Know Your Guitar Parts

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Know Your Guitar Parts

• A Beginners Guide

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Introduction
It is very exciting to purchase an instrument and
learn it. If you have bought a new guitar and
ready to start with your first lesson then it is
a wonderful thing. However, before you begin
with your first lesson, its vital to know your
guitar. Simply learning to play the guitar is not
enough. You should know the instrument you are
playing. Whether you have purchased a Gibson,
Jackson, ESP, PRS or any other guitar, learning
the parts of guitar is important.
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Parts For Gibson Guitar
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Gibson Guitar Parts
Gibson guitars are quite popular and the parts
for gibson guitars or other guitars is almost the
same. You just have to get used to the vocabulary
so you can communicate well with your fellow
guitarists about anything. First you need to
learn the names of different parts of the guitar
which will help you follow the video lessons more
precisely.
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Guitar Neck, Headstock, Nut
Guitar neck parts The narrow section of guitar
which you hold to press down the strings is the
guitar neck. The parts of a guitar neck are
headstock, truss rod, frets, fretboard,
tuners. Headstock Headstock is the first
section of the guitar which is a rectangular
piece on the top and holds the tuning pegs and
tuners. Nut You will also see a white strip
that is closest to the headstock, like a bow tie
s known as the nut. It has vertical grooves and
it helps to place the strings in a proper
position.
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Guitar Truss Rod, Tuning Pegs
Truss rod Truss rod is a steel bar that runs
inside the neck and below the fingerboard. To
adjust the tension it will have a nut at one or
both ends. Tuning pegs You tune the guitar
using the tuning pegs or guitar tuner buttons. It
helps to loosen and tighten the wire as per the
required pitch. On a standard guitar you will
find 6 tuning pegs or machines to tune the
strings of the guitar.
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Guitar Fretboard
Fretboard It is the front side of the guitar
where you press the notes and create chords or
music notes. It is also called the fingerboard.
The raised metal wires along the fretboard are
fret wires. You need to press the strings behind
the fret wires and then a proper chord or note is
played. It is useful for your fingers to find the
right spot. Most common materials used for making
the fretboard are maple and rosewood. Along the
fretboard you will see inlay markers or dots that
are positioned at proper intervals on the frets.
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Guitar Neck Joint
Neck joint is the place that connects the body to
the neck either through a bolt with usually three
to 4 screws or it will set in the neck without
the help of screws. It depends on how the guitar
is constructed. Whether it is a neck through or
set in construction, it is there to sustain the
guitar. On acoustic flat top guitars and electric
guitars bolt on method is used. So, some people
drill to put the guitar neck screws to secure the
joint.
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Electric Guitar
If you have an electric guitar, you will find
most of the parts explained above. However, the
body of an electric guitar has some different
parts which you wont find on an acoustic, like,
pickups, input jack, pickup selector switch,
potentiometer. For many electric guitars these
are electromagnetic and you will see magnets at
the core as well as the coils of wire that are
useful to disturb the magnetic field in the pick
up when there is a string vibration.
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Electric Guitar Pickup Selector Switch
Electric guitars have more than one pickup
because at different positions strings have a
different tone and various pickups helps in
producing various tones. A pickup selector switch
allows the player to switch between these tones
and determine the sound. Potentiometer helps to
control the tone and volume of the guitar whereas
input jack is the place to plug in your
keyboard.
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Conclusion
These are some of the guitar spare parts
explained in brief which will help you know your
guitar well. The functions of most of these parts
are explained above, so you gain a better
understanding of acoustic and electric guitars.