Lesson 2- Parts Of The Guitar

Acoustic Guitar Basics

There are a few basic components of the guitar that you will need to know throughout your guitar playing. It is quite important for you to know the names and the terms about the structure of the guitar so you know what is being discussed throughout these lessons. So, let’s get right into to it. Looking at the acoustic guitar pictured to your right we will go through every component:

Headstock- This is the part of the guitar where the strings are wound around the tuning pegs and where you control the tuning of your guitar.

Tuners- The tuners (also called Machine Heads) are located at the top of the head stock. By turning the tuners one way or another you’re tightening or loosening the strings. This will give you different sounds making the string pitch higher or lower. You will want to either use a online tuner available or you can purchase an electronic tuner. Electronic tuners are simpler since you don’t need to use your ear to tune the guitar.

Nut- This is located at the top of the guitar neck and is used to hold and distance the strings apart from one another.

Neck- The neck harnesses the fingerboard where you will be pushing down on the strings to make different chords or notes. This is a critical piece to the guitar. If the neck is bent or warped the guitar will not be able to hold a tune. When purchasing a guitar you should hold the guitar to the side and look down the neck. If you see any “bows” in the neck? Put it down and move on. Most new guitars however have necks that are very well built.

Sound Hole- This is where the acoustic guitar gets it’s sound. When the strings vibrate through the hollow part of the guitar it amplifies the sound. Different guitar bodies will give you different sounds depending on how their built.

Body- This is the overall base of the guitar and is its main construction. body sizes and dimensions will give you different sounds. These sounds range from higher to deeper tones. The size and shape of the body is what you should be looking at for the sound you are trying to get.

Bridge- The bridge is where the strings are connected at the bottom of the guitar right below the sound hole. The bridge is very important. If the bridge is too high off the guitar creating a high action(the distance between the fret board and strings)…. You will have to place a lot more pressure on the strings to get them to connect with the frets. A low action is what you are looking for. This will relieve your hands and fingers with the least amount of stress. Plus, you can play a lot faster with a lowered action. An action that is too low though will give you a buzzing sound as the strings hit the frets. Different actions can be achieved by adjusting the neck and bridge.

Saddle

The saddle is a bone or plastic piece that is inserted in the bridge. This is what the strings lay on and can be cut and adjusted to give you better intonation and action.

Electric Guitar Basics

The electric guitar is quite different. Most electric guitars are solid wood or solid body. The sound must be amplified through an amplifier. This is done by a series of magnets that are in what is called a pick-up. The coils within the pickup are wired and sent through a cable or radio cable to the amplifier where the signal is amplified. Let’s take a look at the components of the electric guitar:

Headstock- This is quite the same as the acoustic. However, in this illustration the tuning pegs are all on the top. This is very common with today’s most popular electric guitars. But, many still have the traditional 3 pegs on top, three pegs on the bottom.

String Tree- This is to help hold the B and High E string down on the nut. This is due to the last tuning pegs distanced too far away from the nut in which the B and High E strings do not have enough pressure applied to the nut.

Position Markers- Also on the acoustic guitar, these help you to find your positioning on the guitar neck. The two dots indicate an octave. Which is basically E A D G B E one octave higher in pitch.

Frets- The frets are the metal inlays on the guitar neck. However, when we refer to the frets, we’re actually talking about the box before the metal fret. The metal fret is what the string is pressing against when you push down on the first box so to speak. When you push down a string on the fret…. it gives you a different note. There are usually dots to help you know which fret you’re on. These dots are usually on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th & two dots on the 12th fret. They’re used as kind of a road map to the fret board.

Cutaway- The cut away allows you to place your hand down on the highest possible notes or frets. Not very common on an acoustic guitar. However, many acoustic electrics have a cutaway.

Tremolo(whammy bar)- This changes the pitch of every string manually by loosening up the bridge. This is where you get that great waaa waa sound.

Pickups- The pickups do just that. They pickup the signal of the vibrating string and send the signal through the wiring to the amplifier. These are usually magnetized. However, many companies have come out with newer technologies that don’t use magnets.

Pickup Selector- This is used to switch between pickups. When you select different pickups you get different tones. The pickup closest to the neck will give you a deeper smooth tone. While the pickup closest to the bridge will give you a higher tone.

Volume and Tone- Many times while playing the electric guitar you will need to switch from very strong loud tones to very smooth quiet tones. This can be done with the volume and tone control on the guitar.

Jack- Where you plug the guitar into the amplifier.