Guitar Parts

The Parts of a Modern Day Guitar

The modern day guitar is a relatively complicated instrument with a number of parts including the headstock, nut, fretboard, frets, and neck joint. Its headstock is the piece at the very top of the guitar that is fitted with the tuning devices. The nut is a strip of material of medium hardness that is grooved to hold the strings in place. This material can consist of ivory, bone, plastic, brass or graphite. The hardness of the material will affect the sound of the guitar with harder materials producing more treble. A guitar's fretboard exists along its neck. Commonly made of rosewood, ebony, or maple, the fretboard consists of a series of metal strips, usually nickel alloy, that are known as frets. Pressing the strings against the fretboard effectively shortens the length of the string resulting in a change in the sound. The neck joint is the location where the neck is attached to the body. This attachment can be made through either bolting or gluing. Most acoustic guitars feature a glued neck while electric guitars are commonly made by bolting or gluing. Still other high-price models feature a monolithic construction where the neck and body are one solid piece.