Anatomy of the Electric Guitar--Part 2: Hardware, Electronics, and Finish

‘Guitar speak’ can be a little confusing, especially to non-guitarists and beginners. This article describes the various parts of the electric guitar and some of the terminology used in describing these parts. This is part 2 of a 2-part series.

The hardware on an electric guitar refers to the usually metal pieces visible on guitars body and headstock. The bridge is the string stop apparatus on the body of the guitar. Guitar bridges contain a saddle for each individual string and may have a spring mechanism called a tremolo to change the string tension while playing the guitar. The handle used to manipulate the tremolo is known as the tremolo arm or whammy bar . Some guitar bridges will contain fine tuner knobs as well. The strings on some guitars will extend past the bridge and anchor to a tailpiece or pass through to the back of the body in a string-through-body design. The nut refers to the string stop piece located at the junction of the neck and the headstock. Nuts can be made of wood, ivory, bone, or metal. Strap buttons are located on the body and sometimes heel of the guitar and provide tether spots for the guitar strap to hang.

Guitar electronics refer to the pickups and controls. Pickups are wound magnet devices that detect string vibration and sends it to the amplifier to produce sound. They can be a single-coil type or paired as a humbucker  type. Pickups can be passive or active if they have a battery powered preamp. Electronic controls are the volume and tone knobs or pots (potentiometers) and the pickup selector switch or toggle switch. The input jack is where you plug the guitar into the amplifier. The electronic components of a guitar are usually set inside of a routed out compartment in the body of the guitar and is often covered with a plastic pickguard or scratch plate on the top of the body or a backplate on the back of the body.

The finish on a guitar refers to the painting techniques used to give the guitar its appearance. Some guitars will have a natural finish that showcase the beauty of the woodgrain used while other will have a solid paint color. One popular technique is to use a translucent finish that both colors the guitar while also showing off the underlying woodgrain. These guitars are regarded as having highly flamed tops or figured tops as opposed to the little or no grain displaying plain top translucent finishes. One special type of woodgrain translucent finish that shows a distinct square-like pattern is known as a quilt-top finish . Another popular technique which uses a gradual grading of 2-3 colors is known as a burst finish as seen in the popular sunburst , honeyburst, and silverburst finishes. Many guitars will have a high gloss clear coat finish of lacquer or nitrocellulose while other will have a flat matte, smooth, and freshly sanded feeling satin finish .

E. Lucktong