We define here, the parts
of a guitar.
The guitar body varies greatly from one guitar to another and it can have a large impact on the quality of the sound.
With an acoustic guitar, the body is hollow and is used as a resonation chamber to amplify the sound of the strings wheareas with an electric guitar the body is generally full and smaller since it's the pickups that are used to capture the movement of the strings and send that signal to an amplifier to increase its volume.
The neck is generally composed of either a full piece of maple
or a
piece of maple onto which has been glued a thin piece of rosewood.
These types of necks are respectively called "maple fretboard" and "rosewood fretboard" necks.
Usually a maple fretboard will have brighter sound and a rosewood fretboard will sound thicker. However in the case of electric guitars this can be misleading because of the role of the amplifier.
This is the part of the guitar where you find the tuners.
The shape of the headstock is often a good clue as to who manufactured the guitar especially in the case of a classic like a Fender Telecaster or a Gibson Les Paul but some companies specialize in manufacturing deceptively good looking copies. Watch out though: Sometimes all they are is good looking.
Remember: if you're thinking of buying ANY guitar or bass, be sure to try it out first to make sure you like it for it's sound and how comfortable you feel playing it and not just because it looks like so-and-so's guitar.
On acoustic guitars, this is where the sound resonating in the hollow body is let back out. When using a microphone to record an acoustic guitar, it is often placed in proximity of the sound hole.
When come times to change the strings on your guitar, the bridge is where you will attach the "ball" end of your new strings to the body before starting to wind them tight with the tuners.
The nut can be thought of as fret and is where the neck becomes the headstock. It is from this point on, and all the way down to the last fret on the neck, that you can make musical notes. As your learning progresses you'll learn techniques to go beyond this but, for now, it's safe to say that your focus will be this placing your fingers on the neck and using correct picking or plucking technique.
Like the name suggests, these are used to adjust the tension of the strings or "tune" the guitar. A string that is wound tighter produces a higher frequency pitch.
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