Learn about the Parts of the Guitar

The guitar is one instrument but the many parts and regions have names and special functions. The following article will help to outline these things.

At the top of the guitar is the head stock. For tuning We have the tuners. Sometimes call the tuning pegs, machine heads or keys. We have the neck which has the finger board. The finger boards has the frets. Next we have the body. The acoustic guitar body is 90% responsible for the sound of the guitar. It has a back and sides but it is the vibration of the top, or sound board, that we hear. On the electric guitar the body has very little to do with the sound of the guitar. On the body we have 2-3 ‘pick-ups’ they pick up the sound of the string that are amplified through the guitar amplifier. We have a toggle switch on the guitar for selection of the various pick ups. We have volume knobs for the volume (guitar output really) and the one (treble roll off really)

Both types of guitar have the string terminate on a bridge. On the acoustic the bridge and saddle a are fixed and the saddle is usually 1 piece. On the electric the bridge can be one piece, floating, tune-a-matic, stop tail, hard tail floating, trapeze, etc. A lot of variables. As well, the saddles can be one piece, 3 -6 and individually adjustable. As always, here is a short video covering the parts of the guitar and, as a bonus, a little science on the properties of an acoustic guitars soundboard.