Guitar Anatomy | Get To Know the Basics

To learn the basics of guitar playing, the beginning guitar player has to get acquainted with the guitar's basic parts, the guitar's anatomy. More advanced materials on guitar playing might mention guitar parts somewhere in the lessons and it could only help to know the name of the guitar parts the material is referring to.

Here is a picture of the electric guitar with the parts labeled . (The acoustic guitar will be quite similar but will be missing a few things.)

Body: The pickup and bridge are located in the body and so is the guitar neck, which makes this the main part of the guitar.

Bridge: This is an part on the face of the guitar body where the strings are connected.

Frets: Vertical metal wires along the guitar neck.

Headstock: The part of the guitar at the end of the neck where the strings are tuned.

Neck: The long narrow part of the guitar where notes are fretted (the face of it referred to as the fretboard) which is between the body and headstock of the guitar.

Nut: The point on the guitar neck where the strings touch the neck and join the headstock.

Pickup Switch: A switch or switches located somewhere on the body of the guitar used to choose between different pickups and pickup for different tones and sounds.

Pickups: A magnet wrapped in wires that sits on the face of an electric guitar, underneath the strings. When the strings move, it interferes with the magnetic field of the pickup, and that impulse is sent to the amplifier. The impulse is then modified at the amplifier.

Tremolo (aka Whammy Bar): A bar connected to the bridge of the guitar. By moving the tremolo bar up or down, you can move the bridge, thus changing the pitch. Note that not all guitars have the whammy bar and not all bridge are movable.

Tuning Pegs: The pegs located at the headstock used to tune the guitar. The machine heads have gears that can tighten or loosen the string when turned.

Volume and Tone Control: Control knobs on the body of the guitar used to adjust guitar volume and tone.

Note: Acoustic guitars basically do not have volume and tone control, nor do they have tremolo or pickups.