Give up on electric playing?

[StringPicker6]

Here's my current guitar dilemma: I love playing acoustic. It's so easy to pick up, tune up and go.  The wood, the vibration against the body, it's all so beautiful with an acoustic. But I've always toyed with the idea of playing electric and during Covid I got a fantastic telecaster and a great amp, but it's honestly stayed in a case since I got my OM.  I only play for myself, and because of that the electric seems a bit silly to play alone.  Has anyone on the forum ever toyed with playing electric and ultimately gave it up to stick with acoustic? My biggest underlying thought is that I could sell the tele and amp and get an LV-03R that I'm drooling over.   

[unclrob]

I've always played both but found if I didn't want to bother anyone I'd sit in a chair and play it unplugged.



Keep smili and Keep dancin   

[markj]

I never really took electric guitar very seriously. I have had a few of them over the years including a Vintage 72 Fender Mustang that I bought for $75. I hated that guitar until I sold it for $1,000. Then I loved it! Favorite electric guitar ever! lol Then I had a Heritage Les Paul for a year. Hated it too. Very heavy. Now I have an Ibanez semi-hollow body. I think it might have an hour of time in one it since I bought it a year or more ago. I just don't have any reason, or really any desire to play the electric guitar.

[Silence Dogood]

Here's my current guitar dilemma: I love playing acoustic. It's so easy to pick up, tune up and go.  The wood, the vibration against the body, it's all so beautiful with an acoustic. But I've always toyed with the idea of playing electric and during Covid I got a fantastic telecaster and a great amp, but it's honestly stayed in a case since I got my OM.  I only play for myself, and because of that the electric seems a bit silly to play alone.  Has anyone on the forum ever toyed with playing electric and ultimately gave it up to stick with acoustic? My biggest underlying thought is that I could sell the tele and amp and get an LV-03R that I'm drooling over.  

I understand how you feel.  Electric guitar does seem to be a more social instrument, and often just "jamming" alone ends up feeling a bit pointless.  I have gone through several electric rigs for this reason.  For me, the acoustic guitar has always been an end in itself, where the electric has been more of a means to an end.  I got my current electric rig because a good friend and I have agreed to get together and jam some when he gets up to speed on the drums.  So I've been learning songs with that end in mind.  Sometimes even then it feels more like noodling around than playing music.  Then I'll pick up my acoustic and feel right at home in every way.  

Here is something you might consider: Keeping some kind of electric rig around might be wise to scratch the itch when it inevitably happens.  There has never been a better time to play electric, and great stuff can be had very cheap.  You could get a cheap used guitar and a small modeling amp for well under $500 and have a very decent at-home rig.  It would even be good enough for small jams.  If you sold the stuff you have now (assuming it's higher-end than the stuff I'm talking about), you could have some money towards another Larrivee.  My own electric rig (Jackson guitar and Boss Katana amp) cost around $500 combined and it's a great setup for my needs.  If I'd got the same stuff used it would have been a lot less money. 

[jpmist]

Has anyone on the forum ever toyed with playing electric and ultimately gave it up to stick with acoustic?

I've always had a strat on a stand collecting dust as long as I've owned an acoustic and while the acoustic gets played 9, 10 hours a weeks the strat can collect dust for months untouched. Still, I'm not giving up on it. At first there was the hope that I'd find a band to play in, but I never seemed to make that happen. But wanting to play the rock songs of my youth as well as the many tracks I liked on "Dire Strait" albums kept me picking up the strat from time to time.

The biggest obstacle for me with my strat is finding a tone that doesn't sound like absolute trash. I play plugged in thru GarageBand on a Mac and the thousands of different amps, effects, cabinets has been a continuing nightmare for me to narrow down how I want it to sound. 

But I'll keep dialing in that strat for one very important reason. I'm getting old. I can see the day coming, hopefully still far away, where I will be on the downward slope of my playing dexterity. Yikes, a scary thought since I've spent my entire life trying to get better at it.  So the long term goal is to have a strat setup similar to my acoustics where with the lesser string tension, extra sustain from pickups and lower action will let me keep playing till they slam the door on my coffin.

[William2]

 
I love the sound of a jazz archtop played without all the ugly sounds electric guitars are capable of. So I bought an Eastman 805 with it's carved top, floating pickup and no controls on the top. I bought an amp, but was never able to get the sound I heard by my favorite jazz artists. So I played it unplugged as it was quite loud unplugged for about a year. I finally pulled out an acoustic OM and was blown away by it's sound and tone color. I sold the 805, my other Eastman's and now own two acoustic Larrivee's I just love. You can't beat an acoustic guitar for solo playing.

[headsup]

I've always played both but found if I didn't want to bother anyone I'd sit in a chair and play it unplugged.

I have a terrific small amp with line in (from music library) headphones out, guitar in.
amp has terrific effects as well, volume for lin in, guitar in phones out.
Late nights I can wail along with who ever I wish and not disturb a soul!




Keep smili and Keep dancin   

[Jamolay]

I am 1.5 years into playing and am giving up on electric. It just doesn't inspire me.

Before I started to learn, at 55, I thought I would like to learn classical. But I decided to get a steel string acoustic to have more versatility, perhaps a bit more main stream as well. Then I got an electric, first to practice quietly at home. It was a beat up old thing and I fixed it and pulled and replaced all the frets. That sparked the tinkerer bug and fantasies of playing electric, so I got a better set up and tried. But I don't find the electric very easy to hold, I don't feel inspired by the music and I really want to play solo music, classical and solo finger style. So, full circle, I got a classical finally and plan to play only it and the steel string.

I probably won't sell the beat up old strat I fixed (plays great, but would be hard to sell), along with the PG Riff I have. But I will sell the other equipment soon.

Anyone interested (in the USA) in a Carvin d127, Katana mkii head, Digitek trio plus. Let me know!


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[Silence Dogood]

Playing electric guitar is fun, but the never-ending tone-chase can be very distracting.  I don't have this issue AT ALL with acoustic: there I just sit down, play, and enjoy every step of it.  But on electric I find that I'm constantly messing with knobs and trying to dial in other tone nuances.  But I refuse to buy pedals and enter that world of endless options. 

[ducktrapper]

Started on electric guitar, didn't own an acoustic guitar for the first five years I played. I now have several of both in several flavors along with a half a dozen or so amps of different sizes. Can't imagine not having at least one of each. I guess, I just play guitar.