The Electric Guitar

Parts & Functions

This handout shows the parts if the electric guitar and the functions of them.

Diagram of the electric guitar

It is essential that you have a good understanding of the guitar itself so that you can gain a
comprehensive knowledge base to build your playing ability from.

Did you know: There are two different types of bridge & headstock on an electric guitar.

Us the image below to reference the different sections on the next page.

Page | 1
Parts explained
1. BODY – The body of the guitar is the solid section at the base of the guitar itself, this is
traditionally made out of a solid wood with sections carved out to fit in the electrics,
pickups, bridge, pickup selector, volume and tone controls and the jack output. The
neck of the guitar & the scratch plate is also attached to the body.

2. NECK – The neck of the electric guitar is where you will do most of your playing. Made
again from a solid wood, the neck is where the fingerboard is positioned. As you press
your fingers down on the strings to the frets (Indicated by the solid metal bars) this
changes the pitch of the sound that is created from striking the string.

3. HEADSTOCK – The headstock is the wooden section at the head of the guitar that
houses the machine heads, string trees and the truss rod.

4. MACHINE HEADS – There are two variations on the types of setup of the machine
heads and head stock as per below. Both do the same thing. When you are installing
your guitar strings, they are wrapped around the top of the machine heads so that when
you tighten them, the tension on the strings is increased. This has the same effect in
reverse and it’s what you will use when you tune up your guitar.

The headstock on the left shows the in-line style of the machine heads and the one on
the right has 3 per side of the headstock. Both give the same result and is more of a
preference that tends to be made from the type of electric guitar and brand that you
buy. Your tutor will show you how to install the guitar strings on both types.

Page | 2
5. TRUSS ROD – The truss rod is component of the guitar that stabilizes the lengthwise
forward curvature (also called relief), of the neck. Usually it is a steel bar or rod that runs
inside the neck, beneath the fingerboard. Some are non-adjustable, but most modern
truss rods have a nut at one or both ends that adjusts its tension. Shown below as the
black bar running through the middle of the neck.

6. TOP NUT – A small, unassuming piece of material sitting at the head of a guitar
headstock and the top of the fretboard, the nut is critical to getting the best
performance out of your instrument. With grooves that guide the strings from the
tuning keys down the neck, the nut forms one of two anchor points making up the
length of string that vibrates and creates sound. The second anchor point is the bridge
saddles.

7. FRETS - A fret is a raised element on the neck. Frets usually extend across the full width
of the neck. They are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard. Frets divide the neck
into fixed segments at intervals related to a musical framework. On the guitar, each fret
represents one semitone in the standard western system, in which one octave is divided
into twelve semitones.

8. DOT INLAYS – The dots on the fretboard indicate the number of the fret at certain
intervals to help guide you when playing. Its worth noting that the dots also appear on
the side of the fretboard so that if you looked directly down whilst holding the guitar,
you would also see them.

9. PICKUPS - A pickup is a transducer that captures or senses mechanical vibrations and

converts these to an electrical signal that is amplified using an instrument amplifier to
produce musical sounds through a loudspeaker in a speaker enclosure. The signal from
a pickup can also be recorded directly. There are a number of different types of pickups
but one of the most common is the open coil that you can see in the electric guitar
diagram on the first page.

Page | 3
10. PICKUP SELECTOR - The pickup selector switch is connected to the guitar pickups and
gives the guitar player the ability to choose various combinations of pickups at any
given time. Each combination of pickups produces a different tone that the guitarist
may want to use for the song they are playing.

11. VOLUME & TONE KNOBS – The volume knob on the guitar controls the gain that is
being outputted from the pickups to the amplifier from your guitar. You can have
multiple volume controls that can control the volume for each of the pickups on your
guitar but not all guitars have this function.

The tone knobs work in a similar way, but they control the amount of equalizer and its
frequency that is being outputted to the amplifier from your pickups. This is one of the
many ways to alter your guitar sound/style.

12. SCRATCH PLATE – A pickguard (also known as scratch plate) is a piece of plastic or
other (often laminated) material that is placed on the body of a guitar. The main
purpose of the pickguard is to protect the guitar's finish from being scratched by the
guitar pick.

As well as serving a practical purpose, the pickguard may also be used for decoration
and is often made in a contrasting color to that of the guitar body (popular variants are
white pickguards on darker guitars and black pickguards on lighter guitars). As well as
plastic, other pickguard materials can include acrylic glass, glass, plywood, fabrics, metal,
and mother-of-pearl/pearloid varieties. Expensive guitars may have luxury pickguards
made from exotic woods,[1] furs, skins, gems, precious metals, Mother of Pearl and
abalone pearl.

The pickguard is a common site for an autograph since the signed pickguard can easily
be detached and moved to another guitar or sold separately as a piece of memorabilia.

13. THE BRIDGE – The bridge supports the strings and holds them over the body of the
instrument under tension.

Bridges for electric guitars can be divided into two main groups, "vibrato" and "non-
vibrato" (also called "hard-tail"). Vibrato bridges have an arm or lever (called the vibrato
arm, tremolo arm, or "whammy bar") that extends from below the string anchoring
point. It acts as a lever that the player can push or pull to change the strings tension
and, as a result, "bend" the pitch down or up. This means that this type of bridge
produces vibrato (a pitch change) rather than actual tremolo, but the term "tremolo" is
deeply entrenched in popular usage via some manufacturers (starting with Fender
Stratocaster in 1954[2]) naming their vibrato systems as "tremolo".

Page | 4
 Non-vibrato bridges supply an anchoring point for the strings but provide no active
control over string tension or pitch. That is, there is no "whammy bar" or lever. A small
group of vibrato bridges have an extended tail (also called "longtail"). These guitars
have more reverb and sustain in their sound, because of the string resonance behind
the bridge. The Fender Jaguar is an example of such a guitar.

All bridges have advantages, and disadvantages, depending on the playing style, but, in
general, a non-vibrato bridge is thought to provide better tuning stability and a solid
contact between the guitar body and the strings. A whammy bar bridge is important in
some heavy metal music styles, such as shred guitar.

On the left is an example of the fixed or (Tun o Matic) bridge and on the right is a
typical example of a vibrato bridge with a fixed whammy bar.

14. JACK OUTPUT – The output jack allows us to connect the signal from the guitar to an
amplifier. This is standard for amps and effects pedals too.

Page | 5