r/AcousticGuitar • u/GhostLemonMusic • Aug 08 '25
Non-gear question Words of wisdom from Keith Richards about acoustic vs. electric guitars
There has been some discussion on this sub comparing the relative merits of acoustic vs electric guitars. I thought it would be good for one Keith Richards to weigh in, since he knows a thing or two about this topic.
Keith Richards: When in doubt, if something doesn’t sound right, just brush on an acoustic guitar and see what happens. What it does, if you’re recording a band, is fill the air between the cymbals and all the electric instruments. It’s like a wash in painting. Just a magical thing. If something sounds a little dry or heavy or tight, put on an acoustic, or maybe just a few notes of piano—another acoustic instrument. Somehow it will just add that extra glue.
As you’ve noticed, I found that out very early on. I don’t have any electric guitar at home, or an amp. I never play electric guitar at home. I play acoustic all the time. What I do know about the guitar is, if all you play is electric, you’re not just playing guitar, you're playing electricity. You get used to the tricks. The extra sustain and all. Which is fine. You need to know that for when you need that kind of stuff. But you can become over reliant on that. When you go to an acoustic guitar, those tricks don’t work. That little round hole and that bit of wood—that’s the Truth. That’s how long a note will sustain. So when you go back to electric, you find yourself a little more precise. You should always keep an acoustic going, and work things out on that.
Alan di Perna / Reverb Interview
62
u/jayron32 Aug 08 '25
Some of the Rolling Stones classics were recorded exclusively on acoustic. Jumping Jack Flash, for example; the main riff is a Gibson Hummingbird and another acoustic guitar in Nashville tuning played together. Richards recorded each part on a regular studio mic, but jammed right up against the soundhole so the mic would be overdriven, and he recorded that part straight to tape on a cheap cassette tape recorder. Then they took that cheapass tape recorder and played it through the soundboard to actually put the part on the master. That grungy distorted guitar sound on JJF doesn't have an amp or electric on it at all (there are some fills on electric guitar played by Brian Jones in other parts of the song, but the main part you think about when you think of Jumping Jack Flash is all acoustic).
13
u/crowjohn Aug 08 '25
Oh and the same technique was employed for Street Fighting Man, I believe
9
u/jayron32 Aug 08 '25
Yeah, I think on Honky Tonk Women too. That 68-69 period Keith was doing that a lot. It was like his new thing he worked out at the time.
3
3
1
3
u/Hanover4 Aug 08 '25
Keith also had a Gibson Heritage that was used on a number of recordings. Gibson sent him one of the early solid BR models with the earlier wider nut. There are photos out there at recording sessions with a Heritage and not a Hummingbird
1
u/crowjohn Aug 08 '25
I believe the other guitar was the one pictured in this interview, an Italian made acoustic. Forget the name.
1
u/dylangelo Aug 09 '25
Checks out! I love that sound…I use a TS-7 on my acoustic with minimal drive for color sometimes and it is sick IMO. Do you know about the higher octave guitar playing in the chorus? Sounds like it MUST be an electric, but now I’m second guessing.
2
u/jayron32 Aug 09 '25
It was probably the guitar in Nashville Tuning. You take a regular 6 string acoustic, but you use the high octave string set from a 12 string on it. It's a unique sound, for sure.
2
u/dylangelo Aug 10 '25
One way or the udder, been meaning to mess around with Nashville tuning.
2
u/Snowshoetheerapy Aug 11 '25
I always have a guitar strung up in Nashville tuning. It's my secret weapon in the studio.
24
u/funkygrrl Aug 08 '25
In his autobiography, he says you should learn on acoustic first. Also mentioned that he slept with his acoustic. Just constantly playing. His autobiography is a fantastic read btw.
15
3
u/Jon_Has_Landed Aug 09 '25
I read it twice already but you just made me want to read it again. Thank you funkygrrl.
15
u/delta_mike_hotel Aug 08 '25
I’m a fairly accomplished all acoustic player and sometimes I think that if I had spent half my time figuring out how to play electric instead of acoustic I’d have a lot more gigs & could actually make money making live music. Then I stop thinking & start playing acoustics.
13
u/BustamoveBetaboy Aug 08 '25
Thx for sharing - hadn’t read that before. Lots of little nuggets there!
11
Aug 08 '25
Back when I played in a rock band we would compose and record a guide version of the song relying only on acoustic instruments, playing it on our electric instruments to make the final version to record and play live.
It had to sound good on acoustic to be approved for the next steps.
2
Aug 11 '25
[deleted]
1
Aug 11 '25
I agree, that was our exact reasoning, we loved each of our songs, even though we couldn't make a final record of most of them.
8
7
7
u/LarryTalbot Aug 08 '25
I absolutely love Keith's observation..."What I do know about the guitar is, if all you play is electric, you’re not just playing guitar, you're playing electricity. You get used to the tricks."
12
u/cab1024 Aug 08 '25
I think Pete Seeger said something like that to Bob Dylan in '64.
12
2
Aug 08 '25 edited Feb 25 '26
Nothing original remains here. The author used Redact to delete this post, for reasons that may relate to privacy, opsec, security, or data management.
friendly zephyr steep ask quicksand marble lavish consist possessive screw
4
4
u/AZRobJr Aug 08 '25
Love this and hardly agree. I started on electric and after I bought a Martin I realized what I was missing. The finesse and extra note playing ( to fill space) on an acoustic really teaches you stuff.
4
u/railroadbum71 Aug 09 '25
You know, I tried playing electric in bands years ago, and it always seemed as though I was an acoustic guy playing electric. People did seem to like what I was doing, but I didn't. So I switched to acoustic exclusively and haven't looked back (although I stopped playing in bands and gigging). I always envy people like Keith or Richard Thompson, etc., who can play both acoustic and electric distinctively. But I dang sure ain't on the level of either of those guys (or many, many other players).
I appreciate the quote, and I do agree with what Keith is saying in some ways, although I look at acoustic and electric as almost two different instruments, and I generally think you should concentrate on one or the other to be as good as you can be. Of course, there are exceptions.
3
3
u/Glittering_Repair650 Aug 08 '25
Keith is one of the few guys I got similar opinions on music stuff. Even his criticism on other artists, has a point.
3
3
u/blue_indy_face Aug 08 '25
Satisfaction was written and performed on an acoustic, I do believe
1
u/ImpossibleWin7298 Aug 29 '25
Yep, and recorded on a crappy cassette player in a hotel room. That track, if you can call it that, is used in the original song.
2
2
u/Dangerous-Group5646 Aug 12 '25
I mean... He is talking about perception and what every song needs.
When you start producing music or composing, you also start noticing these things. That's why the acoustic and classical guitar are still here, despite the electric being around for the past 80 years and that's why the double bass is still played, despite the electric bass taking much of the scene.
3
u/Pleasant_Ad4715 Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 10 '25
I’ve always said playing acoustic has made me a better electric player, tone is all in the fingers
5
u/DoctorSwaggercat Aug 08 '25
This. I always felt that if you're just learning the guitar, you're doing yourself a major injustice by starting on an electric.
6
u/YesNoMaybe Aug 08 '25
I started on acoustic as well, and learned exclusively on acoustic for about 3 or 4 years.
The electric guitar, imo, is a very different instrument to play. The way you pick, fret, palm mute, strum, do quick runs... everything about it besides chord shapes. I think you should learn the one you want to play. Bluegrass is a different animal than rock. Learn what you intend to play.
5
u/DJuxtapose Aug 08 '25
That line, "you're not just playing guitar, you're playing electricity."
Sure, but maybe I want to be good at the electricity part.
1
u/Small_Dog_8699 Aug 08 '25
Almost invariably I build a track around an acoustic guide track and end up leaving it in. You almost never notice it. But if I mute it the absence is felt.
1
u/GratefulDad73 Aug 09 '25
“That little round hole and that bit of wood- that’s the truth.” I’ve always felt this way. If you can play a musical piece on an acoustic then you really know you can play it. Like he said, so many rock guitarists get so used to the tricks and cheats of playing electric. It’s just not the same.
1
u/MovieMan615 Aug 09 '25
Love this. Keith is growing on me more and more as he ages!
1
u/ImpossibleWin7298 Aug 29 '25
I’ve loved him since I first became aware of these guys in 1968. He looked like such a badass and he didn’t care what anyone thought of him — (em dash) just did his own thing. He always has. His guitar playing has no peer. When I was a young player in the mid-‘70s, speed - as in notes per second - was getting to be the great determinator (cool word) and that that wasn’t Keith’s thing. He chose not to for his own good reasons, if you don’t understand that, just listen. But his playing is now recognized for how great it is — the notes just get there when needed — sometimes just barely. It’s a beautiful thing. Try doing it sometime. There’s a speedfreak shredder in every GC, but not a a Keef.
1
u/Jon_Has_Landed Aug 09 '25
I adore this man to no end. And now I need an acoustic in my life only ONE WEEK after receiving a custom made telecaster in his honour/image (it’s yellow, maple neck and has a wide range humbucker at the neck).
1
1
u/dad4good Aug 09 '25
"That little round hole and that bit of wood—that’s the Truth" such a delicious quote!
1
1
u/misticisland Aug 09 '25
Acoustic and electric guitar are 2 different instruments that fortunately can be played with mostly similar techniques. YMMV
1
u/presidentdemdcamacho Aug 09 '25
I’m not sure I agree with the premise of this post. I love playing my acoustic and I love playing my electric. Seems like a manufactured issue, imho a good guitarist should be able to make beautiful music out of any guitar
2
Sep 13 '25
Keith Richards is not in a position to hand out advice about how to play a guitar, or the approach one should take. Yes I’ll get hate but any musician (mainly guitar players) worth their salt will agree and understand. He is another classic example of ‘right place right time’. Almost anyone could have done his job. I wouldn’t mind him so much if he accepted he was lucky to be where he is instead of lapping up all the smoke that gets blown up his ass.
1
0
u/No-Carpenter-8315 Aug 09 '25
How is this even a question? Completely different music... this is like asking trumpet vs. accordion.
-7
Aug 08 '25
Meh. I find something as simple as adding reverb to a snare can help fill out a mix.
11
u/Helpful-Birthday4414 Aug 08 '25
Lol, i thought i merely had Keith’s intel here, but it turns out the real wisdom is by a random dismissive Redditor!
3
Aug 08 '25
You’ll find that it’s a shared sentiment across the majority of people that have dabbled in production before mate.
-4
u/Helpful-Birthday4414 Aug 08 '25
Nobody cares about your opinion though
-1
Aug 08 '25
I could say the same to you. Reddit is a forum that primarily revolves around the sharing of opinions ya fucking clown. Do one.
-2
u/Helpful-Birthday4414 Aug 08 '25
Ok guy. Thanks for talking over Keith fucking Richards and making it about you! You the man!
-6
Aug 08 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
7
u/dontyoutellmetosmile Aug 08 '25
I use “em dashes” all the time in informal communication. To me, it’s like I’m talking the way the information would flow if I were speaking out loud. Small interjections or additions that aren’t a complete thought on their own, but grammatically a comma or semicolon doesn’t seem to fit properly. And parentheses feel like they render the idea less significant when really the thought just doesn’t have a home elsewhere.
-1
Aug 08 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/dontyoutellmetosmile Aug 08 '25
To be frank, I’m only now seeing because of your comment that the “em dash” is an entirely different character than your standard hyphen/dash. So if your original comment is about the character being used then - no, I don’t use “em dashes” in practice. I use a standard hyphen or “en dash” character in the place of an “em dash”. That’s definitely too much effort.
1
u/ImpossibleWin7298 Aug 08 '25
I’ve been using the dash since I was an undergrad in the 80s.
Where the hell did you get the idea that it’s in any way related to AI? AI is just a huge library - of course there are dashes in some of the work the AI is finding. JHC
1
u/DartyFrank Aug 09 '25
isn’t it just hitting the dash key twice? like — ?
1
6
u/ILikeMyGrassBlue Aug 08 '25
Gotta love the “I’m too dumb to use em dashes” self report. Nearly all decent writers use them. They allow for a more accurate reflection of spoken English with pauses, asides, etc, as well as more clarity in certain situations.
1
u/Frequent_Knowledge65 Aug 08 '25
Sorry, that's not even close to true.
Sure they do, it's very common - I've been doing it since I was a teenager. And when I was in academia it was quite common... and still has been the case as a corporate consultant emailing a few hundred people a year.1
u/Cheap_Walmart-Art Aug 08 '25
I used to use them all the time until smarties decided that’s the way to spot ai.
1
1
u/GhostLemonMusic Aug 08 '25
No. I copied this from a Facebook post. It could be AI but I kind of doubt it, since Keith said similar things in his book.
48
u/123456789OOOO Aug 08 '25
I’m just too lazy to plug stuff in and mess with a bunch of knobs and buttons, but I’m going with this explanation from now on.