The anatomy of an electric Guitar
The first of many things I wish I had time in one article to disprove is the whole notion that the shape of the guitar (acoustic or electric) has an effect on the overall sound.
While yes building an acoustic guitar from varied materials can some-what change the sound the shape of the guitar is more of a decision based on ergonomics rather than musical sound.
On every guitar the sound comes from the string so even an electric guitar can be played acoustically (good luck playing that way for a large audience though) and it will still make noise.
The purpose of the pickups is to amplify said sound via magnets and what is essentially a highly specialized microphone.
The next part of the electric guitar is the Fret Board upon which the strings sit. The metal slats forming a box pattern with the strings are the frets and you play nots by holding the strings tight onto the frets.
At the very top of the fret board is the nut which straightens out the strings and increases the difficulty of tuning.
On top of that is the headstock which houses the tuning keys which are used to tune the strings. These can often be the most important part of the guitar as poorly manufactured parts can lead to the guitar slipping out of tune quickly. Any guitar left alone long enough will lose its tuning but its nice to not have that happen overnight.
Put the fretboard and Headstock into one peace and you have the neck of the guitar. Arguably the most important part of any guitar and also the one part that if you change it in shape or length you will most certainly change the sound of the guitar.
The last and final part that every guitar has is the bridge which is simply the bottom nut.
The next part is a personal favorite and has had my attention for a long time since its the closest you can get to scratching a record with the guitar.
When I first learned about it my friends called it the wammy bar but for all of you “get off my lawn you rotten kid” types its called the tremolo arm.
Specifically designed to use the bridge as a method of distortion by tightening and slacking the strings. The tremolo arm is used to make a vibrato sound (keying its other name the Vibrato arm), it was actually patented guitar part by fender for quite some time.
I would go over pedals or stomp boxes as some may call them but that is for another time.
/me hopes you found this interesting.
While yes building an acoustic guitar from varied materials can some-what change the sound the shape of the guitar is more of a decision based on ergonomics rather than musical sound.
The purpose of the pickups is to amplify said sound via magnets and what is essentially a highly specialized microphone.
The next part of the electric guitar is the Fret Board upon which the strings sit. The metal slats forming a box pattern with the strings are the frets and you play nots by holding the strings tight onto the frets.
At the very top of the fret board is the nut which straightens out the strings and increases the difficulty of tuning.
On top of that is the headstock which houses the tuning keys which are used to tune the strings. These can often be the most important part of the guitar as poorly manufactured parts can lead to the guitar slipping out of tune quickly. Any guitar left alone long enough will lose its tuning but its nice to not have that happen overnight.
The last and final part that every guitar has is the bridge which is simply the bottom nut.
The next part is a personal favorite and has had my attention for a long time since its the closest you can get to scratching a record with the guitar.
When I first learned about it my friends called it the wammy bar but for all of you “get off my lawn you rotten kid” types its called the tremolo arm.
Specifically designed to use the bridge as a method of distortion by tightening and slacking the strings. The tremolo arm is used to make a vibrato sound (keying its other name the Vibrato arm), it was actually patented guitar part by fender for quite some time.
I would go over pedals or stomp boxes as some may call them but that is for another time.
/me hopes you found this interesting.
0 Comments