Parts of the Guitar

Parts of a Guitar Part 1 Video Transcription

Hey, what's going on? On today's episode, we're talking about the parts of the guitar and everything that you need to know when you're just getting started. All right. So, a bit of housekeeping. I just got done editing and I realized that I went on and on with a bunch of my different guitars. And it was just too long. 

So, I'm splitting it. I'm splitting the guitar parts video into two sections. So, this will be the first one. And I just wanted to call a couple of things out. As I have been telling you, and as Chris has been telling you, just try some new things, see what happens. That's part of practicing. 

That's what I did when I first shot this video. It was my first attempt at using two different cameras, so I'm not looking at the camera a lot of the times. So, I'm calling that out, putting myself out there. I know it was wrong. I'm practicing just like we all should. And besides, this is a guitar channel, so you'll be looking at guitars, not me anyway so... 

Secondly, go into the description, all of the chapters for all the different parts of the various electric guitars in Part 1. And then in Part 2, same thing for the acoustics and the other electric guitars featured in that one. 

All of the chapters will be quick links there. If you need, going to put links to other really great gear channels or at least the channels that I feel do a really good job of explaining the nitty-gritty of this lovely instrument. So, please, go check those out and, you know, jump around for whatever you need and hope you like it. 

Bolt-On Neck Construction, Truss Rod Access, the Nut, and Parts of the Headstock

All right. So, what's going on? Today's video is part of the "Before You Play" playlist that we've got. This is just a basic overview of what you need to know about the parts of the guitar. So, as you go, you know, through the internet and watch the different videos, read the different articles, you know what they're referencing when they talk about an instrument. 

So, I have here, actually, my wife's first guitar. It is a rather heavy Peavey Predator. Came with a startup pack, I think. It is a bolt-on guitar, which you can see with this plate. That means the neck comes here and then it's screwed onto the actual body. 

It has the truss rod here, which is a fairly unique positioning. You often see this on the Ernie Ball Music Man guitars. Normally, if you doing a Fender or a Gibson, you'll see there'll be a hole and a plate cover right here that you'll have to get to. 

So, what is the truss rod? The truss rod is a metal bar that goes through the neck underneath the fretboard and that stabilizes the wood so that the neck doesn't just crank on either side with the various humidity and temperature changes that your rooms, your house will go through. 

The truss rod keeps the neck straight so everything is playable so that you can, you know, enjoy playing, right, because when it's really difficult to play just, you know, it's hard enough when you're just learning out. So, the rest of it, we're, kind of got pretty quick into the various parts of the guitar sort of the niche things. 

So, we'll start here. You can see we have this whole thing as the headstock. On most guitars, you know, you'll see the three on either side. There are some that have, you know, all six on the underside of the guitar, and then others that have the six on, you know, this one side. 

So, an example, I'll show a different guitar. The Ernie Ball Music Man guitars have most of them on the top, and then two or three on the bottom depending on if you have a six or a seven-string guitar. So, this is the headstock. These are the tuning machines, tuning pegs or tuners depending on how people like to talk about them. 

There's locking and non-locking. And what that means is in a traditional tuner, you would put the string through, wind it around, and then the wind would lock everything in place, right? So, the string tension would stay in one spot. For locking tuners, you have, the string goes in, and then there's actually a mechanical clamp that goes through with the… There'll be special heads on the back of the guitar head where you can crank them down. 

So, moving on, this right here is the nut. And this just lines up the strings so that the bridge and the nut keep the strings in line with the tuners here. So, one of the cool things that you can try, especially, you know, if you look at a guitarist like John 5 or some of the country guys. 

If you want to mimic a pedal steel-type sound, you can bend behind the nut, and that will bend the whole string. The intro to Black Sabbath "Iron Man" is a perfect example of bending that low E string to get that mow kind of sound. Right? So, a cool thing to pay attention there.

The Fretboard: Strings, Frets, and Inlays

Obviously, you have the strings. Everybody is familiar with that. Then you have the frets here. You have the inlays, which just demarcate different frets. And come in here and you see this is just sort of a basic one, start at the headstock. 

Some guitars will have inlays on Fret 1. All of them will have it at 3, 5, 7, 9, and then jump up to 12, and then that pattern repeats to the end of the fretboard. 

So, most guitars will have 22 frets, some have 21, depending on the builder. Personally, I like a longer fingerboard so that you can get 24 frets and get that full octave there. Totally depends on what style you're going to play. 

I would say most players don't really ever get way up here, but I like having the option. So, something to keep in mind especially as you learn more about the way you like to play and the things that you like to play, the different styles. That's something to keep in mind, right? Do you need access to the really high ones? 

Fender-Style Guitars, Double versus Single Cut-away Body Styles, Single-Coil versus Humbucker Pickups, and Guitar Control Knobs and Switches

So, on Fender-style guitars, this is a Strat-style body. So, based on a Fender Strat, you can see because it has the horn up top, the horn on the bottom. You have a double cutaway. That's what this is, the cutaways. So, a Les Paul is a single-cutaway body style where it comes and meets the neck. 

You have the single-coil pickups here. And here in the middle, you'll see these in a lot of the Fender Strat style. The single coils have a much punchier high end. They tend to be thinner sounding. 

So, if you're into modern metal sounds, you're going to want more of the double humbucker style. But if you like a really clean tone, if you like that really sort of punchy, you know, blues or funk players, almost all that's Strat. 

If you think about Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy, late Eric Clapton, early John Mayer, all those are Strat sounds. So, that thicker more mid-rangy tone it comes out of the double humbucker. 

And here you can see with the humbucker on the bridge position that's going to be much more of a chunky rhythm sound. So with the different pickups, you're going to want more of a rhythm tone on the bridge. More of that lead tone up top depends, again, totally depends on how you play, I'm only talking generalities. 

Totally depends on the sound that you want to get. So, another thing that you'll see with a lot of Strat styles is this switch here. This is the pickup selector. So, this will… You can see this is a five-way, so one, two, three, four, five. And that'll be different combinations of the pickups. 

So, all the way back is the bridge here, all the way forward is the neck, you know, obviously, middle, and then some combination of the two in between. So, then you have the volume, self-explanatory, knob. The tone knob is largely an EQ-style thing. 

Rolls off the highs or the high frequencies so you can sculpt the tone a little bit. Different players use these things differently, right? If you have the different pickups on not only just different selector settings, but then if you roll off the volume, it'll change the character of the pickups and the output of the guitar. 

So, another thing, the big pearlescent thing here is a pickguard. What that does is just prevent you from scratching the guitar when you're playing with your pick. Lot of the guitars that I prefer to play don't have them. Largely it’s aesthetic. 

Some people really like it. Other people don't. Totally up to you what you like, the players that you like. On the bottom here, this is the input jack. Self-explaining put the cable in there and sound comes out of it, goes to the amp.

Bridges: Tremelo Bridge Systems versus Fixed Bridges

Here you have the bridge. Now, this is a Tremolo type. However, my wife lost her Trem a long time ago. So, I will grab a different guitar here and cut to that so that you can see a different style of that. Now, fixed bridge guitars won't have the Trem. 

Les Pauls are fixed bridge. So, there won't be any movement, won't be any sound changing. So, what the Tremolo bar does, or the whammy bar, depending on what you prefer to say, is it messes with the string tension. So, a really tight string will have that punchy sound you spent all that time tuning up the guitar. 

And then if you press down on the whammy, you'll get that lower sound because it will detune the strings to be flappier and loosen the string tension. So, definitely, something to play with in terms of rhythm sounds or lead tones especially. A lot of different guys use the wham bar, the whammy bar, to different effects largely seen with a lot of the shred guys just because it gives you another texture, another tambour on your playing. 

So, something to mess around with, play with definitely gives you a different flavor, but by no means a necessary feature on the guitar. Now, for guitars that do have the whammy bar, you'll see you have this backplate here. This has a bunch of springs in the back that keep the bridge in place. 

So, a lot of the Tremolo bridges will be what's called floating. That means there's very little contact with the body. It just kind of floats above it. There's a cavity into the guitar where the bridge goes, and then it's doing this, not touching the sides of the guitar. 

And all that's made possible by a bunch of springs in the guitar body. So, I think that's it for this guitar.

Differences in 6-string and 7-string Guitars, Tension Springs for Tremelo Bridge Systems, Locking Tuners, and Fretboard Radius

Okay. So, switching guitars here. This is my Ernie Ball Music Man Sterling by Ernie Ball JP70. You can see you've got the truss rod in the neck position there. You've got the double humbuckers here for more of a meaty tone. The difference between six strings and seven strings, you just have this extra low string tuned to a B. 

So, low to high it's B, E, A, D, G, B, E. So, just an extra step down here. One thing to point out that my wife's guitar did not have, for whatever reason, was the strap hooks here. So, this is just a standard run-of-the-mill strap hook that you would put a strap on. So, if you get a locking one, those will drill into the body and keep the strap in place so that you don't have to worry about your guitar falling during the middle of a gig and potentially ruining your guitar again. 

So, also here you can see you got the wham, the whammy bar. A significant cutout here for your arm. This guitar is so comfortable because of this cutaway. But you can see… Also, let me see if I can line this up. So, you got the wham here. And if I press down, see how that lifts up, you can hear that go down in tone. 

So, that's what that does, and then the tension of the strings and the springs in the back here you can see it got another plate there. Pull it back into tune. 

All right. So, I've removed this backplate here. You can see you've got the springs attached to this plate, which is screwed into the body. So, I won't... Get that nice and close. And then what happens is as you press down, can see how the strings start moving, pull away, and then ultimately return the bridge back to where it was. 

So, it's nice and floaty. You can see here that you have the locking tuners in here. They have that little extra piece right here. And what you do is you take it, clamp that down, and then it will lock the strings in place so that you don't have to have all the extra winds on the guitar like you would a traditional Les Paul or a Strat-style body. 

So, this too is bolt-on. Okay. So, one of the final things to talk about here is the fretboard radius. Now, this, I'm not going to do a really scientifically good explanation of it, but the idea here is if you look at this guitar, it has a very thin neck profile. 

It has a very thin neck profile. And what that does, is it allows you to play more quickly. If you don't have overly large hands, this gives a really nice profile. So, the higher the number on the radius, so, if you see something that says 15 inches, 16 inches, 17 inches, that's going to be a really flat neck. 

And that will appeal to certain styles of players. If you want to go really, really fast modern metal kind of stuff, a thin fretboard radius is definitely what you want to be looking at, especially if you're going to go into the larger, you know, eight-string range, you're going to want that flat neck because you just have so much more guitar to cover. 

That's about it. Yeah. So, the old-school Fenders like old Tele styles have essentially baseball bats for necks. They're just so much thicker. And you know what? 

A lot of people dig that. It's whatever feels good for you. I had one student when I was teaching private lessons in a guitar shop that, God, he must have been like six-five, and he was only in eighth grade and just monstrous hands. 

So, he ended up having a guitar similar to the Peavey one that I showed, and it was just too small for him because his hands were so huge. So, I recommended that his mom, if he stuck with it, that looking for a different guitar that had a thicker neck would be really good for him because squeezing his hands together so much made it difficult for him, whereas if it was a fatter neck it would be easier to truly hold on to it and just have a better feel for the kid. 

Could have gone on bass too. Bass would have been a good choice now that I think about it. Okay. So, that was Part 1 of the "Before You Play" parts of the guitar. Be sure to check out Part 2. 

Parts of the Guitar Part 2 Video Transcription

I also wanted to just call out a couple of things, editorial things. So, in the acoustic section, I failed to mention that in acoustics that have the electronics in them, you'll see the top of the body. 

I have an EQ volume, you know, all the stuff. Typically, for acoustic electrics like that, there will be a compartment for a nine-volt battery. So, that will either be as, like, one unit, you know, built into the guitar or it'll be, you know, somewhere else on either the side or the back of the body for those electronics to actually work. 

So, I just wanted to call that out because I failed to mention that while I was filming the original video. Also, I need to correct myself. I mentioned, at the beginning of this video, the fanned frets that some guitars have, where instead of being, you know, straight up and down, they are, you know, sort of like this. And the thing that I said is that it would be like, you know, this diagonal up top as well as at the back. And that's false. Typically, it will be longer up here for the top strings, and then longer down here for the top strings, but a shorter scaling. 

So, you can see it's like this, usually for fanned frets, so that there's a longer scaling for the top strings, the lower strings, than the high ones. So, again, this is just part of the intonation. You know, calling out my own mistakes. So, yeah. Anyway. 

All that being said, you know, go to links to other great gear channels are in the description below, you know, that if you need extra help, they do a great job of explaining the instrument or the pedals and all the other, you know, amps or whatever that we will end up using. Also, created chapters for all the different parts of the guitars that are discussed in this part two. 

So, you know, if there's something specific that you would like to see, by all means, go look at that. So, without further ado, here's part two of Parts of the Guitar.

Scale Length of the Fretboard

The other thing to talk about is the scale length. What that means is from here to the top of the fretboard, what is that measurement? So, I prefer 25.5-inch neck, those are longer, on 7 strings or 8 strings or baritone guitars. You can see even longer, 27 inches, 28 even on some. 

Les Pauls, Gibsons, Paul Reed Smiths are smaller, either 24.5 inches in scale length or 24.75 inches. So, what that means is if you're going to be doing a lot of the down tuning or, yeah, a lot of the down-tuned lower sounds, if you have a shorter scale length guitar, they won't be able to handle those down-tuned, the massively down-tuned sounds very well because the strings will be too floppy. 

If you have a longer scale length, you'll be able to maintain that string tension that will make the guitar a lot better to play, a lot easier to play. So, that's something to keep in mind. And it also, because of physics and math that I don't know how to calculate, but I know exists, the scale length will impact the spacing of the frets because of the intonation. 

That is a whole rabbit hole you can go into. And you can now find guitars that have basically squiggly lines for frets. And the claim is that they're more in-tuned in each individual position on the guitar than just the standard frets. 

So, another thing you might see is a fanned fret guitar and what that means, that is attempting better intonation with these extended ranges. One of the things that that does as well is you can have two scale lengths simultaneously. So, the lower strings that we'll be doing a lot more of that punchy, maybe down-tune, maybe not, can have a longer scale length than the top strings. 

And why is that? Well, instead of having the frets, you know, like this, straight up and down, they end up being… No, other way. They end up being like this. So, you can see how back here, you would have a little bit more on the fretboard and a little less up top and then same, it would push out the bottom part of the fretboard and then the top of it would be, you know, back here or whatever that ratio ends up being. 

So, that fanned fret piece is, again, part of an intonation, part of a feel thing. If that feels good to you, by all means use it. If it feels weird and doesn't inspire you, then there are plenty of other guitars, right? Just find what works for you, find what you like, and go from there. 

Headstock Design Types

This is an example of the inline style headstock. You can see all of them are up top. For the reversed headstock, all of these would be down here. And like the whole design would be basically flipped. 

So, now, this guitar has the truss rod access at the top, unlike the last two that I showed as well. So, when you're changing strings or if you need to gain access to this, you have to move the strings aside, take this plate off, then you get access to the truss rod in order to move it. 

Guitar Controls: Coil-Split Switches and 3-Way Toggle Switch Pickup Selectors

So, this guitar also has…this is a Floyd Rose bridge. You can see it has this whole cavity cut out, that's because all these extra pieces here need that extra space. 

It has the same kind of back where you have the springs in the cavity here, but then it has this extra piece which you'll see. This is for a nine-volt battery. And you'll find this on guitars with active pickups or guitars with built-in preamps into them. So, here, you can see this. 

So, here, you can see this guitar volume knob is a push/pull. So, like this, when it's up, the pickups are passive. When I want a boost, I can put this down and I've increased the output of the guitar quite significantly. So, more into that active pickup territory, which can be nice. 

It can lend itself to a little bit of compression. I use it essentially as a built-in boost. So, if I'm going to take a solo and I need to rise above the rest of the band, kick that on, and now you just have that little bit extra to solo with. So, these Floyd Roses are notorious for changing strings. 

They make it a lot harder than other bridge types, but you cannot do wham stuff, a certain style of wham bar work without the Floyd. So, one of the things that this bridge has that the other bridges didn't are these micro-tuners and that's to help adjust the string after you've locked it down with the locking tuners, just for a little bit of extra adjustment. 

Or if you have a locking nut, which I don't have any guitars with a locking nut, but you'll see ones that have. Well, it's just, you know, big metal pieces that come across and they clamp the strings down, you know, right here so that whatever you tune them to, the string doesn't move. 

One of the problems with that, though, is that you lose any ability to play anything here. This guitar also is different, because it has a neck-through design construction. And what that means is instead of coming here and having that bolt, the neck all the way down the body is one piece. 

So, you can see the top has been covered, but this back part here, you can see where the two pieces of wood have come together around the neck and, yeah, that's how it's held together and constructed. So, that can have an effect on tone. I mention it because, depending on where your journey leads you into the guitar space online, you might be, you know, berated with opinions on, you know, whether or not a neck-through was heavier or the bolt-on is heavier because you have more ability for things to rattle together and bounce the sound waves around. 

Ultimately, I don't care about those arguments. It's whatever you like. Each guitar will have its own characteristics, its own personality. By all means, go down the gear rabbit hole. It's a fun place. And the guitar community can be a really awesome place to hang out. There are also a lot of people with a lot of opinions. But that's like with anything, where people care very deeply about what it is they're talking about. So, just something to be aware of, something to know about. And yeah, I'll move on to the next thing.

So, this guitar, also, like the Petrucci one that I was showing, is a three-way selector rather than the five-way. What that means is it is either fully the bridge, fully the neck, or one of the pieces from each. And those are the positions there. The other thing that I have right here are individual coil splits. So, what that means is if I turn these on here, now, these are no longer humbuckers. 

They will play and sound like a strap. I can do only one of them and then I can get kind of that hot telly sound where you have the single coil on the front with a humbucker in the back, also sort of a hot-rodded Strat sound out of that. These have, you know, two different tone knobs, two different volumes for each pickup. 

It's just the way that we did it when my dad and I built this guitar. So, that was the experiment piece. We're just getting used to doing it. So, I'm realizing I have to clean this guitar. All right. 

Parts of the Acoustic Guitar: Sound Holes, Rosettes, Acoustic Bridges, Binding, and Acoustic Electronics

Let's talk acoustics. All right. Acoustics. So, the same kind of thing. We've got headstock tuners. They are not locking. A little clip-on tuner here. Parts to call out. This little design spot around… Well, okay. So, this middle piece, the soundhole, very obvious thing. You can see this has a little Picard as a design element here but also helps with, you know, fast strumming. 

The design little inlays around the soundhole called a rosette. You can see the bridge on these are glued down into the body and you have the pegs that hold the string in place. So, that's largely the difference there. Shorter scale length. 

You can see this as a single-cutaway version. On this particular guitar, it's now Grez, you have the electronics built into it. Up here. So, you have a little bit of EQ. You have some…you have a phase switch. You've got some volume. 

They got a mid-frequency thing on there, which is cool. There's a built-in tuner. Some notch, some phase, some level. You can adjust the amount of pickup that's coming out. So, it's been a while since I've looked at that. 

So, it's good because it'll control the sound. This guitar, and you'll see this on acoustics, not only is this the strap hook, but it's also the output. So, plug your guitar or hang your strap there. Plug your cable in and it's all one piece so that it's not distracted. 

And a lot of acoustics, you'll see the strap hook here. And some old guitars, vintage ones won't have this top button, but the strap will tie… They'll tie it on the headstock. 

They'll tie it on the headstock here. You'll see a little piece of the leather, whatever holding it. Again, some nice-to-know pieces. You can see here, this white material around the edges, that's binding. You'll find that a lot on acoustics but then also on certain electrics. I'm looking at my Les Paul has it, my Ibanez eight-string has it. And the other ones don't. 

Anyway, things to recall out there. Everything else, you know, same stuff. This doesn't really have any inlays except for at the 12th fret. Personally, I like that design, but when you're teaching lessons, it doesn't really help. But on stage, this thing is awesome. Later on, we can talk about tonewoods. 

I mean, that's a whole episode in itself. All right. So, yeah. At this point, we're going to call it good. Thank you for watching. All the different housekeeping stuff. If you're on YouTube, click the thumbs up button. 

Comment, subscribe. If you want me to cover any particular topics or you want Chris to cover a particular topic, any questions you might have on different parts of the guitar or any lesson ideas, things that you would just like to hear a discussion on, by all means, let us know, drop a comment. Yeah. 

Like, comment, subscribe, share, all that. It really helps us out. And stay tuned for the next one and we'll see you down the road. Thanks.