TheParts of the Guitar

Most guitars have a lot of parts in common and although the guitar itself might be different (number of strings, electric or acoustic) the basic parts of the guitar stay relatively the same. So let's start at the thin part of the guitar. Let’s see what we have.

The very head of the guitar is called the “Headstock”. Its primary purpose is to be the end of the guitar as well as the piece that has the tuners screwed onto.

The “Tuners” are the screw like mechanisms which have the strings wound around them and are used to tune the guitar. (Note: the proper stringing of the guitar is for the string to be wound on top of the tuner. So for a string that the tuner is on the left hand side you would come up the guitar, find the tuner, and wind the string counter clockwise to back it tighter, for strings on the right hand side you tune the strings clockwise to make the string tighter).

Connecting the headstock to the neck is the “nut”. This is a piece of plastic or wood that has grooves in it for the placement of the strings on the way up to the tuners.

Next is the “neck” the neck is the thin part of the guitar where all the action happens. It is where you do all your work. Depending on where you put your fingers on the neck you will make different sounds.

Next the neck overlaps the body. The body for acoustic and classical guitars is hollow with a sound hole right in the middle which helps resonate the sound. Electric guitar are solid, no sound hole with pickups in the middle where the hole would be to generate the electric sound when attached to an amp/speaker.

The strings are the primary part of the guitar which runs up and down the neck of the guitar. They are different lengths and thickness depending on the string name.

The bridge is the piece of plastic or wood about 3 or 4 inches from the sound hole. The bridge has holes for the strings to be anchored. Most strings have balls of steel at the end which when threaded through or into the bridge will be the starting point for the stringing process of the guitar.