a word about electric vs acoustic

ancient1, I'm mainly an acoustic guy myself.  But I do have an electric again cuz there's times, as you correctly state, that you just need that electric because it's a different enough animal that can do so many things the acoustic can't, or at least can't do nearly as well.

Different tools for different jobs. 

I used to like some overdrive with my electrics, I even had quite a few tube amps for years that had over drive built in and reverb. I had quite a few pedals that were over drive now I have one and never use it. I prefer to just let the amp break up and I only have two tube amps that it takes a lot of volume before they break up at all.

One my electrics I use 13-58 nickle round wound strings and jumbo frets and a pretty high action. Many years well decades ago there were no electric light gauge, light back then was a 12 set and they didn't have plain G strings. I recall Gibson and Fender and Black Diamond and Gretch had theirs.

I only play the acoustics now. My ideal acoustic would have jumbo frets and a 1 3/4" nut that's what my electrics are. Even though none of my three acoustics have jumbo frets or that wide nut I have adapted to to all of them and they are all real close in fret size and nut width and action . All are 5/64" high E and 7/64" low E at the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the string no capo. .012" relief at the 7th. 12-53 P.B strings.

I was years of 13-58 on electrics that did that. I know if I had jumbo frets on an acoustic to get that same action the saddle and nut would need to be raised to high and stress the neck and top. I used .110" wide and .055 tall frets on the 3 strats I built, basically what is used on a bass guitar. Their action is 7/64" and 9/64" If I recall my acoustics are .080 wide and .041" tall or close to that.

I've read some acoustics have the same action on the low and high E or rather that is they way some are set up. I'd like a lower action yet always end up with string buzz.

I haven't been in guitar city since covid began but used to go there often. One thing that caught my attention was there was usually someone playing one or more electrics. Even though most of their playing was far superior to mine, I found it annoying..either because it was too loud or 2 or 3 totally different songs being played at once. It didn't help that they were often entry level guitars.
Now, a whole new experience occurs when going into the climate controlled, much quieter, acoustic room full of Taylors, Gibsons and other hi end guitars. It seemed to cater to a more skilled player. They made some beautiful music in that room and sometimes I would linger just to listen, absorb..and wish.

With the wide range of music being made, there is certainly room for electric guitars. For me, the acoustic without any doodads attached (except maybe a capo) is the purest form of "guitar" and the one I increasingly appreciate - simple and direct.

As for young people wanting it louder, my generation, unfortunately, fell into that too. Groups back in the 1960s and 1970s had huge stacks of Marshalls behind them for just an awful wall of sound. Bands proclaimed to be the loudest, as if that was something to be proud of. Now, these aging rockers are wearing hearing aids due to self-inflicted hearing damage. It never made sense to me that a person attending a concert had to wear ear plugs to protect his or her hearing.

Fortunately, some albums from back in that time would have one track of solo acoustic guitar amidst the noise of all the other tracks. The Doobie Brothers did that on a few albums due to the influence of Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (Busted Down Around O'Conelly's Corner and Slack Soquel Rag to name two) and Jefferson Airplane, due to the influence of Jorma Koukenan (Embryonic Journey) immediately come to mind. That was the stuff I looked for. The rest was an assault on the ears.

For a time, back in the 80s, I got involved with midi and keyboards. For me, it was more about the technology since I really wasn't into all the weird sounds. I enjoyed writing midi software, and for me it was more like a train set than a musical instrument. Thinking back, it is rather funny that every time some musician would hook all that s$%^ up in preparation to perform, there would always be that period of frustration because s/he would press a key and either no sound came out or the wrong thing sounded. It always seemed a mess, as did the music created by all that stuff.

Why do we take something so simple as making pure music with acoustic instruments and tend to make it so complex? Maybe it is just human nature. It seems to be human nature that the next generation's music seems like just so much noise to the previous generation, since every generation seems to express that frustration.  We just go around and around, with each generation thinking it is unique, when in fact, it is not.

Tony

I looked at that mini vox yesterday at Guitar Center- it had to have head phones-
I like the acoustic sound of acoustic/electric guitars-