Does being a good acoustic guitar player automatically make you a good electric guitar player? That is the question, and the answer can vary depending on who you ask.
According to blues extraordinaire Eric Bibb, being proficient in one doesn’t necessarily translate to the other. As he puts it, they’re not exactly the same species.
“I’m really not an electric guitar player,” he admits in a new interview with Guitarist.
“I find that the electric guitar is almost a separate species, you know? I have an old Danelectro solidbody that Hubert Sumlin signed the back of, so I love that guitar. I did a video of a song called This One Don’t, and you can see that guitar.”
But, for Bibb, there is a foundational difference in the two disciplines, which can be defined through the styles or techniques that each largely require.
Despite owning the Danelectro, he goes on to clarify that, “I play electric guitars like I play my acoustic guitars, I fingerpick them. I’ve never played with a plectrum, you know?
“I’ve never really mastered or even really been attracted to that style of playing, although I have band members who are wonderful players on electric guitar and who play with their fingers but also are masters of the pick.”
However, if he ever had to purchase one single electric guitar, there’s a certain “jazz big-body” guitar that would definitely make the cut.
“If I had an Epiphone Emperor, that big, beautiful blonde guitar that they made in the 30s, I’d hold on to that. But, yeah, a great acoustic guitar is the way to go for me.”
In more recent news, Bibb talks about how he never planned to be a roots troubadour, but the blues took hold of his career.
For more from Eric Bibb, plus new interviews with Slash and Billy Duffy, pick up issue 538 of Guitarist from Magazines Direct.
