Electric Acoustic Guitars

I need an acoustic guitar for my guitar class and I was wondering if the Electric Acoustics can be played without any sort of amp?

Acoustic-electrics generally use the same 1/4" jack and everything as electric guitars, so you can use a standard amp (some even have an XLR connector, which is nice). However, they do sound better on amps built specifically for acoustics.

I think you misunderstood the question, I was wondering if i could play an electric acoustic without an amp at all, the same way a regular acoustic is played

Oops, sorry!

Yes, you can. All an acoustic-electric is is an acoustic guitar with pickups installed into the body.
What's the guitar model you're looking at?

Ahh thanks. Nothing at the moment, my dad was just looking at some on E-bay is all and most of them are Acoustic Electric. What is a guitar pickup? (This is my first time ever being formally taught to play a guitar) Also is there anything that you'd recommend for $130 or less?

A pickup is just what is used to pickup the sound of the guitar.
In electric guitars, they're the bars you see under the strings on the body and work by reading disturbances in an EM field. In electric acoustics, they usually use what are called piezoelectric pickups that use the principle of converting the vibrations into electric pulses.

When it comes to acoustics, I prefer the sound to go through microphone as the pickups in acoustics always sound weird to me.

For $130 or less.... IDK, I've got no real suggestions. At $150, I could solidly recommend the Yamaha F335. I've played a couple at my local GC, and they always sound pretty good.
Also, if you're going in the lower price range, I think you might want to avoid electric acoustic. Reason is, they manufacturer will cut corners in the sound and quality of the guitar itself to make up for the cost of the pickups.

Ahh, well I just need something for a beginner, thanks for the advice!

No prob man. Hope you enjoy learning!
Out of curiosity, why are you wanting an acoustic electric?

If you go to Ebay and look up Acoustic guitars you'll find most of them are Electric-Acoustic lol

Ah, haha, okay. Yeah, it's not a huge to deal, but if you're looking in a specific price range and have no specific need for an acoustic electric, you're better off going with a regular acoustic guitar sans pickups. Better to put money into a guitar's build and natural sound than getting mediocre sound and mediocre electronics.

I agree with T there. For only $130 it would be hard to even get a good sounding acoustic guitar without the pickups. So if you dont need it to be electric acoustic just get an better sounding acoustic. Getting an electric acoustic for the same price will limit the sound quality due to the extra money put into the electronics rather than the guitar itself.
HAving siad that, i have  an electric acoustic and not an acoustic but it cost me $550AU, so like 450US i'm guestimating.

Thanks for all of the awesome help guys! I picked up a Stagg Dreadnought (not exactly sure what that means lol) but anyway its a decent guitar. So anyone have any basic tabs that I could use? (I mean VERY basic, I don't know how to do chords just yet, I can read music notes and tabs)

Haha, "dreadnought" is just a guitar body style. Generally very large and loud

lol well this is exactly what i got http://majorseven.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/stagg-guitar.jpg

Check out the tabs section in this forum, but some are a bit complex. Otherwise look up ultimate guitar . com and pick a song that sounds pretty simple and you should be able to learn to play along. Good luck.