Beginning guitarists: acoustic or electric?

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which never come because you get discouraged too early on.

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Could be.

I guess I never had that problem; it took awhile to get comfortable playing, but I could see from the beginning how daily practice would pretty much guarantee reasonable competence on the instrument.

Here's another way to overcome discouragement: begin with a purpose, specifically to learn a simple song you really like.

For me it was Dylan's You Ain't Goin Nowhere. It took me maybe 2-3 weeks to learn how to play it, but once I did I was hooked.

Why not do both which is what I did. Having both a decent acoustic and a Fender Squier strat or one of the cheap Epiphones would not break the bank for most people when starting out. Acoustic and electric can almost be two different instruments, learning to play cleanly while producing good tone and being loud on electric requires mastering techniques that you will only get by playing electric, same for chording and flatpicking on acoustic.

Whichever one is the reason you WANT to play guitar. In other words: the one that will make you play it more.

I learned on acoustic, because I was passionate about learning the guitar regardless of acoustic or electric. For me, learning on acoustic made playing electric easy. I'm also primarily a finger stylist on acoustic these days.

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Also electrics are quiet so you can practice without disturbing others.

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This. You can plug your electric into a phone and use earbuds and WAIL! right next to your family who have no idea.

Acoustic? I annoy the shite out of my family. They are just too nice to say so.

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I tell people to get a cheap acoustic to learn on. But I'm not going to argue with you if you say get an electric.

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I guess folks have different theories on this topic; I don't recommend getting a cheap guitar (acoustic or electric). 99.99% of the cheap acoustics out are difficult to play and usually sound like crap. They rely on bulky necks for stability (most don't have a truss rod and will have varying degrees of neck bow) and do not have proper bracing.
As for a cheap electric, they're easier to play; most have thinner neck because they do incorporate a truss rod and the sound depends largely on what you're running it through.

Like I said, different schools of thought.

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I don't recommend getting a cheap guitar (acoustic or electric). 99.99% of the cheap acoustics out are difficult to play and usually sound like crap.

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I and most everybody I know learned on a cheap acoustic. The neck and action I learned on were fine. Yes it sounded like crap but so did I....still do.

Acoustic. Try and get a student guitar, not one that only plays well with top of the neck open string chords. I actually learned on an old Gibson student guitar. It took a while, and sure at times it is downright difficult to play, but you got to get your reps in.

I read something from Keith Richards recently, and he recommended doing the same. With an acoustic, you can really learn how to get certain sounds out of a guitar, or what it truly sounds like when you play a certain way. It becomes easier to distinguish what other guitar players are doing, or what effects are added if you know what it sounds like bare-bones.

Also, you will find that no one wants to hear you play an electric guitar, especially while you are learning.
But seriously, you will not ant to turn an amp up super loud for the sake of other people, and won't be "all-in" while you play because it could get loud. Lastly, it has taken almost 10 years, but I can now label myself as a guitar player, and as a a guitar player, electric should only be played through a tube, and should be played loud.

Good luck learning, don't give up, pick that sucker up every day. And as someone above me said, my best piece of advice is to practice with purpose. Learn chords, their names, and relationships between notes; don't be intimidated, and you will be better for it. Again, I spent at least 5 years embarrassed to play in front of pretty much anyone...whatever your learning curve, just beast through it and one day you will find yourself impressed with how far you have come.

ETA: get a cheap resonator. I just realized I play mine like 90% of the time because it has qualities of both types of guitars. Can defitely get a little more snarl out of one than a standard acoustic.

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Keith Richards recently, and he recommended doing the same.

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Wut