Acoustic Guitar- Labeled Parts

Here are the parts of the acoustic guitar labeled along with a short description for each part.  Click on the link if you have an electric guitar

One of the 1st things you should do when starting the guitar is to learn what all the parts are called.  This is important because the names of these parts will come up frequently in lessons and often serve as reference points for proper hand positioning.

Parts of the Acoustic Guitar:

Body–  This is the main part of the guitar and is where all of the sound is produced.  It is hollow on acoustic guitars and consists of a top, back and sides.  The top is also called the soundboard and is usually made of spruce, maple or cedar on acoustic guitars.  The back and sides are usually made of mahogany, maple or rosewood.

• Sound hole– located in the center of body.  It is the opening from which all the sound is projected out from the body.  Sound holes are most commonly a round opening although now a days they come in all shapes and sizes and can even be position any where on the body.  Some acoustic guitars have multiple sound holes.
• Bridge–  The bridge is located on the body close to the sound hole.  It is where the strings are attached on the body and it also serves the purpose of transferring the sound or vibration of the strings to the soundboard for amplification.  

Neck–  The neck is where you put your fingers in order to play melodies and chords.  Different notes are produce by pressing the strings down into the fret wires at different points along its length.

• Fret(s)–  Frets are the thin metal bars place along the neck in decreasing intervals. They serve as markers for where all the notes occur on the guitar.  Notice how the distance between them get smaller as you move towards the body.  The notes get higher in pitch as you move towards the body and lower as you move away from it.
• Fretboard–  The fretboard is the name we use for the front plane of the neck where all the frets are.
• Nut–   The is one of the fulcrum points where the strings rest.  The other is the bridge.  It is usually made of bone or hard plastic.

Strings–  The strings are the long metal or nylon wires of increasing thicknesses that run along the guitar from top to bottom.  They are where sound is first produced and then amplified by the body of the guitar.  The strings are pressed into the neck at different points along their length in order to create different notes.  Guitars most commonly have 6 strings although there are also 12 and 7 string guitars as well.

Head–  The head, or sometimes called the head stock, is one of the ends where the strings are tied; the bridge being the other.  It is always angled back away from the neck so that the when the strings are tightened they will stay seated down firmly into the nut.

• Tuning pegs–  Located on the head of the guitar, the tuning pegs are used to tune the strings to their proper pitch.  They consist of a metal tower with a hole in it for tying the string and a peg attached to a gear for raising or lowering the pitch.

Next Lesson: How to hold a guitar the right way 

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 jeff lauffer