.

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I've been playing acoustic guitar for a year now, and about three months ago I got an electric guitar. But its a used, cheap, and horrible quality yamaha electric guitar. So I want to get a new one. Because, I'm am literally addicted to guitar. And I play it twenty for seven, so whats a nice electric guitar, thats under like 350 dollars, that I can buy to last me a while.
Thanks

$350 well thats not too bad
1.a schecter c-1 plenty of used ones around for 350 great quality and playability for the $ **** other schecters ***
2.a mexican fender strat not the quality of a USA strat but close enough for a beginner ***
3. gibson epiphone models sg or les paul **
4. ibanez **
5. parker p44 or other parkers***
6. hagstrom **
I buy most of my guitars used because you don't loose any money when you decide to trade up. Ive actually built a collection (30+) over the years and invested very little money through wise buying and selling.
My favs: parker usa fly, usa fender strat, heritage blues deluxe, prs

stay away from the following

fender squire
samick
galveston
jay turser
peavey
bc rich
dean
danelectro
washburn
the cheap jacksons
yamaha
dillion
cort

Technorati Tags: gibson electric, ibanez, yamaha

I'm going to buy an electric-acoustic guitar in the coming weeks, but I really don't know how to judge them. I feel I've made good choices with my other guitars (acoustic and electric), but I haven't had much experience with the hybrid. Do I hold them to the same standards of feel and sound as an acoustic? Should an electric-acoustic sound just as good unplugged as an acoustic does? Should I go for a straight pickup system, or a mic-and-pickup?

Any answers at all would be very appreciated.

It depends - are you going to use it mainly plugged in or acoustic? If you already have a good acoustic then it's plugged in sound is the most important, right? Takamine makes some laminate top guitars with their premium pick-up system (Nt4, I think) - they sound weak acoustically but sound perfect plugged in. If you want the best of both worlds, try the Alvarez Artist Series - you get a choice of body styles and woods and a great pick-up system (Sys 600). You can plug a mic into the system. Going up the $$$ scale, Taylor's expression system sounds great, as does the Fishman Aura system that Martin uses on some guitars. I would avoid the standard systems on Epiphones and Ibanez etc - they sound too electric. Make sure you try them out with the type of amplifier or PA you are going to use - it makes a big difference, some pick-up systems have an "exciter" to make guitar amps sound more acoustic.
In a band situation, mic systems always seem to feed back - I would use one only if you play solo - or maybe a duo with low volume monitors. Good Luck

Technorati Tags: Acoustic, fender acoustic

1 . what are the differences between acoustic guitar and electric guitar ?
2 . when you play one of them , can you also play the other one or you have to take different classes ?
3 . if yes , Is it atleast easier to learn acoustic when you know electric ?

There are two types of acoustic... steel stringed and classical or Spanish style nylon stringed... but there are also steel stringed electric/acoustic guitars. Acoustics rely on the body cavity to amplify the sound and resonate through the tone wood.

Electric guitars are either semi-hollow or solid bodied and rely on the magnetic pickups to translate the string vibration into an electric signal for an amplifier to "amplify" and send through a speaker or 2 or 4 or... The guitar/amp instrument of course gives you a lot of playability options with tone and distortion, reverb, etc...

Being able to play either type of guitar usually translates to playing any other, but... a lot people have bad habits that are masked by the nature of the electric guitar, and won't be when they play acoustic. So to go from acoustic to electric I would argue is easier.

Technorati Tags: acoustic guitar, ibanez acoustic

My aim is to learn the acoustic guitar and then move on to the bass guitar.
I was thinking about buying the Yamaha FG700 acoustic but then i was given advice saying that Yamaha is crap and the Johnson acoustic guitars are better and cheaper.
I want to make sure that when i finally buy my acoustic guitar, i don't start wishing i bought a different one.

No matter what guitar you buy, you're probably going to wish you'd bought a different one. It's the nature of things.

That said, I have zero experience with Johnson guitars (never heard of them). But I've played some good Samicks and Corts. Then there's the low-end Epiphones and Squires (owned by Gibson and Fender, respectively). Of course, if you'd like to try something totally different, you may look at an Applause by Ovation -- they have a round, Lycra back, which greatly changes the feel of them. Although a bit of warning: people generally either love or loathe round-back guitars; there's very little middle-ground.

The key is to play as many as you can lay your hands on and find out which guitar feels the most comfortable in your hands; if it's not comfortable to play, then you're never going to play it. Then eventually you can move up and get a Gibson, Taylor, or Martin (the real King of the Acoustic Guitar).

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I have a cheap guitar that I am learning on and am planning to eventually buy a better quality guitar.

My current guitar is 43" long. I was wondering if when I buy a new guitar, will I be able to use the same hard-cover case for that guitar if it is shorter than 43" long?

How snug of a fit is necessary for the guitar?

Thanks!
Correction - it's 41" long.

I say YES it will fit, and it gives you more room in the case to for stuff, like your capo, picks, tuners, etc. Also, your guitar may get banged up a bit. For this, I suggest goin down to te hardware store or something and buying some styrofoam. Not the crappy kind that gets all over the place, but good decent styrofoam, like you can use as a floatation device for a raft. Then, get it cut or cut it yourself to fit the space in the guitar case when the new guitar is in it. When it fits, rip away some of the casing of the case and apply a strong adhesive to the styrofoam and attach it. Then, go and buy some casing that matches the rest of your case so it looks nice. Problem solved!!!

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