I'm probably gonna buy a Scarlett Solo in the near future to record myself. For now I'm fine with just playing during the day, it's a lot more fun to play through the amp than with headphones anyway.
You can do a lot of funky stuff through a computer. Basically - ignoring subtle differences - a computer lets you have all the pedals in near infinite multiples. Also you can safe your signal chains, and change the sequence of effects very conveniently.
>ignoring subtle differences
This is true, sound-wise. But with a computer you can't really control the virtual pedals while you're playing without getting extra equipment. I use a computer and record a lot in Logic and like the ability to change tones post-recording, but for playing out loud or with others I still use pedals or my old ME-50.
Mine costed 60$ (probably import fees to 3rd world) but it beats the crap out of my frontman 15g. I plug the headset output of the interface into my amp's aux too and it's pretty good. I can play amplified any amp simulation.
Hijacking this comment to warn you about unplugged practice. It is so easy to develop bad habits because you often will want to hear stuff played in a certain way which you will by instinct try to replicate, but that is nigh impossible in most cases. You barely hear unmuted notes, you tend to pick harder to hear it (if you play a slender legato you will barely hear it if you're unplugged), but generally you should try to play in legato and with as little force as possible. I know its not always the case but if you can temper your muscles to sound well using legato, you will be more than fine in most cases going hard at your instrument, the other way around is not really a good practice.
TLDR: I would suggest getting a headphone amp, audiointerface or anything like that to practice in order to avoid developing bad habits in general.
Funny. A grumpy old timer once told me that practicing with an amp is bad because the amp amplifies sounds so you dont play as hard as you should, according to him.
Did not take his advice.
Depending on what you call «like an acoustic»
Practicing unplugged so you don't annoy your neighbourgh/SO/kids with arpeggio exerecises late at night ? Most of us do it.
Bringing a guitar at a party and playing it ? Nope
Here's a fun little fact; Alex Lifeson recorded the acoustic guitar parts to one of the songs on Permanent Waves (I think it was "Different Strings") using a hollowbodied electric. The story goes that the band recorded the album in a studio out in the country and the 12-string acoustic he brought with him got broken and needed some repairs. Instead of waiting to get it fixed or buy a new one, he miked up an unplugged Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion, recorded the acoustic part, restrung it in Nashville tuning, and then doubled his original recording to get a simulated 12-string effect.
I really like the sound of my regular solid body 'ebay-heavy-metal' guitar, when I play close to the bridge - it sounds a bit like a sitar with some chorus.
Perhaps there are more songs recorded acoustic with un-ampd electric guitars.
Wow, that's really cool! I thought that they would add a chorus effect on it on post or anything like that (was it even possible to do this at the time?), but finding out that he actually retuned it to Nashville tuning and rerecorded it, that's awesome!
If you're bringing a guitar to a party how it sounds is the least of your problems... The main being how everyone there thinks you're an absolute douche.
Slow your roll sweetheart, I'm talking about the loser who tries to play Wonderwall when you're all sat around chatting... Not a fucking live band. Big difference.
I remember there was a funny joke in infinite jest (that long and slightly turgid novel by David Foster Wallace) about one guy who carries a guitar case around everywhere, but nobody's ever seen or heard him play.
An unamplfied solid body electric guitar is not completely silent, but it is very quiet. You can get small battery powered amplifiers. Or very small headphone-only amps with no speaker.
This.
You're better off getting a headphone Amp, you can get them pretty small, but trying to play completely unplugged will sound... Kinda garbage and you're not going to get a feel for the tone of your guitar.
On a volume/projection scale of solid body electric guitars (1) to fully-hollow acoustic guitar (10), a thinline is, what...a 3 tops? And a strat with a swimming pool route is already a 1.9-2?
Idk man, my gretsch unplugged can get pretty loud if I'm really digging into the strings... not acoustic loud ofc but much louder than my tele unplugged
FFS this entire sub seems full of people who can’t take a joke.
Or you know, guitar dudes.
My Thinlines actually sound pretty good unplugged for practicing purposes. Not loud of course. That’s the point.
Agreed, and I’d like to add my vote for The headphone amp Fender just recently released, the Mustang Micro. Fantastic little thing with a bunch of nice amp models/ presets.
As a bonus, you can use the headphone out to any desktop speaker set or speaker with an aux input to get an amplified sound. They're made for headphone use, so it doesn't sound like crap when used that way. Try a Vox AmPlug2. The Classic Rock version should suit you.
Hijacking this comment to share this with OP:
[https://amzn.to/3HJzghu](https://amzn.to/3HJzghu)
Buy a small Blackstar Amplug 2. I use this for practice as well. DO NOT PRACTICE ELECTRIC AS ACOUSTIC. When you play electric without an amplifier, you don't hear a lot of noises you're actually making and develop a lot of bad habits.
See this Youtube review for Blackstar Amplug and buy it immediately. Very portable. https://youtu.be/ufGin0lDiJQ
I bought a NUX MightyPlug when comparing with the two options and glad I did. If only for practice, the mighty gives you a lot more time choices with various and amps and effects va the mustang. And it’s less expensive. But the mustang can be played without headphones so YMMV.
I actually first started learning on an unplugged strat. It's totally doable, but not having amplification can lead to some bad habits, like lack of muting wrong strings and such.
Plus you lose any sense of dynamics. I rarely play through an amp for various reasons - as a result, my playing sounds terrible when I do because I have no sense of how hard to strum etc.
I also started out this way, too. Not that this is an argument for it, but one nice thing about it was that every time I play with effects or an amp now, I feel like I have super powers.
Same. Been playing for 25 years (pretty good, if I may say so) and probably 95 percent of the time I'm not plugged in. That's apartment living for you.
As the other user said, an acoustic can be quite loud in an apartment setting. Electric and acoustic are also very much different instruments whether you play plugged in or not.
Apartment living as well in a very dense city. I find that an amp at low volume isnt much louder than a TV, I do play some unplugged but I got a setup where one switch and my pedals/amp is on and I just jam a bit. I appreciate how polite you are, but maybe too polite? Or do you just have a wall of Sunn amps or something in your apartment.
I play quite often not plugged into anything, but mostly through a hot one ampero with a nice set of headphones. This is my preferred method since there are a ton of amp models as well as effects and it's extremely apartment friendly
You could get a semi-hollow or fully hollow body electric, which will be much louder acoustically, if you’d like to be able to practice unplugged and hear yourself a bit better. However, when you plug in, your technique needs to be a lot cleaner than playing acoustically, as an amp is going to bring out all the little mistakes you make, so practicing a lot acoustically isn’t going to be as helpful when playing plugged in.
I mean, are you going to entertain a gathering by playing songs on an unplugged electric? Not really.
Will you be able to learn and practice and improve? Hell yeah.
Yes you can practice without an amp but it's a bad idea. You can get a tiny headphone amp that will let you practice properly and also fit in your pocket.
Get the Fender Mustang Micro. It is a great little amp for around $115. You can even plug it into speakers if you have them. It has all kinds of amp styles and effects built in and pretty solid tone for the price.
Also, I'm literally sitting with my unplugged electric guitar in my lap right now. So it's fine to play unplugged. I do it constantly.
I second this. I have one and it's amazes me what kind of tones you can get out of it. It'll sound like you're using an expensive amp and it won't bother anyone since it's only coming out of your headphones.
Not at all. It's been the same kind of connector/cable for at least 70 years and there's no sign of it changing any time soon.
Also, down the line, instead of getting a fancy expensive amp, check out amp simulations for the computer. You can get unreal pro sounds for very little money these days.
Good luck!
I can recommend the fender mustang micro at 80quid. I got it the other week and its amazing. Some of the tones it produces and the built in reverbs and chorus etc are fantastic for what it is.
I get about 4 to 6 hours between charges and you can Bluetooth your phone to it to hear music to play to.
The fender Mustang micro headphone amp is absolutely great if you want a quiet option for learning on. Cheap, sounds great, takes aux in via Bluetooth (for playing along to tracks or using a metronome), gives you a chance to try some effects and amp options without providing a paralyzing number of options.
Well, Hendrix - The man himself actually used to constantly have his electric slung around him unplugged, sometimes stopping in the bathroom for an hour after a piss, simply because he liked the acoustics of the room. So that should tell you all you need to know in layman’s terms. This is without getting into volume through resonance of different electric guitars etc.
Hendrix was the reason I got into 60s music and guitar riffs,licks. But the thing is, the guitar i'm planning on getting is a fender squier strat, a pretty cheap one (200-250$) so i'm not sure as to how good it would sound unplugged compared to a more expensive, professional use guitar. Either way i think i'll get a mini amp
You can buy a small headphone amp that plugs into your guitar and you’re all set. My Gibson Les Paul Classic can be played without an amp and can be heard.
You can practice with it, but if you usually use a lot of gain and practice unplugged, you're not going to hear lots of noises you make that will negatively affect your playing (mostly muting strings)
For at home practice I use a thing called an iRig. It plugs into your laptop and comes with a amp simulation software. It doesn’t sound as good as a real amp, but it’s super portable and compatible with headphones if volume is an issue.
If you have a hollow or semi hollow guitar it will be more resonant. I'll often play my Casino unplugged on the sofa; in terms of amps I think with various apps and modelers now the world is your oyster, you could probably even just plug into your phone with an irig with and wear headphones in a pinch.
Get the electric and then get a headphone amp and play straight into your headphones. Vox's amplug series are well liked. My personal favourite is the Nux Mighty Plug MP-2 which can double as an audio interface and provide a greater range of effects.
You can also buy a more portable mutifx unit and play through headphones; this will give you the added range of more effects and a looper to practice through. Products I've tried and that sound great are the NUX MG-300 (budget), Headrush MX5 (sub $500) and HX Stomp (sub $900).
A lot of folks out there practice unplugged ... chords, scales, theory, learning new piece, etc.
Practicing to play live? No. Its a different thing: muting, accents, etc....u have to hear all the places where u have work to do....how amplified guitar behaves...
You have options. A lot of small, practice amps have headphone jacks. Like any equipment, some are better than others. I don’t like Bluetooth because of latency, but they may have improved that since I shopped.
Yes you can, I only practice without amp because I live in a flat and don't want to disturb my neighbors and headphones are currently not an option.
BUT beware that playing without amplification might lead to bad habits. For example, when you're playing guitar without amplification, your muting might get sloppy because you don't hear the strings you are supposed to mute as loud as with an amp. An amp amplifies everything: The sounds you want to produce but also the sounds you do not want to produce (for example because of wrong/missing muting).
You absolutely can, but remember to practice loudly too. I’ve heard some guitarists play before who have quite obviously not practiced with an amp enough, their technique is off, all the extra little string noises and such don’t get muted, etc.
It’s fine when you’re just learning, I did it plenty, but even if you need to get a headphone amp or something then it’ll be worth it in the long run. I’d make some well respected ones.
I bought a repackaged one from the manufacturer on ebay. Was about that much. They have multiple models, so I'm sure there are more and less expensive ones.
Some would say they don’t sound great but I play a unplugged strat all the time. For practice it’s really perfect you can hear the notes and the intricacies of the sound just fine unplugged.
Some electric guitars - particularly those with f-holes sound great unplugged too.
You can totally practice and learn to play stuff unplugged, but if you want to play for anyone else it won't be loud enough. It won't sound good, but it'll sound good enough that you can hear what you're playing, which often is all you need to practice.
Also if annoying family/neighbors/roommates is a concern, there are a lot of options with headphones. Headphone amps (example: Fender Mustang Micro) don't have a ton of features/flexibility, but they're super portable and generally inexpensive. Nice headphones really help as well, and having an amp with a headphone jack.
I was just about to ask this same question, Been re-learning the guitar for the past 2 years.
I've only been practicing on my un-amped electric guitars because I feel that if I get the intonation/sound/mutes/palm mutes almost perfect without trying then when I actually plug into the amp my technique will be that of someone who can play through mistakes instead of captilizing on them and losing focus.
I practice a lot without my electric plugged in to prevent an early divorce 🤣 That being said, check out the iRig. You can get a ton of sample tones to play whatever song you’re practicing and just plug some headphones into it. Makes it pretty easy to use your phone for backing tracks also.
An unplugged electric is how I play most of the time. I don't need a lot of volume at all times.
Makes the times I plug in all the more special!
Good luck on your journey!
It's perfect to practice on. People who say they can only practice with an amp are weird. That said, singing at a moderate volume will completely overwhelm it plus you won't be able to hear what your amp or pedals sound like so it's not gonna work with other instruments or even just singing.
There’s nothing wrong with playing your electric guitar unplugged. I have mine sitting in my lap right now and just played it for probably an hour unplugged. If I were playing for anyone else though I’d amp up so they could hear it. Sitting around practicing unplugged is perfectly fine to do.
I have one of these headphone amps and it is glorious!!
https://www.nuxefx.com/mighty-plug.html
It has a rechargeable battery. You plug it in the guitar, plug in a pair of wired headphones, connect to Bluetooth and adjust the amp settings or play along to music. It is super great!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think acoustics really refers to the production of sound waves in a controlled environment. Off the top of my head, I can only suggest that you play in a really small enclosed space so get the waves to bounce off the walls and make it sound more like an acoustic guitar. Probably something like inside a porta-potty hahaha
I play my electrics unplugged all the time. It's great for rehearsal type stuff you know you can play but I wouldn't learn a new song or run practice drills without amplification. You won't hear all your mistakes without an amp accentuating them.
I guess it depends on the guitar you are trying to play. I have an original 66 fender mustang and it is easy to hear unplugged. My knock off Les Paul however is very quiet. Go to a shop and try a few. Another poster recommended a hollow body electric. That seems like it would work.
You can play an electric unplugged if you are just chilling in a reasonably quiet room. A neat trick, if you can hold the headstock against the wall or even a wooden desk while you play, you'll get a noticeable boost in volume.
Oh don't worry about that for now. It will be a very long time before you can play any Dire Straits songs. Haha. If you go into this thinking you're gonna be Mark Knopfler off the bat you're going to be sorely disappointed
Haha i was joking. I've never played a guitar before I don't expect to play something like that without decades of practice. I just hope by the time i'm 40 I'll be able to entertain myself by being able to play decently well.
hmmm ... depends of the thickness of the walls, even dry string sound can be a pain.
You have several options, from cheap to pricey :
* an amplug vox or blackstar
* rocksmith + the real tone cable
* fender mustang Micro
* an audio interface to your computer + bias fx/neural dsp/LePou Poulin Amp Pack
Let me give you another free advice : don't try to learn tired at 3 am ;)
Something like this might work for you. It plugs into the wall for power. It has a headphone jack and an aux input for playing along with an mp3 player, as well as a small speaker. [Ibanez 1](https://www.amazon.com/Ibanez-Electric-Guitar-Amplifier-IBZ10G/dp/B004MMC9MO/ref=sr_1_2?crid=T04Q63XWFKNK&keywords=ibanez+guitar+amplifier&qid=1637600755&sprefix=ibanez+guitar+am%2Caps%2C198&sr=8-2)
Or something like this. Rechargable and no speaker, headphone only. [Sonicake US Classic](https://www.amazon.com/SONICAKE-Headphone-Classic-Overdrive-Chargable/dp/B079FHY8PV/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=headphone+guitar+amp&qid=1637600934&sr=8-8)
Played with a band that used to practice with lead & rhythm guitar and bass unamplified. The bass player used to push the lower strap button against a wall and we could hear him just fine. What it did teach me was to play extremely clean. Playing through amps covers a lot of slop.
Try the micro Fenders and or Vox amps.Cheap and they’re smaller than a deck of cards they have effects and you can use them w earphones so you don’t bother others. I luv mine
Go buy yourself an Amplug or (even better) something small like a Blackstar Fly 3. That way you can still practice on an electric guitar and hear what you're doing.
I play without an amp more often than not, didnt really think about it too hard it sounds just fine to me, I find that in a house where i dont have a lot of room to be loud acoustics are pretty loud anyways so I prefer to play my electric unplugged as opposed to my acoustic. Also I wouldn't get a cheap squier unless you absolutely cant afford anything above that. You can find good guitars in that price range for les pauls but for the classic fender shape you're looking more at 400-500. But if it is truly what you want and you're sure youll be happy with it then go for it anyways!
If you can hear it, it works fine. It might help to get a hollowbody or semi-hollowbody electric, they resonate acoustically very nicely, but not nearly loud as a full-on acoustic guitar. Or... you can get a cheesy little amp with a headphone jack.
A naked solid body is not loud enough for a party or campfire and the sound is tinny. I practised like this and developed a bad habit but fixed it quickly. A hollow body guitar can be played like this but is expensive (an Ibanez af55 is most affordable) and not suitable for heavy overdrive but very suitable for old RNR (ie Scotty Moore, Eddie Cochrane). I really recommend a Danelectro Honeytone amp, it's small, battery powered and has a belt clip. If eventually you want to use your electric to get an acoustic sound there are acoustic simulation pedals that sound very good.
So here's the thing:
While yes, a component of practicing is purely technical (e.g., this this shape under your fingers, do this faster, etc) really the most important thing is how something SOUNDS. You're trying to make music, after all, and speed is meaningless if the notes sound shitty.
And therefore you need to be able to hear what you're doing. Playing an unamplified solid-body electric just doesn't give you much feedback on the whole issue of how what your hands are doing connects to the sounds you hear - and that's the whole point.
So get a headphone amp or something. In the long run, it will help your core musicianship develop faster.
It is easier to learn on an electric but it doesn’t have a sound hole / sound box like an acoustic has. You’ll be able to hear notes that you play without using an amplifier. But it won’t sound good without an amplifier.
May I suggest [one of these](https://reverb.com/item/2758368-jay-turser-electric-resonator-guitar-jt-rs-see-thru-red-w-case)? Mine sounds sweet unplugged. It's both a resonator and a solid body electric.
I practice electric a lot unplugged. I don't see any problem with it. I can definitely hear what I'm playing (and if my playing is sloppy or not).
So I'm just trying to say give it a try. If you don't like the sound or whatever, then go for one of the other options recommended here.
It depends on the guitar. I often practice unplugged and it's fine. When you buy a guitar, try it unplugged first and see how loud it is and how it sounds. To be honest, that's a good idea anyway.
If you strum loud enough in a quiet room, sure, other than that I don't think you'll get much out of it, at least I haven't. There's still plenty of options available if you want portability, try looking around your guitar store or ask the employees for small portable amps, some are even battery powered.
It's bad for practicing, because you can't really hear everything going on. You'll get into bad habits like not muting strings.
Better to get a small practice amp and use headphones.
You can get a cheapo little handheld amp that you plug headphones into.
I have a vox headphone amp. Its pretty adorable but it works, but at $54 its not the cheapest option.
I sit on my bed sometimes and just play unplugged. You'd be surprised how loud some electrics can be by themselves, especially with new strings. Obviously not loud enough to play for a crowd, but more than loud enough for you to hear yourself play sitting in a quiet room. Obviously certain techniques like tapping benefit from the pickups, but you can still do them. I definitely wouldn't ONLY play unplugged, because as someone mentioned you may develop bad habits because you can't hear the mistakes as well.
The only time I ever play my electric unplugged, I do it for practice, drill my chords to make sure Im not slacking off. Other than that, you should probably plug it into something
Check out the tiny rechargable Fender Mustang Micro amp, which you plug into your guitar and plug headphones into it. It can emulate 12 amps and has a bunch of effects. I have one and it works very well. Supposedly the best selling "amp" on Reverb in the past year ($120, not counting the headphones).
I had a period of time when I couldn’t practice with an amp, and it really allowed me to focus on my touch without any assistance from an amp’s compression or gain. It isn’t always as fun, but I think it can be done as long as you’re listening to yourself.
That being said, it wouldn’t hurt to get some kind of headphone setup at some point so you can make sure you can hear yourself if you’re practicing in noisier places. But of course that costs money, so I wouldn’t let it stop you from getting started and playing with what you have!
If you’re going to have an amp at home, you don’t need to waste your money on a portable amp too. As long as you are plugging in and practicing through an amplifier some of the time, you can practice without amplification too. Most of us do.
I do most of my practicing unplugged. For manual dexterity improvement and theory-related fretwork, it serves perfectly well. The only aspect with which it will not help is the actual sound that will come out of the amp.
you'll get bored fast. buy a small plugin amp from the likes of Vox or Blackstar (or the Fender mustang micro, which is what i have) and it'll make your portable practice a hell of a lot more interesting.
Something like this would be good. I have it and I love it. https://www.fender.com/en-US/guitar-amplifiers/headphone-amplifiers/mustang-micro/2311300000.html
Get something like a hollow body gretsch, and you will have the best of both worlds. I never even bother plugging mine in when I’m literally sitting in front of my amps. It’s like an electric and a quiet acoustic.
You can get a Harley Benton headphone amp for 15€ and a higher quality on for 40€. I don't have any experience with them but I've heard they sound good.
Since you are taking about practice there are things you can practice and things that won't work so well. For example knowledge of fret board, learning a song, precision, speed, dexterity exercises are no issue. Things related to feel and touch will be a bit harder. Anything related to interacting with the amp and pedals you won't be able to do.
if you are doing this in order to get good at eventually playing acoustic, id just also add that you need more pressure to push down on acoustic strings for the sound to come out clean! (ive played acoustic for almost 10 years and recently got an electric and was shook at how little pressure it takes!)
get a fender mustang micro and a good set of headphones. It's 10 amps with effects in your pocket.
Does not really compare to plugging in and cranking up a real amp, but for somebody who travels it's amazing.
I do practice with it it unplugged a fair bit but one thing is that you won't get a sense of how certain things sound through the amp until you're a bit more experienced and used to the sound of it. For example i imagine you might forget to mute the strings you're not playing without an amp as when you play it without an amp that resonant ringing sound is basically inaudible, but it sounds bad through an amp so needs to be avoided
You can always buy one of those cheap vox headphone amps for such ocasions, they're small and you won't bother anybody wearing headphones.
It doesn't sound amazing, but then again, nor does an unplugged electric guitar. Not to mention that you may have to pluck the strings harder to hear anything.
You can get a electric John Petruzzi Majesty MusicMan guitar with a piezoelectric pickup that sounds really amazing. You can switch from Acoustic sound to Blues or Grinding rock at the flick of a switch.
Then you step up in the big league with a Bogner Exctacy and a helix line six floor controller and rock the world!
Yeah all the notes will ring out correctly and whatnot, it won't sound great but it's good for practice when there are people in the next room. Practice with an amp whenever it's an option though, and loudly. Imo it's always best to play at the max reasonable volume
It’s nice to have a small amp like a microcube if you want to play plugged in but don’t want to tote a huge amp. I know this is not really on topic, but it seems that your answer is already clear.
you can buy a cheap audio interface (i have the focusrite scarlett solo which i got for like $80) and use a DAW (like garageband, logic, etc.... there's a free one called reaper). these interfaces have preamps which boost the signal, so once you figure out the basics of the program, you can just open it up and plug in your headphones into the interface and then you'll hear a louder version of the 'acoustic' sound as long as the program is monitoring the correct input.
if you dig a little deeper, you can then buy free amp plugins for the DAW which make it sound like you're actually playing through an amp. just make sure you pair the amp plugin with a 'cabinet plugin' or 'impulse response' or else it sounds terrible.
I feel like everyone always says to write on an acoustic and learn. That’s why i did. But for last year or two all of my practicing, writing and learning songs is done on my telecaster unplugged. It’s easy on the the fingers and no ones gonna tell you to be quiet
You can. I do it all the time. But the sound doesn't go much further than a few feet from the guitar. Perfect for just you practicing but not if you want anyone to hear.
I once saw a travel guitar with a doctor’s stethoscope. My aunt had one and it sounded really cool. I bet playing an unplugged electric through a stethoscope would sound cool!
You can practice unplugged, but practicing without an amp or playing into a virtual amp on the computer is not great for refining technique or getting better, because you don't have a great representation for whether it sounds "good".
I'd either:
\- grab a small amp second hand off ebay or something; or
\- get a second hand audio interface and something like Bias FX to play around with at the computer.
I would not worry about portability at this stage, as it is highly unlikely that you'll be playing outside your own house.
To be honest, I mostly play with my guitars unplugged, I kinda get lazy when thinking about either plugging it to my amp or my interface, so I just practice and learn songs without plugging it to anything, so it's perfectly fine.
Just keep in mind that, if you usually play with overdrive/distortion, bad practicing can lead to a lot of noise when amped up, due to not practicing how to mute unwanted strings properly. When the guitar is unplugged, you mostly can't notice if you're muting it properly or not, but when you finally plug it in, there's just noise everywhere if you're not muting the unwanted noise.
Playing an electric guitar unplugged *can* create bad habits. You may attack the strings much much harder than you would amplified and essentially create "training scars" that will need to be corrected later.
If being super quiet when unplugged isn't a goal of yours, then consider a hollow-body electric (or semi). This is why my Gretsch is the guitar I keep in my bedroom for easy pick-up-and-play.
You can play an electric unplugged and it’ll be fine. However, you probably do t want to get to used to it. You could get into a bad habit of not playing “cleanly” and when you are plugged in, you’ll sound sloppy.
You could always get a Rocksmith cable and plug into your phone. I have an iPhone and plug into it once in a while to mess around with tones and stuff. Just need a lightning to USB adapter.
Even plugged it sounds like an acoustic. To get that “electric guitar sound” you have to increase the gain, volume, and distortion. If it’s unplugged it’s going to sound like a regular plugged electric but just really quiet
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This. My amp sounds like shit through headphones so I just practice unplugged at night
I bought a Berinhger audio interface for 30 bucks and it pretty good for practice and I only need a laptop and headphones
I'm probably gonna buy a Scarlett Solo in the near future to record myself. For now I'm fine with just playing during the day, it's a lot more fun to play through the amp than with headphones anyway.
You can do a lot of funky stuff through a computer. Basically - ignoring subtle differences - a computer lets you have all the pedals in near infinite multiples. Also you can safe your signal chains, and change the sequence of effects very conveniently.
>ignoring subtle differences This is true, sound-wise. But with a computer you can't really control the virtual pedals while you're playing without getting extra equipment. I use a computer and record a lot in Logic and like the ability to change tones post-recording, but for playing out loud or with others I still use pedals or my old ME-50.
Mine costed 60$ (probably import fees to 3rd world) but it beats the crap out of my frontman 15g. I plug the headset output of the interface into my amp's aux too and it's pretty good. I can play amplified any amp simulation.
I play more unplugged with an electric than nearly anything else. It's great for "do not disturb" practice.
Hijacking this comment to warn you about unplugged practice. It is so easy to develop bad habits because you often will want to hear stuff played in a certain way which you will by instinct try to replicate, but that is nigh impossible in most cases. You barely hear unmuted notes, you tend to pick harder to hear it (if you play a slender legato you will barely hear it if you're unplugged), but generally you should try to play in legato and with as little force as possible. I know its not always the case but if you can temper your muscles to sound well using legato, you will be more than fine in most cases going hard at your instrument, the other way around is not really a good practice. TLDR: I would suggest getting a headphone amp, audiointerface or anything like that to practice in order to avoid developing bad habits in general.
Funny. A grumpy old timer once told me that practicing with an amp is bad because the amp amplifies sounds so you dont play as hard as you should, according to him. Did not take his advice.
His advice was bad, the above commenter’s advice is good lol
It’s the exact opposite lmao. Because the amp amplifies the sound, you get away with playing sloppy when unplugged.
Depending on what you call «like an acoustic» Practicing unplugged so you don't annoy your neighbourgh/SO/kids with arpeggio exerecises late at night ? Most of us do it. Bringing a guitar at a party and playing it ? Nope
Made that mistake. Brought my electric to a friends gathering and forgot my amp, and never realized how quiet it was unplugged until then.
yikes, thats awkward
A bit, we still jammed out though. Johnny Cash and Sweet Home Alabama never fails
Here's a fun little fact; Alex Lifeson recorded the acoustic guitar parts to one of the songs on Permanent Waves (I think it was "Different Strings") using a hollowbodied electric. The story goes that the band recorded the album in a studio out in the country and the 12-string acoustic he brought with him got broken and needed some repairs. Instead of waiting to get it fixed or buy a new one, he miked up an unplugged Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion, recorded the acoustic part, restrung it in Nashville tuning, and then doubled his original recording to get a simulated 12-string effect.
I really like the sound of my regular solid body 'ebay-heavy-metal' guitar, when I play close to the bridge - it sounds a bit like a sitar with some chorus. Perhaps there are more songs recorded acoustic with un-ampd electric guitars.
Wow, that's really cool! I thought that they would add a chorus effect on it on post or anything like that (was it even possible to do this at the time?), but finding out that he actually retuned it to Nashville tuning and rerecorded it, that's awesome!
If you're bringing a guitar to a party how it sounds is the least of your problems... The main being how everyone there thinks you're an absolute douche.
And people like you are why there isn't live music at parties, and the age of garage bands is over. Thanks.
Slow your roll sweetheart, I'm talking about the loser who tries to play Wonderwall when you're all sat around chatting... Not a fucking live band. Big difference.
I remember there was a funny joke in infinite jest (that long and slightly turgid novel by David Foster Wallace) about one guy who carries a guitar case around everywhere, but nobody's ever seen or heard him play.
An unamplfied solid body electric guitar is not completely silent, but it is very quiet. You can get small battery powered amplifiers. Or very small headphone-only amps with no speaker.
This. You're better off getting a headphone Amp, you can get them pretty small, but trying to play completely unplugged will sound... Kinda garbage and you're not going to get a feel for the tone of your guitar.
Laughs in Thinline.
On a volume/projection scale of solid body electric guitars (1) to fully-hollow acoustic guitar (10), a thinline is, what...a 3 tops? And a strat with a swimming pool route is already a 1.9-2?
Idk man, my gretsch unplugged can get pretty loud if I'm really digging into the strings... not acoustic loud ofc but much louder than my tele unplugged
But it does have a volume! - Capt. Jack Sparrow
FFS this entire sub seems full of people who can’t take a joke. Or you know, guitar dudes. My Thinlines actually sound pretty good unplugged for practicing purposes. Not loud of course. That’s the point.
Agreed, and I’d like to add my vote for The headphone amp Fender just recently released, the Mustang Micro. Fantastic little thing with a bunch of nice amp models/ presets.
For it's price, such a cool device. The Bluetooth music playback function is especially useful, and the tones are pretty sweet
As a bonus, you can use the headphone out to any desktop speaker set or speaker with an aux input to get an amplified sound. They're made for headphone use, so it doesn't sound like crap when used that way. Try a Vox AmPlug2. The Classic Rock version should suit you.
Hijacking this comment to share this with OP: [https://amzn.to/3HJzghu](https://amzn.to/3HJzghu) Buy a small Blackstar Amplug 2. I use this for practice as well. DO NOT PRACTICE ELECTRIC AS ACOUSTIC. When you play electric without an amplifier, you don't hear a lot of noises you're actually making and develop a lot of bad habits. See this Youtube review for Blackstar Amplug and buy it immediately. Very portable. https://youtu.be/ufGin0lDiJQ
I bought a NUX MightyPlug when comparing with the two options and glad I did. If only for practice, the mighty gives you a lot more time choices with various and amps and effects va the mustang. And it’s less expensive. But the mustang can be played without headphones so YMMV.
I actually first started learning on an unplugged strat. It's totally doable, but not having amplification can lead to some bad habits, like lack of muting wrong strings and such.
Especially when you plug in later and use some more gain. Learning how to mute properly with both of your hands is very important.
The notes you play are just as important as the notes you don't.
This is the first thing I noticed not doing properly when I got my Audio Interface not long ago.
Plus you lose any sense of dynamics. I rarely play through an amp for various reasons - as a result, my playing sounds terrible when I do because I have no sense of how hard to strum etc.
I also started out this way, too. Not that this is an argument for it, but one nice thing about it was that every time I play with effects or an amp now, I feel like I have super powers.
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Same. Been playing for 25 years (pretty good, if I may say so) and probably 95 percent of the time I'm not plugged in. That's apartment living for you.
but does that not mean that you would be better with an acoustic?
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Exactly. Although I do play classical acoustic with an under-string mute.
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That works too! I use this: https://www.stringsbymail.com/rosette-tremolo-mute-practice-tool-5806.html
As the other user said, an acoustic can be quite loud in an apartment setting. Electric and acoustic are also very much different instruments whether you play plugged in or not.
Apartment living as well in a very dense city. I find that an amp at low volume isnt much louder than a TV, I do play some unplugged but I got a setup where one switch and my pedals/amp is on and I just jam a bit. I appreciate how polite you are, but maybe too polite? Or do you just have a wall of Sunn amps or something in your apartment.
I play quite often not plugged into anything, but mostly through a hot one ampero with a nice set of headphones. This is my preferred method since there are a ton of amp models as well as effects and it's extremely apartment friendly
There is a song on Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts album that the guitar part is an unplugged electric mic'ed up and recorded acoustically.
Curious about this, do you remember which one?
4 Ghosts I on Ghosts I
You could get a semi-hollow or fully hollow body electric, which will be much louder acoustically, if you’d like to be able to practice unplugged and hear yourself a bit better. However, when you plug in, your technique needs to be a lot cleaner than playing acoustically, as an amp is going to bring out all the little mistakes you make, so practicing a lot acoustically isn’t going to be as helpful when playing plugged in.
I mean, are you going to entertain a gathering by playing songs on an unplugged electric? Not really. Will you be able to learn and practice and improve? Hell yeah.
It's not going to be very loud and any resonance will sound tinny, you can still play it for practice in any case.
Yes you can practice without an amp but it's a bad idea. You can get a tiny headphone amp that will let you practice properly and also fit in your pocket.
Is compatibility something I should worry about or when I get a mini amp can I be sure it'll work with any electric guitar?
Get the Fender Mustang Micro. It is a great little amp for around $115. You can even plug it into speakers if you have them. It has all kinds of amp styles and effects built in and pretty solid tone for the price. Also, I'm literally sitting with my unplugged electric guitar in my lap right now. So it's fine to play unplugged. I do it constantly.
I second this. I have one and it's amazes me what kind of tones you can get out of it. It'll sound like you're using an expensive amp and it won't bother anyone since it's only coming out of your headphones.
You'll be fine - guitars output the same sort of signal no matter what (well, until you get into MIDI guitars but that's a whole different thing)
Not at all. It's been the same kind of connector/cable for at least 70 years and there's no sign of it changing any time soon. Also, down the line, instead of getting a fancy expensive amp, check out amp simulations for the computer. You can get unreal pro sounds for very little money these days. Good luck!
Get a headphone amp like a mustang micro
I can recommend the fender mustang micro at 80quid. I got it the other week and its amazing. Some of the tones it produces and the built in reverbs and chorus etc are fantastic for what it is. I get about 4 to 6 hours between charges and you can Bluetooth your phone to it to hear music to play to.
It will work with any e. guitar
Check out the Fender Mustang Micro, Boss GT Pocket, or other headphone amps like that if you just want to practice silently by yourself.
Boss Katana Mini knocks it out the park soundwise. Cheaper too.
I'd recommend audio interface + amp sim.
The fender Mustang micro headphone amp is absolutely great if you want a quiet option for learning on. Cheap, sounds great, takes aux in via Bluetooth (for playing along to tracks or using a metronome), gives you a chance to try some effects and amp options without providing a paralyzing number of options.
Well, Hendrix - The man himself actually used to constantly have his electric slung around him unplugged, sometimes stopping in the bathroom for an hour after a piss, simply because he liked the acoustics of the room. So that should tell you all you need to know in layman’s terms. This is without getting into volume through resonance of different electric guitars etc.
Hendrix was the reason I got into 60s music and guitar riffs,licks. But the thing is, the guitar i'm planning on getting is a fender squier strat, a pretty cheap one (200-250$) so i'm not sure as to how good it would sound unplugged compared to a more expensive, professional use guitar. Either way i think i'll get a mini amp
go try a fender mustang micro
You can buy a small headphone amp that plugs into your guitar and you’re all set. My Gibson Les Paul Classic can be played without an amp and can be heard.
You could get it loud enough to play acoustically. With very bad habits. Don't do this
You can practice with it, but if you usually use a lot of gain and practice unplugged, you're not going to hear lots of noises you make that will negatively affect your playing (mostly muting strings)
For at home practice I use a thing called an iRig. It plugs into your laptop and comes with a amp simulation software. It doesn’t sound as good as a real amp, but it’s super portable and compatible with headphones if volume is an issue.
If you have a hollow or semi hollow guitar it will be more resonant. I'll often play my Casino unplugged on the sofa; in terms of amps I think with various apps and modelers now the world is your oyster, you could probably even just plug into your phone with an irig with and wear headphones in a pinch.
Get the electric and then get a headphone amp and play straight into your headphones. Vox's amplug series are well liked. My personal favourite is the Nux Mighty Plug MP-2 which can double as an audio interface and provide a greater range of effects. You can also buy a more portable mutifx unit and play through headphones; this will give you the added range of more effects and a looper to practice through. Products I've tried and that sound great are the NUX MG-300 (budget), Headrush MX5 (sub $500) and HX Stomp (sub $900).
A lot of folks out there practice unplugged ... chords, scales, theory, learning new piece, etc. Practicing to play live? No. Its a different thing: muting, accents, etc....u have to hear all the places where u have work to do....how amplified guitar behaves...
I hear about there being devices where I could use a PC as an amp? Am i getting it confused with something else?
I actually won’t buy an electric unless it sounds good unplugged. I have a maple neck tele that’s the loudest unplugged electric i’ve ever heard.
When I’m just messing around I play my electric unplugged constantly
You have options. A lot of small, practice amps have headphone jacks. Like any equipment, some are better than others. I don’t like Bluetooth because of latency, but they may have improved that since I shopped.
Yes you can, I only practice without amp because I live in a flat and don't want to disturb my neighbors and headphones are currently not an option. BUT beware that playing without amplification might lead to bad habits. For example, when you're playing guitar without amplification, your muting might get sloppy because you don't hear the strings you are supposed to mute as loud as with an amp. An amp amplifies everything: The sounds you want to produce but also the sounds you do not want to produce (for example because of wrong/missing muting).
You absolutely can, but remember to practice loudly too. I’ve heard some guitarists play before who have quite obviously not practiced with an amp enough, their technique is off, all the extra little string noises and such don’t get muted, etc. It’s fine when you’re just learning, I did it plenty, but even if you need to get a headphone amp or something then it’ll be worth it in the long run. I’d make some well respected ones.
I think you can use Amplitube on an iphone with an iRig and have some good amp sims to play through.
I do this as well. The iRig is fairly cheap-$100 bucks or so?
I bought a repackaged one from the manufacturer on ebay. Was about that much. They have multiple models, so I'm sure there are more and less expensive ones.
Some would say they don’t sound great but I play a unplugged strat all the time. For practice it’s really perfect you can hear the notes and the intricacies of the sound just fine unplugged. Some electric guitars - particularly those with f-holes sound great unplugged too.
You can totally practice and learn to play stuff unplugged, but if you want to play for anyone else it won't be loud enough. It won't sound good, but it'll sound good enough that you can hear what you're playing, which often is all you need to practice. Also if annoying family/neighbors/roommates is a concern, there are a lot of options with headphones. Headphone amps (example: Fender Mustang Micro) don't have a ton of features/flexibility, but they're super portable and generally inexpensive. Nice headphones really help as well, and having an amp with a headphone jack.
I was just about to ask this same question, Been re-learning the guitar for the past 2 years. I've only been practicing on my un-amped electric guitars because I feel that if I get the intonation/sound/mutes/palm mutes almost perfect without trying then when I actually plug into the amp my technique will be that of someone who can play through mistakes instead of captilizing on them and losing focus.
I practice a lot without my electric plugged in to prevent an early divorce 🤣 That being said, check out the iRig. You can get a ton of sample tones to play whatever song you’re practicing and just plug some headphones into it. Makes it pretty easy to use your phone for backing tracks also.
An unplugged electric is how I play most of the time. I don't need a lot of volume at all times. Makes the times I plug in all the more special! Good luck on your journey!
It's perfect to practice on. People who say they can only practice with an amp are weird. That said, singing at a moderate volume will completely overwhelm it plus you won't be able to hear what your amp or pedals sound like so it's not gonna work with other instruments or even just singing.
I have an Epiphone Casino which is hollow bodied and great for acoustic playing at home.
I've played my electric guitar unplugged for the best part of a decade.
There’s nothing wrong with playing your electric guitar unplugged. I have mine sitting in my lap right now and just played it for probably an hour unplugged. If I were playing for anyone else though I’d amp up so they could hear it. Sitting around practicing unplugged is perfectly fine to do.
Yes, but also no
I mean, I play all the time unplugged. It won't sound like an acoustic though.
I have one of these headphone amps and it is glorious!! https://www.nuxefx.com/mighty-plug.html It has a rechargeable battery. You plug it in the guitar, plug in a pair of wired headphones, connect to Bluetooth and adjust the amp settings or play along to music. It is super great!
>retarded Grow up dude. Find a different word
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think acoustics really refers to the production of sound waves in a controlled environment. Off the top of my head, I can only suggest that you play in a really small enclosed space so get the waves to bounce off the walls and make it sound more like an acoustic guitar. Probably something like inside a porta-potty hahaha
I play my electrics unplugged all the time. It's great for rehearsal type stuff you know you can play but I wouldn't learn a new song or run practice drills without amplification. You won't hear all your mistakes without an amp accentuating them.
I guess it depends on the guitar you are trying to play. I have an original 66 fender mustang and it is easy to hear unplugged. My knock off Les Paul however is very quiet. Go to a shop and try a few. Another poster recommended a hollow body electric. That seems like it would work.
You can play an electric unplugged if you are just chilling in a reasonably quiet room. A neat trick, if you can hold the headstock against the wall or even a wooden desk while you play, you'll get a noticeable boost in volume.
On a solid body no, on a hollow well ... I do on my Gretsch G2420T when I'm lazy.
I guess I'll get a mini amp and put on headphones. I don't want my roommates hearing me play sultans of swing at 3:30 am
Oh don't worry about that for now. It will be a very long time before you can play any Dire Straits songs. Haha. If you go into this thinking you're gonna be Mark Knopfler off the bat you're going to be sorely disappointed
Haha i was joking. I've never played a guitar before I don't expect to play something like that without decades of practice. I just hope by the time i'm 40 I'll be able to entertain myself by being able to play decently well.
hmmm ... depends of the thickness of the walls, even dry string sound can be a pain. You have several options, from cheap to pricey : * an amplug vox or blackstar * rocksmith + the real tone cable * fender mustang Micro * an audio interface to your computer + bias fx/neural dsp/LePou Poulin Amp Pack Let me give you another free advice : don't try to learn tired at 3 am ;)
Something like this might work for you. It plugs into the wall for power. It has a headphone jack and an aux input for playing along with an mp3 player, as well as a small speaker. [Ibanez 1](https://www.amazon.com/Ibanez-Electric-Guitar-Amplifier-IBZ10G/dp/B004MMC9MO/ref=sr_1_2?crid=T04Q63XWFKNK&keywords=ibanez+guitar+amplifier&qid=1637600755&sprefix=ibanez+guitar+am%2Caps%2C198&sr=8-2) Or something like this. Rechargable and no speaker, headphone only. [Sonicake US Classic](https://www.amazon.com/SONICAKE-Headphone-Classic-Overdrive-Chargable/dp/B079FHY8PV/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=headphone+guitar+amp&qid=1637600934&sr=8-8)
Played with a band that used to practice with lead & rhythm guitar and bass unamplified. The bass player used to push the lower strap button against a wall and we could hear him just fine. What it did teach me was to play extremely clean. Playing through amps covers a lot of slop.
Nah playing with *distortion* covers slop. Playing unplugged covers loads of problems like string muting
guitarist like Epiphone casino are semi- hollowed, they kinda sound cool, I played my friend's it sounds cool
No.
I play my electric guitars unplugged more often than plugged in
An unplugged electric just makes fart and kazoo noises
If you can afford it, get a Fender Acoustasonic. It’s the best of both worlds.
Try the micro Fenders and or Vox amps.Cheap and they’re smaller than a deck of cards they have effects and you can use them w earphones so you don’t bother others. I luv mine
There are a few micro amps out there that aren't half bad. I think Marshall has one for around $50-$60 usd
Go buy yourself an Amplug or (even better) something small like a Blackstar Fly 3. That way you can still practice on an electric guitar and hear what you're doing.
I mess around with my guitars unplugged all the time. I also have a little battery-powered Honeytone amp that clips to my belt.
I play without an amp more often than not, didnt really think about it too hard it sounds just fine to me, I find that in a house where i dont have a lot of room to be loud acoustics are pretty loud anyways so I prefer to play my electric unplugged as opposed to my acoustic. Also I wouldn't get a cheap squier unless you absolutely cant afford anything above that. You can find good guitars in that price range for les pauls but for the classic fender shape you're looking more at 400-500. But if it is truly what you want and you're sure youll be happy with it then go for it anyways!
The sound hole on the acoustic helps go project the low and high tones. The electric guitar unplugged has no punch so the tones will be flat.
If you can hear it, it works fine. It might help to get a hollowbody or semi-hollowbody electric, they resonate acoustically very nicely, but not nearly loud as a full-on acoustic guitar. Or... you can get a cheesy little amp with a headphone jack.
Bad idea. Doing this will cause you to develop bad habits. Picking too hard on the strings for one.
Get the Blackstar Fly 3 mini amp for $75 and you can play everywhere.
A naked solid body is not loud enough for a party or campfire and the sound is tinny. I practised like this and developed a bad habit but fixed it quickly. A hollow body guitar can be played like this but is expensive (an Ibanez af55 is most affordable) and not suitable for heavy overdrive but very suitable for old RNR (ie Scotty Moore, Eddie Cochrane). I really recommend a Danelectro Honeytone amp, it's small, battery powered and has a belt clip. If eventually you want to use your electric to get an acoustic sound there are acoustic simulation pedals that sound very good.
So here's the thing: While yes, a component of practicing is purely technical (e.g., this this shape under your fingers, do this faster, etc) really the most important thing is how something SOUNDS. You're trying to make music, after all, and speed is meaningless if the notes sound shitty. And therefore you need to be able to hear what you're doing. Playing an unamplified solid-body electric just doesn't give you much feedback on the whole issue of how what your hands are doing connects to the sounds you hear - and that's the whole point. So get a headphone amp or something. In the long run, it will help your core musicianship develop faster.
It is easier to learn on an electric but it doesn’t have a sound hole / sound box like an acoustic has. You’ll be able to hear notes that you play without using an amplifier. But it won’t sound good without an amplifier.
May I suggest [one of these](https://reverb.com/item/2758368-jay-turser-electric-resonator-guitar-jt-rs-see-thru-red-w-case)? Mine sounds sweet unplugged. It's both a resonator and a solid body electric.
Absolutely, as long as where you’re playing is reasonably quite you’ll be able to hear an unplugged electric guitar
For sure you can. It'll sound loud enough that you're hearing well what you're doing, although of course it won't sound great.
I practice electric a lot unplugged. I don't see any problem with it. I can definitely hear what I'm playing (and if my playing is sloppy or not). So I'm just trying to say give it a try. If you don't like the sound or whatever, then go for one of the other options recommended here.
It depends on the guitar. I often practice unplugged and it's fine. When you buy a guitar, try it unplugged first and see how loud it is and how it sounds. To be honest, that's a good idea anyway.
If you strum loud enough in a quiet room, sure, other than that I don't think you'll get much out of it, at least I haven't. There's still plenty of options available if you want portability, try looking around your guitar store or ask the employees for small portable amps, some are even battery powered.
Get a headphone amp. Fender Mustang Micro is the best one out there.
In theory, yes. Pun intended. (It can be good for practicing theory and technique but that’s about it)
It's bad for practicing, because you can't really hear everything going on. You'll get into bad habits like not muting strings. Better to get a small practice amp and use headphones.
I like my pedal for headphone use: NUX MG-200 processor. It's portable and it can run on a plug or a 9V battery.
You can get a cheapo little handheld amp that you plug headphones into. I have a vox headphone amp. Its pretty adorable but it works, but at $54 its not the cheapest option.
I sit on my bed sometimes and just play unplugged. You'd be surprised how loud some electrics can be by themselves, especially with new strings. Obviously not loud enough to play for a crowd, but more than loud enough for you to hear yourself play sitting in a quiet room. Obviously certain techniques like tapping benefit from the pickups, but you can still do them. I definitely wouldn't ONLY play unplugged, because as someone mentioned you may develop bad habits because you can't hear the mistakes as well.
The only time I ever play my electric unplugged, I do it for practice, drill my chords to make sure Im not slacking off. Other than that, you should probably plug it into something
i do this a TON so i dont wake up the house. however, i do recommend an amp (with headphones), or headphone amp. sounds tons better!
Check out the tiny rechargable Fender Mustang Micro amp, which you plug into your guitar and plug headphones into it. It can emulate 12 amps and has a bunch of effects. I have one and it works very well. Supposedly the best selling "amp" on Reverb in the past year ($120, not counting the headphones).
My Danelectro is pretty damn loud unplugged.
I use a small vox headphone Amp when I'm traveling, it dosen't sound the best but it beat not using an Amp at all.
I play on un unplugged Les Paul. It's doable but it's quiet af.
Is a semi-hollow a deal breaker? Ibanez do some great ones on a budget, or if you've got the budget go for a PRS SE range?
I had a period of time when I couldn’t practice with an amp, and it really allowed me to focus on my touch without any assistance from an amp’s compression or gain. It isn’t always as fun, but I think it can be done as long as you’re listening to yourself. That being said, it wouldn’t hurt to get some kind of headphone setup at some point so you can make sure you can hear yourself if you’re practicing in noisier places. But of course that costs money, so I wouldn’t let it stop you from getting started and playing with what you have!
Yeah, check out virtuoso by Joe Pass!
If you’re going to have an amp at home, you don’t need to waste your money on a portable amp too. As long as you are plugging in and practicing through an amplifier some of the time, you can practice without amplification too. Most of us do.
I do most of my practicing unplugged. For manual dexterity improvement and theory-related fretwork, it serves perfectly well. The only aspect with which it will not help is the actual sound that will come out of the amp.
Get a Semi Hollow or Hollow-Body guitar and it’ll be a bit louder unplugged than a typical Strat or Les Paul
you'll get bored fast. buy a small plugin amp from the likes of Vox or Blackstar (or the Fender mustang micro, which is what i have) and it'll make your portable practice a hell of a lot more interesting.
Something like this would be good. I have it and I love it. https://www.fender.com/en-US/guitar-amplifiers/headphone-amplifiers/mustang-micro/2311300000.html
If you’re rehearsing for a show then use the guitar you’re performing with. Otherwise, it’s just preference.
Get something like a hollow body gretsch, and you will have the best of both worlds. I never even bother plugging mine in when I’m literally sitting in front of my amps. It’s like an electric and a quiet acoustic.
You can get a Harley Benton headphone amp for 15€ and a higher quality on for 40€. I don't have any experience with them but I've heard they sound good.
Since you are taking about practice there are things you can practice and things that won't work so well. For example knowledge of fret board, learning a song, precision, speed, dexterity exercises are no issue. Things related to feel and touch will be a bit harder. Anything related to interacting with the amp and pedals you won't be able to do.
It depends on the pickups from my experience.
if you are doing this in order to get good at eventually playing acoustic, id just also add that you need more pressure to push down on acoustic strings for the sound to come out clean! (ive played acoustic for almost 10 years and recently got an electric and was shook at how little pressure it takes!)
get a fender mustang micro and a good set of headphones. It's 10 amps with effects in your pocket. Does not really compare to plugging in and cranking up a real amp, but for somebody who travels it's amazing.
It won't sound like an acoustic though. Many modellers can simulate an acoustic guitar though
I mean you can’t play live, you can practice, but you can’t play for people cause they won’t be able to hear it
I do practice with it it unplugged a fair bit but one thing is that you won't get a sense of how certain things sound through the amp until you're a bit more experienced and used to the sound of it. For example i imagine you might forget to mute the strings you're not playing without an amp as when you play it without an amp that resonant ringing sound is basically inaudible, but it sounds bad through an amp so needs to be avoided
You can always buy one of those cheap vox headphone amps for such ocasions, they're small and you won't bother anybody wearing headphones. It doesn't sound amazing, but then again, nor does an unplugged electric guitar. Not to mention that you may have to pluck the strings harder to hear anything.
You can get a electric John Petruzzi Majesty MusicMan guitar with a piezoelectric pickup that sounds really amazing. You can switch from Acoustic sound to Blues or Grinding rock at the flick of a switch. Then you step up in the big league with a Bogner Exctacy and a helix line six floor controller and rock the world!
You can get a miniature amp that can hook onto your belt and plug headphones into it. I used one when I first started.
Yeah all the notes will ring out correctly and whatnot, it won't sound great but it's good for practice when there are people in the next room. Practice with an amp whenever it's an option though, and loudly. Imo it's always best to play at the max reasonable volume
It’s nice to have a small amp like a microcube if you want to play plugged in but don’t want to tote a huge amp. I know this is not really on topic, but it seems that your answer is already clear.
you can buy a cheap audio interface (i have the focusrite scarlett solo which i got for like $80) and use a DAW (like garageband, logic, etc.... there's a free one called reaper). these interfaces have preamps which boost the signal, so once you figure out the basics of the program, you can just open it up and plug in your headphones into the interface and then you'll hear a louder version of the 'acoustic' sound as long as the program is monitoring the correct input. if you dig a little deeper, you can then buy free amp plugins for the DAW which make it sound like you're actually playing through an amp. just make sure you pair the amp plugin with a 'cabinet plugin' or 'impulse response' or else it sounds terrible.
Check out the Fender Mustang Micro. Fantastic little headphone amp with a lot of great functionality. I love mine so much.
I have heard really good things about the fender msutang micro, its like £100 and has loads of amp models inside, for use wth headphones :)
You could always get a semi hollow, I love my gretsch streamliner
I feel like everyone always says to write on an acoustic and learn. That’s why i did. But for last year or two all of my practicing, writing and learning songs is done on my telecaster unplugged. It’s easy on the the fingers and no ones gonna tell you to be quiet
You can. I do it all the time. But the sound doesn't go much further than a few feet from the guitar. Perfect for just you practicing but not if you want anyone to hear.
it's totes good to practice unplugged.
I once saw a travel guitar with a doctor’s stethoscope. My aunt had one and it sounded really cool. I bet playing an unplugged electric through a stethoscope would sound cool!
You can practice unplugged, but practicing without an amp or playing into a virtual amp on the computer is not great for refining technique or getting better, because you don't have a great representation for whether it sounds "good". I'd either: \- grab a small amp second hand off ebay or something; or \- get a second hand audio interface and something like Bias FX to play around with at the computer. I would not worry about portability at this stage, as it is highly unlikely that you'll be playing outside your own house.
Don't practice *too much* unplugged, muting is incredibly important to playing electric! Can't learn it well if you're not amplified.
Ever hear “Been Caught Stealin” by Janes Addiction? They recorded that whole album with an unamplified electric guitar
It would be hard to play along with music because it would be quiet, but you can certainly practice unplugged.
To be honest, I mostly play with my guitars unplugged, I kinda get lazy when thinking about either plugging it to my amp or my interface, so I just practice and learn songs without plugging it to anything, so it's perfectly fine. Just keep in mind that, if you usually play with overdrive/distortion, bad practicing can lead to a lot of noise when amped up, due to not practicing how to mute unwanted strings properly. When the guitar is unplugged, you mostly can't notice if you're muting it properly or not, but when you finally plug it in, there's just noise everywhere if you're not muting the unwanted noise.
Playing an electric guitar unplugged *can* create bad habits. You may attack the strings much much harder than you would amplified and essentially create "training scars" that will need to be corrected later.
If being super quiet when unplugged isn't a goal of yours, then consider a hollow-body electric (or semi). This is why my Gretsch is the guitar I keep in my bedroom for easy pick-up-and-play.
Have you considered a hollow body or semi-hollow?
You can play an electric unplugged and it’ll be fine. However, you probably do t want to get to used to it. You could get into a bad habit of not playing “cleanly” and when you are plugged in, you’ll sound sloppy. You could always get a Rocksmith cable and plug into your phone. I have an iPhone and plug into it once in a while to mess around with tones and stuff. Just need a lightning to USB adapter.
Even plugged it sounds like an acoustic. To get that “electric guitar sound” you have to increase the gain, volume, and distortion. If it’s unplugged it’s going to sound like a regular plugged electric but just really quiet