Last Updated on October 2, 2022 by Guitarist Authority
Guitars come in an array of styles, shapes, and colors. However, despite this amazing variety, all guitars share a common basic build. You may think to yourself that a guitar has three parts: a body, a neck, and strings, right?
Well, yes, that’s true in the most basic sense. But each of those components is made up of a number of parts that all come together to create what we know as a guitar. What are the parts of a guitar, and what are their functions? We include ‘parts of a guitar’ diagrams for both electric and acoustic guitars. This information will surely come in handy for you on your journey to rock stardom!
Guitar Body
The body of the guitar is the largest area of the instrument and is where the guitar captures and projects the sound. The parts of a guitar body include the following:
Guitar Top
Sometimes known as the soundboard, the guitar top is the front-facing side of the guitar. It is where the strings are struck, and it holds most of the sound-making components of the guitar. Guitar tops can be flat or what is known as an arch-top.
Sound Hole
All acoustic and most non-solid-body electric guitars have sound holes. For acoustics, the most common type is a round hole near the center but slightly toward the neck of the guitar. Arch-top acoustics and semi-hollow and hollow-body electric guitars often have f-hole sound holes that are on either side of the guitar top.
The decorative area around the sound hole is known as the Rosette.
Pickguard
A pickguard, also known as a scratchplate, is a piece of plastic or resin that helps prevent scratch marks on the guitar top. Not all guitars have pickguards.
Pickups
Found on all electric guitars as well as on some acoustics. Pickups are magnets that pick up the vibrations of the strings and send them to an amplifier to produce sound. On acoustic guitars, some pickups will grab sound from the body’s chamber as well.
Volume and Tone Controls
All guitars with pickups will have some form of these controls. They include volume and tone potentiometers, or “pots.” If the guitar has multiple pickups, then the guitar will usually have a pickup selector switch as well.
Bridge
The bridge anchors the strings to the guitar and raises them above the body so that they can ring out. The bridge consists of the bridge piece, the string anchor, and the string saddle. Some bridges are attached to the body while others are floating. Floating bridges use a tailpiece to anchor the strings.
Sides
The sides are sometimes referred to as the ribs and are the pieces between the top, or front, and the back of the guitar.
Back
This is the piece of the body that faces the player. For acoustic guitars, it is also where the bracing can be found.
Binding
The binding is a strip of material that joins the parts of a guitar’s body together. It can be made of wood, plastic, nitro-cellulose, or other materials. Binding can be ornamental or can blend in with the rest of the body.
Some guitar necks also use binding between the neck back and fretboard or on the edges of the headstock.
Bracings
Acoustic guitars have bracings inside the body of the guitar. Bracing is a series of wood pieces that reinforce the body and help shape the sound of the guitar. Common bracing styles include ladder bracing and cross bracing.
Strap Pegs
Strap pegs are where you attach your strap to your guitar. The rear peg is on the rear end of the guitar body’s side. The other peg is usually on the front of the upper side of the body, although sometimes it can be found on the heel of the neck.
Guitar Neck
While the guitar body is the main piece of the guitar, the neck is the other major piece. It’s where a player changes notes and creates chords. What we call the neck is actually made of many different parts, all working together to complete the guitar. The parts of a guitar that make up the neck are:
Backside
This is the largest single piece of the neck. It is usually made of hardwood, like Maple or Mahogany, but can also be made of other materials like graphite or metal. It is usually c-shaped, and it is what you grip with your hand.
Some guitar neck backs include a heel that connects the neck to the body of the guitar. Other guitars use a bolt-on system, and still, others have a neck-thru-body style of build, where the neck and the body are made from the same piece of wood.
A guitar neck heel is more common on acoustic guitars, while a bolt-on or neck-thru-body style is more common for electric guitars.
Truss Rod
A truss rod is a threaded metal rod that sits in a channel of the guitar neck and below the fretboard. It helps keep the neck straight and keeps it from bowing too much.
The truss rod runs the length of the neck and can be adjusted to alleviate or increase tension. This ensures that all the notes are in tune and that the strings don’t sit on the frets, causing a buzz.
Fretboard/Fingerboard
The guitar’s fretboard is where you form notes and chords with the strings. Although some fretboards are made of synthetic material, the vast majority are made with hardwoods, mostly Maple or Rosewood varieties.
The fretboard is a major component of the guitar’s tone, feel, and playability.
Frets
Frets are the metal rails on the fretboard of the guitar neck. The frets are what delineate the notes that the guitarist plays. Frets come in a number of sizes and will have a different feel for the player and different interactions with the strings.
Some bass guitars are fretless basses, meaning that the fretboard is smooth with no frets. These are commonly seen in jazz music, although players in other genres use them as well. Fretless guitars are also made, although they are extremely uncommon.
Position Markers
Most fretboards will have inlays that help a guitarist know where they are on the neck. Inlays can be made from a variety of materials and in a variety of shapes. The most common shape for a position marker is a dot or a rectangle.
Nut
The nut is the guitar neck’s counterpart to the bridge saddle. It supports the strings above the fretboard and also sets the spacing of the strings along with the saddle. The nut can be made from many types of material, including plastic, bone, resin, or metal.
The type of nut you have on your guitar will have an effect on how the string sounds and plays.
Headstock
The headstock is at the top of the neck and is where the strings are attached on the other side of the guitar from the saddle. The headstock houses the tuning pegs and is usually where the guitar maker will put their logo.
Headstocks can be any number of shapes and sizes. They can be very plain or incredibly ornate and tend to be some of the more interesting parts of a guitar visually. The parts of a guitar that make up the headstock, include:
Tuning Pegs
Also known as machine heads, tuning keys, or tuners. The tuning pegs hold the ends of the strings and allow the guitar player to increase or decrease tension on the strings to tune them to the right note.
Check out our guide on How to Tune a Guitar for more info.
String Post / Capstan
The post is what the string is wound on. They are connected to the machine head.
Guitar Strings
Guitar strings are what you pick, pluck or strum to create sound through vibrations. Guitar strings come in different varieties made with different materials. Electric guitar strings are made of different kinds of metal and are made by winding thin wire around a thicker core wire. They can be either round-wound or flat-wound, and each produces a different sound.
While standard acoustic guitar strings are also made of metal, classical guitar strings are made of nylon or other synthetic material.
Check out our beginners guide on How to String a Guitar for step by step instructions and tips that will help you swap your strings like a pro.
How Guitars Are Made
Now that you’re familiar with all the different parts of a guitar. We figured it’d be relevant and informational to share videos on how both acoustic and electric guitars are made.
How Acoustic Guitars Are Made
How Electric Guitars Are Made
Final Thought
If you put all these pieces together, you have a fully functioning guitar. The variations, designs, colors, woods, electronics, etc… are endless. There are custom guitars or you can build your own. You can repaint them and swap parts to make them your own unique one-of-a-kind guitar.
Guitars are fantastic instruments and pieces of art. I hope you have enjoyed this article and have learned a bit about the parts of a guitar. Enjoy being a guitarist and thank you for reading.
