The average guitar has more than 150 parts
that must work together in perfect (or nearly perfect) harmony to produce
the best sound. Here are some of the parts and other terms relating to the
guitar. Binding
The trim that runs along the top and sometimes back of a guitar is called
Binding. It can be made of plastic or wood, and can be multiple layers,
giving a dressy look, especially to acoustic guitars. It also protects the
edge of the guitar from damage from minor hits.
Body
On an acoustic guitar, a body is made of a top, a back, and sides, while on
an electric guitar the body is usually one or more pieces of solid wood.
Whether hollow or solid, the body is the guitar's central point, tying
together all the parts. A hybrid design called a semi-solid guitar has a
block of wood running through a hollow body, so the guitar gets some of the
best tone characteristics of both solid and hollow construction.
Bridge
Located on the body of the guitar, the bridge separates the playing part of
the strings from the anchor part. Some bridges anchor the strings, while
others let them pass over before they hook up to a part called a tailpiece.
On electric guitars, small, movable bridge parts called saddles support each
string, setting its height, spacing from adjacent strings, and how well it
stays in tune with the others. On acoustic guitars, there's usually one
saddle, made of bone or a hard synthetic material, that's shaped to set the
strings' heights, spacing, and tuning accuracy. In addition, an acoustic
guitar's strings fasten to the bridge and transmit their vibrations directly
to the instrument's top, which changes the vibrations to sound.
Cutaway
A cutaway is a part of the body that's been removed so it's easier to reach
the fingerboard's top notes. Most electric guitars have at least one
cutaway. Some have two (one on each side of the neck). Acoustic guitars
don't feature cutaways as often as electric guitars, since cutting away from
the body affects its tone, plus the body is so deep, from front to back,
that it often doesn't make it much easier to play high on the neck.
Fingerboard
Made of hard woods such as maple, ebony, or rosewood, it's the part of the
guitar under the strings that the frets are set into. The fingerboard is
often a separate piece glued onto the front of the neck. Dots or other
shapes made of pearl, metal, or wood are inlaid into or along the edge of
the fingerboard as markers to guide your fingers.
Frets
Thin metal strips called frets are inlaid across the fingerboard. When you
push down on a string, the fret acts as a contact point, setting the length
of the string's vibrating portion and, therefore, the exact note that you
hear. There's no "official" number of frets, but most electric guitars have
20 to 24, and acoustic guitars have 18 to 24.
Head
Also called the headstock or peghead, this part is actually the end of the
neck, and on the vast majority of guitars it's where the tuning machines are
attached. A few guitars have no headstock, and therefore the strings must be
anchored behind the nut and tensioned by tuning machines built into the
bridge.
Machine Head (see Tuning machine)
Neck
The neck is the guitar's backbone, a stiff piece of wood or
graphite-composite (like the stuff used for many tennis rackets, golf clubs,
and fishing poles). It withstands the pull of the strings and gives your
hand a place to grab onto and play. It may be glued into a slot in the body,
bolted on, or built into the body, passing through its entire length.
Nut
The nut (who knows why it's called that?) is a piece of bone, plastic, or
metal that is at the end of the fingerboard, right where the neck and head
meet. It has tiny slots or rollers that guide the strings so that they're
spaced a uniform distance apart. Only the section of string between the nut
and the bridge is important to making a sound.
Output jack
This looks like a headphone jack that you find on the front of a stereo. It
has a diameter of 1/4", and lets you plug in the "phone jack" on the end of
a cable that takes the signal to an amplifier.
Peghead (see head)
Pickguard
Also called a "scratch plate" by some, this is a piece of plastic or metal
that's usually attached to the body of a guitar on the treble side of the
strings. It protects the top of a guitar from being scratched by your nails
or by a guitar pick. Sometimes, the pickups are mounted to the pickguard. A
pickguard can be stylish, too, coming in all sorts of colors, shapes, and
combinations of different plastics molded together to look like retro
Formica tables or tortoiseshell.
Pickups
These are bars you see under the strings of an electric guitar that sense
the vibrations of the strings and send them to an amplifier as electrical
signals. Single-coil pickups employ one coil of wire wound around a magnet
to translate the string's vibrations into electrical signals. Using two
coils in a pickup makes it a humbucker: It's called a humbucker because the
way it's made reduces hum and noise while creating different tones. Some
guitars can have just single-coil pickups, just humbuckers, or both.
Plug
At both ends of a cord used to connect a guitar and an amplifier are plugs.
Like the plug on the end of a pair of headphones, this plug makes the
electrical connection when you plug it into a jack (the small hole in the
guitar and in the front of the amp). The most common size is 1/4" in
diameter.
Piezo Transducer
On many acoustic guitars and some electrics, a type of pressure-sensitive
pickup called a piezoelectric transducer is built into the bridge. It's also
one of the most mispronounced parts of a guitar. It's pronounced "pie-EE-zo-e-LEC-tric,"
but you'll hear it as "PIE-zo," "pee-ay-zo" and a few others. This type of
pickup doesn't rely on magnetism, and instead senses extremely small changes
in pressure as a string vibrates. An electronic circuit connected to the
piezo transducer amplifies the tiny signal and sends it to an amplifier or
mixer. Oh, yeah: It's called a transducer mostly because manufacturers
didn't want to confuse people by calling it a pickup. What's a transducer?
It's something that takes one kind of energy (like vibrations or pressure)
and converts it to another form of energy (like electricity).
Saddle
On electric guitars, small, movable bridge parts called saddles support each
string, setting its height, spacing from adjacent strings, and how well it
stays in tune with the others. On acoustic guitars, there's usually one
saddle for all of the strings, made of bone or a hard synthetic material,
that's shaped to set the strings' heights, spacing, and tuning accuracy.
Selector
When an electric guitar has more than one pickup, there's usually a switch,
called a selector, that lets you select each of them separately, or two or
more in combination.
Soundhole
See that big round or oval hole on an acoustic guitar? It's the soundhole,
and a lot of sound passes out of it. If you're familiar with a subwoofer,
you'll find something similar. Soundholes can be round, oval, or other
shapes (some are like the f-shaped holes on violins, cellos, and basses).
The size of the soundhole, in combination with the size of an acoustic
guitar's interior, can really make a difference in the tone. Some electric
guitars have soundholes, and although they can affect the tone, they're
usually cosmetic, just looking good.
Strap buttons
Small but mighty, these pieces of metal or hard wood are placed on guitars
at two points so that you can attach a strap. Depending on where they are
placed, they can provide perfect balance so that when you take both hands
off the guitar, the neck doesn't fall toward the floor. If you think you
might go a little crazy on stage, consider getting a strap locking system
that'll keep your guitar from flying off unexpectedly.
Strings. Heavier strings are harder on acoustic guitars,
they can be made of steel wound with bronze, or they can be made of nylon.
On electric guitars, the strings are made of steel, often with nickel
windings to bend but produce a stronger sound. They also stay in tune better
than thinner ones. Both steel and nickel are attracted to magnets. The
magnetic pickups underneath these strings sense their vibrations and send
tiny electrical signals to an amplifier.
Tailpiece
On electric guitars and some hollowbody "jazz-style" acoustic guitars, this
is the end of the line for strings on the body. A tailpiece can be a beefy
piece of metal bolted to the body or a thin, lightweight piece that looks
like a trapeze. In many modern guitars, the tailpiece is part of the bridge
and may include a tremolo for bending notes.
Tone controls
Like the controls on a stereo, tone controls on a guitar let you bring up
the brightness or take off the edge. If there's only one knob labeled
"tone," it just lets you take off the brightness. If there are controls
labeled "treble" and "bass," you can independently add or reduce sharpness
or bottom end. Sometimes there's a midrange control, which (you guessed it)
raises or lowers the amount of the tone between the bass and treble.
Midrange, by the way, is where you'll find the "meat" of the sound, and
adjusting it can make a guitar sound boomy, nasal, or thin, depending on its
setting.
Top
An acoustic guitar's top is important to its tone and durability. A solid
top, meaning one made of a thin piece of spruce, cedar, or other soft wood,
produces what many artists believe is the best tone, but it's very sensitive
to changes in the weather and it's not very ding-resistant. A laminated top
is made of several pieces of wood sandwiched together (like plywood). This
stiffer type of top is a lot more durable and less expensive than a solid
wood top, and the tone tends to be less rich than a solid top's tone.
Tremolo
This type of bridge used on some electric guitars lets you make dive-bombing
and warbling sounds with your picking hand. When you press on its arm, a
tremolo detunes the strings. The tremolo is often called a vibrato bar,
whammy bar, or just a bar.
Truss rod
Inside of most necks is something called a truss rod, a steel bar with a
screw or nut at one end. By turning the screw or nut, the rod turns, and
then pushes the neck forwards or backwards. Strings pull pretty hard against
the neck, and it bends up (sort of like an archery bow when the string is
tight). As a result, the strings can be pretty high off the fingerboard,
making it more difficult to play them. Adjusting the rod can bring the neck
back to straightness, so the strings are a bit closer to the fingerboard.
The big question is this: Should you do this kind of adjustment yourself?
Probably not. It doesn't need to be done very often, and if it does, it's
best to leave this to a professional who works on guitars for a living. Why
go to a pro? If you tighten the truss rod too much, you can snap it, ruining
the guitar's neck.
Tuning machine
Each string is attached to a corresponding tuning machine, which is located
on the head. The tuning machines, or tuners, can be arranged along one side
of the head (all six in a row), or along both sides of the head (three plus
three, or four plus two). When you turn a tuner's knob, or key, the string
wraps around the machine's shaft, and the string is pulled tight. The
tighter a string is, the higher it sounds when you pick it. They're
sometimes called machine heads, tuning keys or just "keys."
Volume control
Just like on a stereo system, this adjusts the guitar's volume. However, a
guitar can have more than one volume control. Usually, there's a single
volume control, even if there are two or more pickups. Some guitars have a
separate volume control for each pickup, and may also then have a master
volume control that sets the overall loudness of the guitar.
Whammy Bar (see tremolo) |