Guitar Parts
A good workman knows his tools. Below are diagrams of the two most popular types of guitars: electric and steel string acoustic (classical or nylon string guitar parts are essentially the same as steel string acoustic guitar parts.) Guitars may have variations but the basic parts are similar for all guitars. Some electrics may have two Humbucker pickups while others may have three Single Coil pickups, but they are all still pickups. On electric guitars the bridge can be part of a single unit with a “tremolo” (like a Stratocaster) or it can be a separate unit and include a Stop Tailpiece (like a Les Paul.)
There are also various terms for the same items. For example: tuners, tuning machines, tuning keys, and tuning pegs are all the same thing. Tremolos and Whammy Bars are also the same thing. The Fretboard is the piece of wood glued to the top of the guitar neck that contains the frets, although this is often referred to simply as “the neck” of the guitar. Compare these diagrams with your guitar and you should be able to figure out the parts of your guitar.
Acoustic Guitar Parts
Electric Guitar Parts
A Tremolo Bar?
Many types of guitars come with a bar attached to the bridge that allows the player to raise and lower the pitch of the guitar strings. Using this bar, you can create subtle effects such as chord vibrato all the way up to extreme effects such as “dive bomb” pitch changes.
Unfortunately, when these bars were included on early Stratocasters they were mislabeled “Tremolos”, when in fact they were actually “Vibratos.” Tremolo is a fluctuation in volume. Vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch. The bars raise and lower pitch so they are really Vibrato bars. But the incorrect name stuck, so now it is common to hear them called tremolos.
