Ichika Nito and Marcin trade exhilarating six-string blows in epic electric vs acoustic guitar duel

It’s a question that is as old as time itself: what’s better, the electric guitar or acoustic guitar? Well, in an effort to find an answer, Marcin Patrzalek and Ichika Nito – two of today’s most accomplished instrumentalists – have clashed fretboards for a jaw-dropping electric versus acoustic duel.

Marcin, who has grabbed attention with internet-breaking covers such as Kashmir, kicks off proceedings, using his Ibanez AE900-NT for an eight-bar exchange that encompasses everything from lightning-fast two-hand tapping licks and percussive body slaps, to oversized open-string strums and chimney harmonics.

In answer to Marcin’s dizzying opener, Ichika – representing the electric corner with his signature Ibanez Quest headless signature guitar – splits his own eight-bar offering into two halves, delivering both an ethereal, lullaby-esque upper-fret exploration and a raucous gain-tinged sucker punch.

The two Ibanez artists then up the ante and start seesawing between four-bar call-and-response passages, with Ichika countering Marcin’s magnificent fingerpicking jabs and hammer-on/pull-off uppercuts with some clean and dirty melody right hooks that seem to defy all laws of physics.

You can watch the pair’s epic showdown in the video above.

Given the extent of visionary playing on display from both sides, we’re not even going to entertain the idea of choosing a winner here. Yes, that just means the old electric versus acoustic debate will have to go unanswered for another day.

Of course, we’re now accustomed to the level of virtuosic playing that these two young guitar players produce on a regular basis. After his Kashmir cover went viral, Marcin continued his conquest of the acoustic world with a rendition of Metallica’s Master of Puppets.

Ichika is no stranger to reimagining classic tracks, either, having transformed Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water into a blazing math-rock riff.

The intrepid YouTuber has also further sought to push the guitar’s boundaries by flexing his own innovative approach to playing, most notably by ripping both a one-string and one-finger solo.