Friday, January 2, 2009

Get Acquainted With Guitar Parts

Before we go further on learn guitar easy, let’s apply some of what we learned and get acquainted with this magnificent instrument; know its parts:

1. Head - contains the tuning pegs.
Found at the edge of the guitar’s neck. It is tailored with the instrument’s head for adjusting the pitch.

2. Tuners.
The tuners keep the strings of the guitar stretched beginning at the base down to the knobs. Tuners likewise allow the guitar player to alter or modify the pitch either flat or sharp, depending on the player’s choice of music.

3. Nut.
This is a tiny strip of hard medium or material which supports the strings in the intersection whereby the head meet up with the fret board. The strips can be made of plastic, bone, graphite, brass or any hard medium and indented so as to secure the stings in position.

The nuts, grooved to accept the strings. The saddle and the nut act as the two ends of the string.

4. Fret board.
Also known as the fingerboard, it is a lengthy wood plank inserted with frets of metal that composes the top of the guitar’s neck.

The fret board of a classical guitar is flat and is a little curved diagonally on an electric and acoustic guitar. The curve is calculated by the radius of the fret board that is the range of a “hypothetical circle” of which the surface of the fret board makes up a segment.

5. Frets.
The frets are metal pieces cut into the fingerboard at specific intervals. By pressing a string down onto a fret, you change the length of the string and therefore the tone it produces when it vibrate.

When the strings are pushed down from the rear of the frets, this cuts the string's length of vibration to give off different tones or pitches.

6. Neck.
The neck is composed of the guitar's fret board, frets, tuners, truss rod and headstock; all are fastened to long extension made of wood. Usually, the wood that is used for the fret board will be of a different kind from that used on the remaining neck parts.

The firmness or stiffness of the guitar’s neck in accordance to its body is one determining factor of whether it is of good quality or not.

7. Body.
The acoustic guitar’s body is an echoing cavity projecting the vibrations through the guitar’s sound hole which enables the audio of such instrument to be clearly heard even with no amplification.

In acoustic guitars, its body is a big determining factor in the overall sound it produces. The soundboard or guitar top is a delicately engineered and crafted component that is usually made out of red cedar, spruce or mahogany.

This very thin slice of wood, generally measuring only 2 - 3 mm thick, supported by different kinds of internal brackets, is the most pronounced and important element in influencing sound quality.

Most of the sound is produced by the guitar’s top vibration as the momentum of the vibrating cords is transmitted to it.
8. Pickups.
This is what really amplifies the cords sound. Most guitars have one to a maximum of three pickups. The kind of pickup is reasonably important, depending on a particular sound that you are aspiring for.

9. Pickguard.
Commonly called the scratch plate, is a plastic guard or any laminated medium which protects guitar’s top finish.

10. Bridge.
On acoustic guitars, the key objective of the guitar’s bridge is to hand over or shift the string’s vibration to the “soundboard”, which then shudders the air within the guitar, thus increase and strengthen the sound created by the cords or strings.

Go ahead, learn guitar easy by exploring the parts of your guitar and get yourself acquaint with this wonderful instrument. Enjoy!

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