The parts of a guitar

Hi there Guitarrista!

Today, we will be learning about the parts of a guitar. 

Birds, whether it's a dove, an owl, or an eagle, are considered birds because they share common characteristics like wings, beaks, have only two legs, and so much more. Just like birds, all guitars, no matter what type it is, also share their common physical characteristics that make them behave like guitars.

Guitars come in two basic types: Acoustic or Electric.

If you put these two guitars side by side, you can easily see that an electric guitar has more components compared to an acoustic guitar. An acoustic guitar just looks very simple while an electric guitar looks very complicated to use. But, did you know that an acoustic guitar is harder to make than an electric guitar? That's right and that's simply the reason why an acoustic guitar cost just like an electric guitar.

Despite their differences, these two things are still called guitars.

So, there must be physical characteristics that are common to both of them. Let's try to look into that.

I have with me here an image showing the two basic types of the guitar with labels on them.

The green colored labels on the center indicate the parts that are common to both of them.

The blue colored labels on the left indicate the parts specific to an acoustic guitar.

The red colored labels on the right side of the image indicate the parts specific to an electric guitar.

Let’s go over them one by one:

• Headstock. This is an area at the end of the neck which is used as a placement for the tuning machines. It often comes in different layouts. Traditional layout has 3 tuning machines on each side of the headstock. Some layouts are six-in-line, like what you see on most electric guitars, and others are "4+2". And there are even guitars out there that don’t have a headstock at all. Also, this is where guitar makers commonly put their brand logo. 
• Tuning gears. Some would call these tuning machines, tuning keys, tuning pegs, or simply tuners. This is where the strings tightly wrap around and each of the strings has their own respective post. These are mechanisms which can draw the strings to different pitches by adjusting its tension.
• Nut. The nut is a small strip of bone, plastic, brass or other medium-hard material, found at the joint where the headstock meets the fret board. It is one of the endpoints of the strings' vibrating length. Its grooves guide the strings onto the fret board. This small part is very important and must be accurately cut or else you'll encounter tuning problems.
• Frets. These are metal strips that run across the fret board perpendicular to the strings. When you press down a string on a fret, its vibrating length is shortened and produces different pitches. Let's take for example the sixth string. Without pressing any fret, its standard tuning is "E". If we press the 6th string on the 3rd fret, we produce a different pitch and that's a "G". 
• Strings. These are the six wires that produce the notes of the guitar. Electric guitars and steel-string acoustic guitars use metal strings. While classical guitars use nylon strings. Strings also come in different lengths and thickness. Just be sure that you are using the right one. 
• Neck. This is a long wooden extension which connects the headstock to the body. As you can see in my guitar, the almond colored part is the neck while the ivory colored part is the fingerboard.
• Strap pin. This is where the front end of the straps connects. Some acoustic guitars don’t have this. If your guitar is missing one, you can simple tie the other end of the strap to the headstock.
• Body. It's the biggest of the parts of an acoustic guitar. It provides an anchor for the neck and bridge and creates the playing surface for the right hand. On an electric, it consists of the housing for the bridge assembly and Electronics which includes the pickups and the tone and volume controls. On an acoustic, the body includes the amplifying sound chamber or sound hole that produces the guitar’s tone.  The sound bounces around inside and comes out of the sound hole.
• Bridge. This one here is the bridge and this is the plate that anchors the strings to the body. This is made of wood for acoustic guitars or metal for electric guitars. It is in the bridge where the other end of the string is attached.
• End pin. This is simply the part where the rear end of your strap connects.

The parts specific to an electric guitar:

• Bar. This is a metal rod attached to the bridge that enables the player to quickly vary the tension of the strings, changing the pitch to create a vibrato or pitch bend effect. This is also often referred to as whammy bar, tremolo bar, or the vibrato bar.
• Output jack. This is where you insert the guitar cord to connect it to an amplifier or other electronic devices. My guitar is an acoustic-electric guitar and it also has an output jack over here.
• Pickups. Pickups are bar-like magnets attached to a guitar that detect (or "pick up") string vibrations and convert the mechanical energy of the string into electrical energy. The electric energy or current is then converted by an amplifier into a musical sound.
• Pickup selector. This small switch over here is called the pickup selector switch. This simply determines which of these pickups is active.
• Volume and tone control. We use these knobs over here to vary the loudness of the guitar, its treble frequencies, and also its bass frequencies. Some modern acoustic-electric guitars also have volume and tone controls. It is usually found at the top side of an acoustic guitar.

The parts specific to an acoustic guitar:

• Back. An acoustic guitar has a back, which is also a part of its body, and it holds the sides in place.
• Sides. An acoustic guitar also has its sides. These are curved wooden pieces that simply join the top and the back of the body.

There you have it. Those are the parts that make up a guitar and I hope you learned a lot from our lesson today. In my next blog post, we will look into how the parts come together and learn how the guitar works. Watch out for that!

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That's it for now. Thank you and have a great day guitarrista!