Mason J. answered • 08/19/21
Creative and Inventive Producer with 5 Years' Experience
In my experience, the feeling of playing an electric vs. an acoustic is very different. It's a larger bodied instrument; and of course it's a different sound, speaking in terms of timbre and technical capabilities. Although, the map of the fretboard is the same between the two, so your overall technique wouldn't be much different.
As far as which one you should play first, I would say it comes down to a couple of things. For starters, what's your budget? Sure, instruments aren't cheap on their own regardless of whether it's an acoustic or an electric, but with electric guitar you also have to worry about buying cords and an amp, and depending on what music you're trying to play, effects pedals as well. If you can barely afford an instrument as it is, I'd advise against picking up an electric to start off with seeing as you might end up having to buy a ton of things before your technique is developed enough for it to be a worthy investment.
If money isn't an issue, then another thing I'd take into consideration is what genre you're interested in playing; or more accurately, what kind of feeling you're trying to evoke with your playing. If you know what each instrument sounds like and feels like well enough, you can easily make that judgement for yourself.
That's my take. Hopefully it helps!
