Anatomy of a Guitar

Monday, 8th June 2009

Guitar Guide for Beginners Video Lessons

The most important thing we need to cover, is to identify what actual makes up a guitar, by being able to identify all it’s parts.

Here is the Anatomy of a Guitar:

Acoustic Guitar
•    Headstock
•    Tuners (Machine heads)
•    Nut
•    Neck
•    Frets
•    Strings
•    Sound Hole
•    Body
•    Bridge

Electric Guitar
•    Headstock
•    Tuners (Machine heads)
•    Nut
•    Neck
•    Frets
•    Strings
•    Body
•    Bridge or Tremolo (Whammy Bar)
•    Pick-ups
•    Volume Knob
•    Tone Knobs (Some guitars have more then one)

As you can see from the diagram above we have listed the parts, now we are going to explain the anatomy of a guitar in greater detail.

Headstock- This is the end of the guitar, where you’ll find the Machine heads, or Tuning pegs for retuning the guitar.

Tuners (Machine heads)- these are located on the headstock, and you use these by turning them clock-wise or counter-clock wise to tune your strings to the relative pitch.

Nut- The nut divides the neck from the headstock, and where the strings meet the tuning pegs.

Neck- The longest part found on the guitar, and located between the body and headstock. Also, where notes are fretted.

Fret: A fret is the metal piece that runs vertical across the guitar neck to distinguish the pitch or note, wherever you place your finger on the neck.

Strings: The six strings of the guitar need to vibrate at different frequencies in order to produce the range of pitches.

Sound Hole: The round or oval hole in the top of the body of the guitar. Also, where the tone or sound is produce for the guitar.

Body: The main part of the guitar, where the neck either bolts onto, also this is where you find the bridge, and pickups.

Types of Guitar Bodies:

•    Alder
•    Ash
•    Basswood
•    Mahogany
•    Maple
•    Tiger Maple

Bridge:

• Fixed: A fixed bridge is anchored to the guitar’s body, and is more stable then a tremolo bridge. Also, from personal experience I find these types of bridges to be much easier to tune the guitar.

• Tremolo: A bar, by applying pressure to the tremolo bar, either up or down. It changes the guitars pitch either up or down, by a few notes.

Types of Tremolos:
•    Stetsbar tremolo
•    Bigsby vibrato tailpiece
•    Fender synchronized tremolo
•    Fender floating tremolo
•    Floyd Rose floating tremolo
•    Kahler Tremolo system

For more information on Tremolos visit here:

Pick-ups: When the string is plucked or hit with a pick it produces an impulse, which is sent to the amplifier. The impulse is then modified at the amplifier, to produce the sound or pitch from the guitar.

Most common types of Guitar Pick-ups:

Hum buckers:

Single Coil:

Volume Knob: The Volume knob is turn clock-wise or counter clock-wise to turn up the volume of the guitar or turn it down, and usually the Volume knob is giving the numbers of 1-10 to adjust.