Hey Greg... agree with Rob about spending time listening to the Dead from 72-74 if you want to get a handle on Weir's style. His playing really started to develop in a nice way by late 71 when the songs they were writing were less psychedelic and more Americana. That is a good era to listen to since the writing at the time became more about the song and creating a unique form for it and the playing of everyone in the band reflected that. Weir's tone was way better in the early 70s and the mix of the instruments clear and separated making it much easier to hear what everyone is doing. As the years passed Weir started to "devolve" his rhythm style, IMO his tone got worse, and instead of all the big interesting chord inversions he tended to play smaller chord voicings that were more like accents than rhythm parts. His earlier style was much more "conversational", rhythmic, and responsive to what Garcia was doing.
Another thing I find different about playing electric guitar, as opposed to bass or acoustic guitar, is that the amplification itself comes much more into play. I like a really clean sound when playing bass which allows me to hear how I am manipulating the tone with my hands but the majority of the tone is the bass I choose and my hands. With a guitar the hands are still the starting point but it takes time to learn to control and work with the amp to get good electric guitar sounds, especially at louder volumes. With amplified acoustic guitar you want it to still sound like an acoustic just louder. For electric, especially if you are playing lead, working the amp, having a bit of distortion etc. really add character to your playing.
And as already suggested you will make the most progress if you play with others, a lot of musical growth is tied to real-world playing and experimentation in a group setting, but that is true of any instrument. Good luck!
